Thursday, October 16, 2003
Thursday, October 16, 2003
Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I
do choose. Be made clean!"
Most of us have good jobs. We live in comfortable homes. But we don't have the warm smile on
our faces that the little nun working in the most desperate situation imaginable had on her face.
What's the difference? It may be that we've never put our hand in Jesus' hand.
(Mark 1.41
NRSV)
For 30 years Mother Teresa has worked in the slums of Calcutta, India. She has worked among
the most forsaken people on earth. You and I would recoil from most of the people that she
touches every day. The dispossessed, the downtrodden, the diseased, the desperate. And yet,
everybody who meets Mother Teresa remarks on her warm smile. How, after 30 years of
working in conditions like that does she keep a warm smile on her face? Well, it's interesting.
She says that at age 18 she left Yugoslavia to become a Christian servant. She said, "When I
was leaving home, my mother told me something beautiful and very strange. She said, 'You go
put your hand in Jesus' hand and walk along with him.'" And that's been the secret of Mother
Teresa's life ever since.
Dear God, remind me to put my hand in Jesus'. Amen.
