Miracles of Perseverance

Megan Cottam reflects on her own faith lessons learned from the perseverance of Saint Teresa of Calcutta. 

Feast days of modern saints are a wonderful gift of the contemporary Church. Many of us have the gift of having remembered Mother Teresa while she was living. We can watch her speeches, read her journals, and see the results of her legacy in the Missionaries of Charity.  

Mother Teresa certainly impacted my own spiritual life and led me to a profound encounter with Christ that altered the course of my entire vocation. 

Certainty: the first step to getting it wrong 

During my college years, I studied International Studies: World Politics and Diplomacy. I had a singular life goal to work for the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer. I chose to spend time abroad in Jaipur, India studying the country’s development. This would look fantastic on the resume, I concluded, and the dramatic flair of a non-traditional study abroad stroked my ego. I was every type of unaware of the realities I was about to encounter.  

My Catholic faith was present, but second to this drive and career goal. Nevertheless, I was touched by the work of Mother Teresa, so when the opportunity arose to take an internship educating abused and abandoned street kids from the area, I felt her influence in my “yes.” I joined I-India, an initiative that rescued children off the streets, housed and fed them, and taught them jewelry-making as a sustainable trade for their future.

When I looked to Mother Teresa, I mistakenly concluded that her glory was in the dramatic saving moments of her life’s work, and not in the wisdom she gained from a daily encounter with the persevering human spirit found especially among the poorest of our world. 

A major reality check 

While my assignment was to teach the boys from the shelter basic math and literacy in a rotation, I also spent time exploring the other branches of this non-profit. I spent one week on the mission bus, whose role was to find children who had been kidnapped, abused, or left to die on the streets of Jaipur. We would rescue whomever we could under the cover of night, provide them medical care, and attempt to rehabilitate them for the education program.

There is nothing that can prepare you for this scenery, and all words over-simplify the suffering I witnessed. However, I felt Mother Teresa focus me on the hope and dignity of each human encounter. Have you seen the smile of someone suffering? The gesture itself is a beautiful prayer, a miracle of perseverance that praises God. One child whom we rescued had his tongue slashed out, was badly beaten, and near death. His name was Tawa, and in his smile, I met God. 

God is present in the struggle 

Back at my assignment, I was sitting on the dirt floor with eight or so boys around me when Tawa came and sat alongside them. I quickly learned that despite being around age 10, he never held a pencil, was incapable of speech and had been made deaf from environmental toxins. Imagine an untrained 20-year-old attempting to teach across culture, language and disability. It was not a pretty start. And yet I could hear the lessons of Mother Teresa: “This is Jesus in disguise.”

Inspired by her work, I slowly made progress at the shelter. I penned the following poem after my time with Tawa concluded. In him, I learned the value of seeing Christ in every single person we encounter. I learned that the sainthood of Mother Teresa does not lie in her dramatic action, but in her ability to see hope and Christ in suffering, in every daily encounter. 

Jesus Lives

Washing away the blood 
The dirt, the flies 
Uncovering a soul beneath 
The empty stomach 
The empty stare 
Arms weaker than twigs, exposed 
Strangers bathing the live corpse. 
Although he is thrown away, 
Jesus lives.  

Constant meals of rice and roti 
That shock the stomach into vomiting 
Pads of paper and desperate gestures 
Compensate for a mutilated tongue 
Although incapable of speech,  
Jesus lives.  

Walking among the students 
Tugging at my arm, my heart 
As though his stare will make 
Me understand how to teach and love him, 
Mute, deaf, illiterate, but yearning to learn. 
Challenging us to do more, 
Jesus lives.  

Taking me by the hand 
Showing me how to love him if 
I promise not to give up. 
Guiding the pencil across the page 
To form lines and letters 
Smiling abundantly as though 
He wrote a masterpiece — as though 
He’s never been hurt, 
In perseverance,  
Jesus lives.  

May I show comfort 
May I show patience, 
May I accept challenges 
May I let others show me how to love them 
May I honor Tawa’s spirit 
So that although He is crucified, 
Jesus lives. 

We must be unafraid to encounter suffering in our community, for it is there we encounter the miracles of Christ in the perseverance of the human spirit. This is the lesson of Mother Teresa, and it is made for each of us.  

Saint Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us! 

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Copyright 2024 Megan Cottam
Images: (top) Let Ideas Compete, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; (bottom) copyright 2024 Megan Cottam, all rights reserved.