Many times over the space of about nine years I had the privilege of offering Holy Mass, preaching, and working with Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. Once while we were having a conversation I noticed that she had placed an international award she had received on the floor as a doorstop. She had graciously accepted the object made of some expensive-looking crystal, and would not hurt anyone’s feelings by getting rid of it, but she did make good use of what otherwise would have been useless to her.

The dynamic love that Mother Teresa shared confounded the sentimentalists who had a romantic notion of “social work.” She and her religious sisters patiently tried to form in true virtue volunteers who wanted to “feel good” by acts of philanthropy. Mother did not romanticize destitution nor did she condone vice when she cared for its victims. She meant it when she spoke of Christ in the “distressing” disguise of the poor. One writer has said that when the needy are difficult and even offensive, “that’s the point at which the self-congratulatory do-gooders quit and go home and where the real charity kicks in. That’s the point at which it’s impossible to see the face of Jesus in the destitute (or sick, or deranged) except as a pure act of faith. And that’s the point at which it matters whether Jesus is divine or not, because belief in the repulsively disguised spark of divinity is the only reason to keep on giving love in exchange for contempt.”

Unheralded but heroic among the Church’s countless benefactions in New York City is the work of the consecrated sisters of the Missionaries of Charity which Blessed Teresa founded. One of their works is a “Gift of Love” hospice for the dying, on Washington Street. Our parish has the privilege of helping them in little ways. The current Superior, Sister Mary Vineeth, recently sent me the following letter:

“We wish you many blessings and graces in a Happy New Year filled with the peace and love of Jesus Christ. Thank you, Father, for at Christmas providing for so many presents to be given to our residents here at ‘Gift of Love.’ We are deeply grateful to all those who helped in this work of love among the poor.

“Many of the men in our home have no family contact—either the family rejects them or they are immigrants to this country. Some are in such darkness because of their lifestyle and they do not know the right and true path our Saviour has pointed out to us. The Church sometimes can be their only light. Please keep them in your prayers as they go through their daily struggles. They are grateful for the help they receive and the time of quiet and prayer they find in our homes.”