I was reading a book during my morning studies, and the author talked about how we convince ourselves that we aren’t good enough. All of us have been told this at one point or another. And, whether it was our parents, peers, a coach, or Satan (the Accuser) himself, we fell victim to the notion that we are not good enough. And, that soundtrack has been playing in our psyches ever since. We have had hopes dashed and dreams destroyed because someone, somewhere, convinced us that we aren’t good enough. Well, let me let you in on something…Mother Teresa was told that she wasn’t good enough too.
What!?! Mother Teresa was told that she wasn’t good enough. If you are in Generation Z and have no idea who Mother Teresa is, email me and I will refer you to some books or just Google her. Your choice. But, for those in the know, let’s think about this for a second – Mother Teresa was told she wasn’t good enough. By human standards, “Mama T” as I call her, was a complete an utter badass. First, she was a survivor of the Eastern Bloc when that was still a big deal. Second, she was a woman and a nun, which in the Roman Catholic Church Tradition is an advanced level of glass ceiling. Then, after taking her vows, she served in India where she convinced the Pope to let her serve outside of cloistered life. In other words, while all the other nuns stayed behind high walls, Mama T convinced the Pope (after lots of campaigning within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church) to let her go to the people in the streets.
Once the Church let that genie out of the bottle, others followed Mama T into a life of service, and she ultimately founded her own Order, the Missionaries of Charity. If she stopped there, she would be the boss of bosses, but she didn’t. She grasped sainthood with both hands and founded her Mother House in Calcutta, India, which then grew into Mother Houses all over the world. She created other Orders of priests and lay people to support the Missionaries of Charity. And, if that wasn’t enough, she founded some of the first homes for Aids victims in the United States. That’s right, a woman who fed the sick, washed lepers, housed the dying, changed the Roman Catholic Church, cared for Aids patients, and fed the hungry WASN’T ENOUGH. Let that sink in.
For all her attributes and accomplishments, there are critics who said that she didn’t do anything to prevent hunger in the first place. She didn’t do enough to prevent homelessness. She didn’t do enough. I wonder what that even means. If you think about it, you can see the lie in that notion of enough. She saw it. In her words, Mama T says to the haters, “I never look at the masses as my responsibility. I look at the individual. I can love only one person at a time. I can feed only one person at a time. Just one, one, one.” And, isn’t that enough?
So, when you hear that soundtrack play in your head, chanting that you are not enough, just remember, critics don’t do anything, saints walk the walk. So, do like Mama T, do one thing. Then, one, one, one.
