The Church’s Mission: Evangelizing like Mother Teresa in the Year of Mercy

At his general audience on the feast of the Epiphany, Pope Francis beautifully summed up the Church’s mission of evangelization:

“Like the Magi, countless people in our own day have a restless heart which continues to seek without finding sure answers . . . the Church has the task of seeing and showing ever more clearly the desire for God which is present in the heart of every man and woman.” He continued to say that for the Church being a missionary “does not mean to proselytize, but rather to give expression to her very nature, which is to receive God’s light and then reflect it (emphasis added) . . . this is her service, there is no other way. Mission is her vocation; to reflect the light of God and to serve.”

In just a few sentences Pope Francis has given us much to think about. First, the condition of every human heart: restless and containing the desire for God. Second, the mission of the Church: yes, evangelization, but not an evangelization of pressuring or persuading, rather, evangelizing by receiving God’s light and then reflecting it to others. This gentle, tender means of sharing our faith seems to me the perfect way to evangelize in this Year of Mercy. But how can we live this out in a practical way?

We need look no further than the example of the saints for the answer, and there is perhaps no one in modern times who shows us how to receive God’s light and then reflect it to others better than Blessed Mother Teresa (who will most likely be canonized by the end of this year). Though she is no longer with us on this earth, we can still benefit from her wisdom through the many simple yet profound words she spoke.

Her words came from a life of evangelization, the kind of two-fold evangelization Pope Francis refers to as receiving God’s light and then reflecting it.

Receiving God’s Light

1.“My secret is simple. I pray.”

Mother Teresa made prayer her priority and the unwavering center of her life and apostolate. She considered prayer the power which drove everything she did. Are we willing to take prayer this seriously?

2.“God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer.”

When we think of Mother Teresa we may think immediately of her admirable work with the poor, but she tells us herself that she wanted only to be a pencil in God’s hands, and that everything she did was the result of God working through her. For God to work through us we have to open our hearts to Him. Do we set aside time each day to listen to God? Even if we already have the habit of prayer, is silent receiving a part of our prayer time?

3.“Prayer will give us a clean heart, and a clean heart will allow us to see God in each other. And if we see God in each other, we will be able to live in peace, and if we live in peace, we will be able to share the joy of loving with each other, and God will be with us.”

Mother Teresa tells us, from her own experience, that the fruits of prayer are a clean heart, being able to see God in our neighbor, peace, joy, love, and experiencing the presence of God. She encountered these fruits while working in conditions that would be shocking to most of us, among some of the greatest poverty and suffering in the world. And yet, she experienced these beautiful fruits of prayer . . . do we need any more reason to pray?

4. “Joy is prayer; joy is strength; joy is love; joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.”

Are our hearts filled with joy? If not, do we pray for the joy of Christ into fill our hearts? Mother Teresa knew that above everything else people are attracted to joy and that this joy comes through conversation with God. What drew people to Mother Teresa was not a persuasive argument or convincing apologetics, it was the fact that through prayer, she was filled with the joy that only God can give, and being filled with this joy, she could not help but reflect it to everyone she encountered.

Reflecting God’s Love

1.“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.”

Again, Mother Teresa reminds us that joy is the key to attracting others to God. Would our lives look different if we kept this in mind throughout our day—in traffic, at the grocery store, in our home and at work? How many people could we help by spreading love in our everyday interactions?

2. “If you judge people you have no time to love them.”

So many times I have judged someone from appearances, or from a single interaction, only to find out later that I was completely wrong. This has taught me to be less critical. Every single person we meet is made in the image and likeness of God, and Mother Teresa reminds us that no one needs to be judged (after all, could we judge anyone accurately without knowing their life story and all of their innermost thoughts and feelings?), but that everyone needs to be loved.

3. “We shall never know all the good a smile can do.”

One of my all-time favorites of Mother Teresa’s quotes. It is so simple and yet one of the most profound quotes I have ever read. If we are to start a “revolution of tenderness” in this Year of Mercy, as Pope Francis has called us to, smiling at the people we meet would be a great place to start.

4. “I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor?

This is a great challenge. Do we know our next door neighbor? Mother Teresa cuts right to the chase. She always challenges us to look at the people closest to us when we think about loving and serving. Her example teaches us that love begins with our family members and our next door neighbors, the people who are the closest to us . . . who are usually the people in our lives who are the most difficult to love, but who are also the people who God has placed in our lives for a reason. If we can love them, loving strangers will be easy in comparison. And, when considering how to love our family and our next door neighbor, let us not forget the words of Pope Francis in his new book, The Name of God is Mercy:

“This is a time for mercy. The Church is showing her maternal side, her motherly face, to a humanity that is wounded.  She does not wait for the wounded to knock on her doors, she looks for them on the streets, she gathers them in, she embraces them, she takes care of them, she makes them feel loved . . . I am ever more convinced of it, this is a kairós, our era is a kairós of mercy, an opportune time.”

image: Noble36 / Wikimedia Commons

Avatar photo

By

Sarah Metts is a freelance writer and an aspiring Spanish historian. She holds a bachelor’s degree in History and a master’s degree in Counseling from Franciscan University of Steubenville. She is inspired by the lives of the saints, beauty, and the writing of Leo Tolstoy. She and her husband Patrick reside in the Atlanta area with their sons Jack and Joseph.

Subscribe to CE
(It's free)

Go to Catholic Exchange homepage

MENU