Giving The Best...

In February of 2006, while Joe and I were in Manila, Philippines, our Bishop back home in West Valley City, UT sent us the following story about Mother Theresa. Bishop Barker told us that this story reminded him of Joe and the mudslide victims of Leyte, Philippines that he had helped earlier in the month.  He said it made him think of Joe's concept of what it means to extend charity, the pure love of Christ, to others. Bishop Barker wrote:

"I remember a story that occurred in the life of Mother Teresa that has always affected me. She told about once when she was at her order's headquarters, she received word of a Hindu family who had nothing to eat, and had not eaten for several days. She went to a large pot of steaming rice and dipped out a large pail of it. She took it with one of her underlings to the home of the Hindu family.

"When they knocked at the door of the dirty shack, a woman and a large number of children were wide-eyed and giddy at the food the guests were carrying. Mother Teresa put the pail of rice on the table where the woman poured it out on a large plate. As the nuns watched, the woman carefully divided the rice into two equal portions.

"She explained that she had a Muslim neighbor family that was in the same condition as her family and she was going to share the rice with them. Muslims and Hindus in India and Pakistan are avowed enemies, and the Hindu woman's family had been hungry for many days, but none of that mattered to this lady. She wanted to give half to her neighbor because she felt it was the right thing to do.

"When the nuns walked back to their convent, Mother Teresa's companion wanted to go get more rice and take it to the Hindu woman who had been so generous with her neighbor. Mother Teresa refused. She said that to do so would cheapen the sacrifice the Hindu woman had made for her neighbor. She said they could take her more rice another time, but not now. 

"Mother Teresa said then, and on many other occasions, that when she needed something to alleviate the suffering of the poor, she would go to poor people first to gather the items she needed. She said that rich people, when asked for a donation, would either give a little bit of money or would give their old clothes, leftover food, etc.  But the poor would almost always give a big portion of whatever they had. 

"They would give their new shoes and clothes, not the rags that were given by the rich. They would give of their most prized possessions, not the surplus or outdated stuff the rich would always give. They would give of their best food, that they were about to eat, and not leftover or outdated food like the wealthy. She said the poor were like that because they were much closer to God than the rich. They didn't have material possessions cluttering up their spiritual sight.' Very interesting."