‘Larger than life, larger even in death’
During the offertory procession at the funeral Mass in 1997 for Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who was canonized by Pope Francis last Sunday, the wi n e fo r the Eucharist was brought in by a leprosy patient; water by a woman released from prison; and bread by a handicapped man. Sitting in the same stadium where the Mass was held were Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, Jordan’s Queen Noor, then First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Spain’s Queen Sofia, former President Corazon Aquino and the poorest of the poor of Calcutta, where Mother Teresa spent seven decades of her 87 years serving them.
And when her remains were earlier transferred from a church to the indoor stadium for the state funeral, Mother Teresa, who was not even Indian (she was Albanianborn), was borne on the same gun carriage as the revered Mahatma Gandhi was when he was brought to his funeral pyre. According to a CNN report, one million turned up on the streets in the predominantly Hindu city of Calcutta to bid the diminutive Catholic nun, who founded the Missionaries of Charity, goodbye.
“Princes and paupers came to bid her a fond farewell,” recalls Gina de Venecia, who along with Mrs. Aquino, represented then President
Fidel Ramos to Mother Teresa’s funeral. Gina was immensely struck by the composition of the mourners inside the stadium where the funeral Mass was held — the high and mighty grieved alongside the poor on the passing of a diminutive woman who was, “larger than life, larger even in death.” *** “I remember Mom held her hand during her funeral, when it was her turn to go near Mother Teresa’s open casket,” recalls Ballsy
Cruz, who accompanied Cory Aquino to the funeral rites. Each dignitary was requested to lay a wreath near the casket, and Cory lingered a second longer and held the hand of Mother Teresa, who was hailed the world over as a “living saint” during her lifetime.
“Mom really believed in her — in her humility, simplicity, her love of the poor,” adds Ballsy.
When Mother Teresa visited the Philippines during the late ‘80s, then President Cory Aquino invited her to Malacañang. The head of the Missionaries of Charity in Manila said Mother Teresa had no ride, and then Appointments Secretary Margie Juico offered to pick her up in her Hyundai at the MoC convent on San Nicolas St. in Binondo, by the Delpan bridge.
On the ride back to Malacañang, Margie found herself suddenly opening up “my heart and soul” to the kindly old nun, who if she was suddenly surprised by the outpouring, did not show it.
“I told her about the ‘snakes’ in the palace, the in-fighting going on, and the people who wanted my job and were stabbing me on the back,” Margie recalls. “I asked her for her advice.”
And like a true mother, Mother Teresa (whose baptismal name was actually “Agnes”), counseled her softly, “Forgive them and pray for them.”
As everybody knows, Cory Aquino finished her term without letting go of Margie, who served Cory faithfully till the former President’s death in 2009. As to what happened to the “snakes,” Margie is tightlipped and would only say, “Some of them are still alive now.”
Since that encounter, Margie says she began to be more passionate about charitable endeavors. When she became chairman of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, her pet projects were always the charity clinics. And when she couldn’t support the Missionaries of Charity with government funds (which demanded receipts as a matter of procedure, whereas the nuns, didn’t give receipts — also as a matter of procedure), she raised money from private groups to help the sisters’ pro- poor projects. And when the sisters needed medical attention, she made sure they could approach the PCSO for help.
*** My Assumption batch mate Risa Baltazar
Nepomuceno had the privilege and the rare blessing of being amongst the throng last Sunday at St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican for the canonization of Mother Teresa. It affirmed to her the glory of one’s faith, even when one’s soul undergoes dark nights.
“It was a joyous occasion and a gracefilled one. Even if we were all from different countries, we were one body, one Church, in Jesus Christ. And Mother Teresa showed us that even if we cannot rid the world of hunger or disease or suffering, we can help people, one person at a time in spite of our own inadequacies and our own dark night of the soul,” says Risa, a bank executive.
Like most pilgrimages, attending the canonization was no walk in the park.
“It entailed a lot of sacrifice because we had to get up at 4 a.m. and walk to the Vatican and stand in a crowd up to 7 a.m. before they let us in and made to go through more stringent security than in the past. We then sat in the really hot sun, not daring to drink water so we didn’t have to visit a portalet. That being said, while waiting in the early morning crowd, we were near a group of young American seminarians who prayed and sang. It was beautiful to see them. They looked so good — good looking but really they looked like they would make good priests. They chatted with the people in the crowd. We ourselves prayed the rosary together. And when the heat was a bit unbearable, I started to fan the elderly around me and they were grateful. My brother did the same also as he helped two elderly ladies. Some Notre Dame nuns offered us biscuits and water. I overheard some other pilgrims say that they would offer their discomfort as a sacrifice,” recounts Risa of the unity in diversity felt by all the pilgrims.
“We couldn’t understand much during the ceremony though we tried to follow with the missalette that was given. At some point, when I was praying for the intentions and the letters sent through me, I felt grace touch my heart. There was general camaraderie and good will. And the Pope came around even to the people standing outside the barriers, literally the peripheries. That is why he passed us twice.”
For Risa, the canonization of a human being, “inspires us all to try to be a better person...to be the person God wants us to be.”
“And really it was in fellowship and service to others that one felt grace touch our hearts. It was not the ceremony itself where one felt the influence of Mother Teresa...it was in what was going on among the crowd, among the sheep of the Lord,” she concludes.
Amen. Amen.