As we celebrate All Saints Day, the great feast commemorating the holy men and women who have gone before us in faith, hope, and love, it can be tempting to dismiss sainthood as something out of our reach. However, if we take a minute to consider the Simple Path of Mother Teresa, we can begin to see that the path to holiness and sainthood is quite simple. Not easy, but simple.
“The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace.” – Mother Teresa
The Fruit of Silence is Prayer
Living in our modern, American society, we are supplied with every distraction we could possibly ask for, as well as many others that we may not want. Many of us go throughout our day with practically no occasions of silence. There seems to constantly be someone or something occupying our attention. We have grown so accustom to a constant “noise” that we tend to feel uncomfortable when we experience a moment of silence. This may be because silence forces us to think, to contemplate… it forces us to be alone with our thoughts, our feelings, our worries, our fears. But taking time to confront ourselves can be a powerful catalyst moving us to prayer. We are faced with the joys and challenges of our life and are moved to bring these to God, thanking him for his goodness and asking for help in our struggles. However, it is difficult to feel moved to prayer when we are so bombarded with distractions. Mother Teresa reminds us of the importance of taking the time and making the effort to be with God. Prayer grows out of silence. If we want to pray, begin by coming to God in silence. If we don’t know what to say, say nothing and listen. “I always begin my prayer in silence, for it is in the silence of the heart that God speaks. God is the friend of silence – we need to listen to God because it’s not what we say but what he says to us and through us that matters… Try to feel the need for prayer often during the day and take the trouble to pray. Prayer makes the heart large enough until it can contain God’s gift of himself.”
The Fruit of Prayer is Faith
Drawing close to God in prayer allows us to attend to the inner movements of the Holy Spirit. The more we come to God in prayer, the more our hearts and lives will be transformed and led by the Spirit. Through prayer we become open to receiving the gift of faith, which enables us to always be mindful of God’s love and goodness for us. Prayer allows God to come into our lives and make a home. It allows us to live with confidently Psalm 23, “Even though I walk through a land overshadowed by death, I fear no evil, for you are at my side.” Through faith we are able to walk with confidence through uncertain times, knowing that God is with us. Faith enables us to say with Mother Teresa, “Take whatever He gives and give whatever He takes with a big smile.” It is important to develop a habit and discipline of prayer, to work it into our schedules just as we do a meeting or a lunch date. The more we spend time with the Lord in prayer, the more open we become to receiving his gifts of faith, hope, and love. Through prayer we learn to surrender to God, trust in his goodness, and have faith in his word, in his promise, and in his love for us.
The Fruit of Faith is Love
As our faith and trust in God grows, so does our love; both our awareness of God’s great love for us, as well as our ability to show God’s love to others. Mother Teresa said, “The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical disease with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love.” Through faith, we come to understand God’s love for us: his love in creating us, his love in continuing to reach out to us when we sin, and his great love in sending his Only Son into the world to draw us back into communion with Himself. When we understand and are filled with this love, we are then able, and moved, to share this love with others. Mother Teresa understood that our love of God is expressed in our love for others, in being present to and with those who are in need. Through love, we recognize that the tears, suffering, and fear of others must be ours as well. Love leads us into community; the more we come to know God’s love, the more we understand that we are called to carry that love to those in the darkest places. Through love we are able to look upon others with compassion, just as Jesus was “moved with compassion” for his people, lost sheep with no one to care for them. Out of love, Christ came to us, to walk with us on our way to the Father. As we grow in our faith we see that our response must be to do the same, to love one another as Christ has loved us.
The Fruit of Love is Service
Mother Teresa said, “Love in action is service.” Christ came into the world to make the love of God known; he came to show us that the Father was so faithfully committed to his covenant that he stopped at nothing to provide us with the grace and mercy of salvation. “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another” (1 Jn 4:10-11). But what should this love for one another look like? For Mother Teresa, who worked among people with leprosy (who are not only materially poor, but spiritually poor by being considered social outcasts), service means preaching the Gospel through action. It means doing whatever you can to meet the needs that come before you. “It’s quite simple really. The dying are moved by the love they receive and it may be just a touch of my hand, or a glass of water, or providing them with some kind of sweet they desire. You just take that to them, what they ask for, and they are satisfied and know someone cares for them, someone loves them, someone wants them—and that, in itself, is a great help to them. Because of this they believe that God must be even kinder, more generous, and so their souls are lifted up to God.” In James 2:14-26 we hear that “Faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” These “works” that are an expression and extension of our faith are the works of mercy, acts of service for the material and spiritual needs of others. For our faith and love to be truly fruitful, we must turn outward and serve Christ in the poorest and weakest among us. Service, love in action, does not judge others because of their situation, it does not put qualifications on the kindness shown to them, rather, service brings the love of Christ to those in need, recognizing that whatever we do for one of these least ones, we do for Jesus (Mt 25:31-46).
The Fruit of Service is Peace
“Works of love are always works of peace. Whenever you share love with others, you’ll notice the peace that comes to you and to them. When there is peace, there is God—that is how God touches our lives and shows his love for us by pouring peace and joy into our hearts.” Through service, which is the outpouring of and response to God’s love, comes peace, inner peace as well as peace in the world. Pope Paul VI said, “If you want peace, work for justice.” The way to peace is through service – service rooted in God’s love for us and our love for God. There are so many enemies of peace: greed, pride, jealousy, hatred, discrimination, etc. However, coming to others in loving service overcomes these barriers to peace. And in this way, not only does our service bring peace to our families, communities, and to our world, it also brings peace into our hearts because it casts out those things that rob us of peace. The way to peace, both in our hearts and in our world, is through service. Mother Teresa’s simple path calls us to consider two important truths: first, we must come to God in prayer, because prayer strengthens our understanding of God and draws us closer to him. And as we grow closer to God, we become inspired and empowered to be instruments of his love and peace. And second, we must serve. Christ is the model of service, and if we say we want to follow him, we must love and serve as he did. I encourage you to pray for peace, and to pray that all of us would continue to be instruments of peace in the world, through our love and service to others. As we remember the great saints of the past, let us take up the call to be saints in the midst of our time. Let us follow the way of Mother Teresa: “The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace.”