I Once Met… Mother Teresa
Fifty years ago this Easter, I was standing in the chapel of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta. I had just filmed, for BBC Religious Programmes, their early morning mass and communion.
We had previously filmed the working activities of the nuns, including the orphanage and the leper colony. We had observed the daily distribution of food and medicine to Calcutta’s desperately needy, and visited their House of the Dying. As the director, I was worried whether we had managed to do justice to someone I had quickly realised was an extraordinary woman.
I was mulling over these concerns when the tiny figure of Mother, in her blue and white sari, returned to the chapel. She came over and asked me how I felt things had gone. I replied that I was pleased that we had some very good material. And for good measure, I suggested that, as a result, her Missionaries of Charity and their work would become much better known.
‘Do you really think so?’ she asked. ‘Sometimes, I am not really sure if what we are doing here is useful or even appropriate; you see, Peter, this is largely a country that follows Hinduism and, as a consequence, can’t easily accept Christian values. We try to convey these by example. You have filmed some of that, but sometimes I worry that what we are doing is often at odds with their culture. What do you think?’
Taken aback by her question, I hedged a bit by saying that everything that I had recorded of her nuns was indeed useful, necessary and much needed. Foolishly, I gratuitously added that I was not able to comment on the religious aspects of her concerns. ‘Why not?’ she asked. ‘Well, you see, Mother, I am not a member of any particular variety of Christian belief or practice.’ I felt I was now asking for trouble. ‘Yes, I understand,’ she said. Then, more directly, she asked, ‘Tell me, do you ever pray?’ Whoops! This was getting personal... dear Mother T, if only you knew just how hard I am praying at this moment. ‘Yes, Mother, I do pray from time to time.’ ‘Good,’ she said. She paused. ‘I want you to promise me something.’ ‘Yes, Mother, of course.’ She looked hard at me and then gently asked, ‘I want you – to pray for me. Will you promise to do that?’ I was stunned. Flattered also at the thought that, in some small way, I might support someone like her. There could be only one answer. ‘Yes, Mother, I will.’ And yes, I did. Later I felt that her intervention was less about her needs but more to do with shaking me out of my lazy, cosy, comfortable agnosticism. When she was canonised by Pope Francis in 2016, he added that St Teresa of Kolkata was also to be the Patron Saint of Doubters. Peter Chafer