Could We Love Like That?

"I always begin my prayer in silence, for it is in the silence of the heart that God speaks..."

~Mother Teresa~

Luke and I had the movie "Mother Teresa" in our dvd player two nights in a row and were left with the same silence both nights. No words, just a deep, deep longing to be swept over by the Spirit of God found in this woman of devotion and compassion. This was a woman who was able to see each human with the same love and offer the same dignity to even the poorest of the poor, the sick and dying. She led a life of service that flourished directly from her deep life of prayer. Teresa of Calcutta was a human with struggles and frailties, yet she was driven by an unconditional love for humanity.My first instinct upon watching this movie was a longing for such a life of service. If only I could do the same. But I am not Mother Teresa, I am a mother of four precious children and a wife to a man with a heart who longs for the same devotion to our Creator. Teresa had many, many children...she believed that children belong to everyone. I love that perspective...what a vision for our world. What if we all, regardless of our place in life, embraced every child as our own. Brother Wayne Teasdale quoted Abbot Thomas Keating in his book, The Mystic Hours, saying, "The greatest accomplishment in life is to be who or what you are,and that is what God wanted you to be when He created you." Brother Wayne expands to say, "This ultimate acheivement requires conformity to the Divine's idea of each one of us, the essential perfection of love, mercy, kindness, and compassion in each one of us--expressed through our own uniqueness." While my heart has for many years been drawn to such pure love in action, particularly inspired by the lives of Amy Charmichael and Mother Teresa, and I felt at one time this strange tugging toward India to be a sign that I would one day be there, I am now realizing the connection to be at a different level. I did not go to India, I married and became a mother, yet my desire to know God and serve is just as intense. This is where I am to be, where I am to serve and to embrace who it is I was created to be, conforming right here to God's heart of 'love, mercy, kindness and compassion.' As Mother Teresa, in her Catholic tradition, saw Christ in the face of the least of these, in every faith tradition we are drawn to a compassion that awakens us to the divine in every soul and our responsibility to reach out in love to those around us, seeing the face of God in all His creation.Could we love like that?I found myself wondering if Mother Teresa ever snapped at "her children" in all her weariness, as I sometimes do with my own children. She must have at times felt weary and weak as we all do. Strange how it is often easier to show love and compassion to those outside our home than to those precious souls we live with and are closest to, our children, our spouses, our siblings, our parents. And yet, these are the very ones we are called to love and to serve.And what about those ones we see everyday? What if I was to walk on to the playground when I walk my children to school and look out to see every child, running, laughing, crying, jump-roping, sitting alone, beautiful smiling faces, tousled hair, in need of bathing or perfectly dressed, sweet and friendly or bitter and angry, as "my child"? What if I could see through the eyes of every person I pass and see the very soul who is a part of this whole beautiful, striving creation? What if we saw each other for who we really are instead of for the outer shell that we project to each other? Would we finally fall in love? With the Divine? With his creation?Could we love like that?
First posted November 5, 2007 on A Path to My Woods