A Hindu organization threw a reception to honor Mother Teresa after she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Dignitaries were in attendance: the prime minister, his cabinet, various diplomats. Mother Teresa was asked to address the crowd so she chose to tell the story of one man who had rung her doorbell a few days before.
It was a leper shivering with cold. I asked him whether he needed anything from me. I wanted to offer him food and a blanket to protect himself from the bitter night of Calcutta.
He replied in the negative. He showed me his begging bowl. He told me in Bengali: “Mother, people were talking that you had received some prize. This morning I decided that whatever I got through begging today, I would hand over to you this evening. That is why I am here.”
I found in the begging bowl 75 paise (2 cents). The gift was small. I keep it even today on my table because this tiny gift reveals to me the largeness of the human heart. It is beautiful.
Mother Teresa kept the beggar’s small gift on her table but the Nobel medal was temporarily misplaced following the reception where his story was told. It was eventually found under some coats in the entry way of the reception hall.
This was such a huge gift this man gave Mother Teresa. She knew the importance and the magnitude of his seemingly small gift. He gave her everything he had.
If only all our hearts were as giving as his.
Powerful. Thanks.
Jesus told a similar story in Matthew 12
not that I’m Mother Teresa, but I remember when I was a waitress, the best tip I got was from an elderly couple who tipped me $2. It meant a lot for the same reason. Going out to eat was a treat for them and they probably couldn’t afford the tip, really. generosity is always a huge honor.
just a thought… do you think that if the people who threw her a recption had truly understood her passion, they wouldn’t have invited the dignitaries and the “important people,” but the poor that she so willingly served?
Mother Teresa – from what I can glean from a biography we’re reading right now – served the rich as well. She believed everyone suffered from spiritual poverty and that the rich needed her as much as the poor – and that they both needed each other. So, no, I think the “important people” needed Mother Teresa that night as much as the poor at her Home for the Dying – just in different ways.
wonderful Shaun. thanks for letting us in on this story.