Most people know St. Teresa of Calcutta, commonly known as Mother Teresa, as the woman who dedicated herself to the love and care of the poor in Calcutta, India. Her desire to serve these people, many of whom were dying on the streets, led to her fame throughout the world. However, most people miss the reason for the initial calling and the continuation of this call until her death. It was Jesus in the Eucharist.
When Mother Teresa was writing the very first Constitutions for the future Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity, she wrote: “The Sisters should use every means to learn and increase that tender love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament." Teresa not only renewed daily her "call within a call" to give wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor at every Eucharistic celebration, but also drew her strength from its daily reception. She writes, "One thing I request of you, Your Grace, is to give us all the spiritual help we need. If we have our Lord in the midst of us, with daily Mass and Holy Communion, I fear nothing for the Sisters nor myself; he will look after us. But without him I cannot be — I am helpless."
She even wanted the Sisters to do the work of priests. In her original Rule Book she wrote, "As each Sister is to do the work of a priest — go where he cannot go and do what he cannot do, she must imbibe the Spirit of Holy Mass, which is one of total surrender and offering. For this reason, Holy Mass must become the daily meeting place, where God and his creature offer each other for each other and the world." Here we see Teresa's deeper understanding of the reality of the Eucharist and her mystical union. It was this unbroken spousal union that gave her all the energy, strength, vitality and enthusiasm to go on doing what she did. The life she lived was no longer her life, but it was Jesus who lived in her and worked through her. It was her Eucharistic Spouse who promised that he would never leave her, provided she trusted him lovingly and blindly, obeyed him cheerfully, promptly and without any questions.
Our Lady also would send messages to Teresa telling her to take care of her poor people and carry Jesus to them. Her exact words were, “Take care of them, they are mine; bring them to Jesus, carry Jesus to them.” Our Lady apparently wanted Teresa to continue to do what she did immediately after the Annunciation. At the Annunciation, Mary received Jesus first in her heart and then in her womb, and then with Jesus she went in haste to give him to her cousin Elizabeth and others. "The Annunciation was Our Lady's first Holy Communion day," Teresa said. Just as Mary received Jesus at the Annunciation and then went in haste to give him to others, so too all Missionaries of Charity Sisters and Brothers receive Jesus in Holy Communion and go in haste to give to the poor. Our Lady also promised her unfailing help, “Fear not, Jesus and I will be with you and your children.”
There is an inseparable twofold presence of Jesus, in the Bread of Life and in the distressing disguise of the poorest of the poor. Jesus told Mother Teresa, “Carry Me with you into them, for I cannot go alone. They don't know Me, so they don't want Me; you go amongst them.” Jesus wanted Teresa, the Sisters and the Brothers to go among the poor not as social workers, politicians or even masters; but as unworthy servants asked to carry Jesus with them into the people's homes and holes. Teresa went further and deeper with her Eucharistic Jesus. In her own words, "Just as Jesus allows himself to be broken, to be given to us as food, we too must break, we must share with each other, with our own people first, in our house, in our communities, for love begins at home.”
In Teresa, there was the insatiable spousal longing, which became identical with the thirst of Jesus on the Cross for love of souls. From that moment on, she was going to pray, suffer and work day and night for Jesus, because her beloved Spouse was everything for her, "Jesus, my own Jesus, I am only thine... I love you not for what you give, but what you take, Jesus." She continued in writing to the Archbishop of Calcutta: "I long to be really only his, to burn myself completely for him and souls. I want him to be loved tenderly by many... I have already given my all to him."
Vazhakala, Fr. Sebastian. “The Holy Eucharist in the Life of Bl. Teresa of Calcutta.” EWTN, Global Catholic Network. 16 March 2005. https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/holy-eucharist-in-the-life-of-bl-teresa-of-calcutta-5528.
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