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The months of November and December have become more and more difficult for me. It is due to the holiday season with the hustle and bustle of the mad shoppers. I find myself going through the motions of handing out and receiving gifts in return. It seems more of an obligation than heartfelt gratitude for those people in my life. One way to overcome those feelings is by taking the time to tell children about my experiences in 1992. That was the year I volunteered in India with the "Missionaries of Charity." I worked at various centers where Mother Theresa and her religious order started. The Nuns ran the Centers, but the volunteers did most of the work. I enjoyed my experience there, and on several occasions, I spoke with Mother Theresa at her home. They call her home the "Mother House" in India.
Mother Theresa called us volunteers witnesses and believed
every volunteer was there for a reason. She sincerely believed that
every person she encountered was due to the spirit of god's love. It is
still a deep belief held by her Nuns that the spirit of love attracts
volunteers to India. Mother Theresa told us that the spirit of love is
with us so that we can be the presence and subtle altruistic outreach of
god's love to the sick and dying.
Most of the population in Calcutta, India, live, wash, and
eat on the streets. When people die, their bodies are either burned or
thrown into the Ganges River. The Hindu caste system led Mother Theresa
to leave the Loreto Religious order. She was a Catholic Nun with the
Loreto's for 20 years. But, she wanted to help the poorest of the poor
in India, so she went off on her own in 1948. Eventually, in 1950, after
her work became recognized, and due to the number of followers that
joined her cause, she was permitted by the Pope at that time to start
her own Religious Order, which she named the "Missionaries of Charity."
She opened several centers for the sick and dying throughout
India: in Calcutta, there is "Prim Dan," which means "Gift of Love," the
"Mahatma Gandhi" Center; and in Hindi, there is "Kali Gaht," which
means "Shore of Kali." I also volunteered at one of her centers in
Washington, DC. That center is called the "Gift of Peace." I worked with
people who were dying of AID's. There was a stigma attached to people
living with AIDS out of fear and prejudice in the early 1990s. They did
not have the medical know-how to treat people living with AIDS like they
have today adequately.
Today, Mother Theresa's Religious Order has centers in almost
every country of the world, and they have more Nuns than all the other
Religious orders combined. I would like to thoroughly write about my
experiences someday, especially how Mother Theresa was revered in India.
Every Religion in India before her death incorporated her into their
belief system. They saw her as a living deity sent to raise humanity. It
was a real eye-opening experience witnessing how powerful religious
beliefs affect the Indian people. Religious beliefs are extremely
powerful upon the individual believer and collectively upon the Indian
people. In India, Photographs of Mother Theresa are extremely valuable
because people believe possessing her image will bring them good
fortune. They also believe a part of Mother Theresa's spirit will be
with her image. Mother Teresa passed away in 1997, and the Indian people
still worship her as a goddess -- especially among Hindus.
The Hindus believe that their Hindu feminine god, "Kali" was
incarnated as Mother Theresa. To the Hindus, Mother Theresa was just one
of "Kali's" many incarnations. The Muslims in India see her as a great
prophet; the Buddhists see her as someone near Nirvana and choose to
return to the world out of compassion for humanity. The various
Christian denominations in India recognized Mother Theresa as a living
saint. That is one reason Pope Benedict XVI pushed to have her canonized
as a Saint, and Pope Francis did just that; and canonized her.
In 1992 I was able to get a hotel room in India for a Dollar a
night and a meal for 20 cents due to the nation's poverty. India is
still an impoverished nation for the majority who live in that country.
But they have rich spiritual traditions that go back long before the
written word was invented. The Indian people have had a deep, intuitive
grasp of their spiritual interconnectedness that goes back thousands of
years.
I have been to Ecuador, too, which is also an impoverished
country. The people living in the hills of Duran in Ecuador live in
sugarcane huts. They have no electricity or indoor plumbing, and they
wash with rainwater. They eat only what they can gather for that day
because they cannot preserve their food. Water must be boiled prior to
using it to prevent an outbreak of cholera. Cholera is a common ailment
in that country that can kill you. When I returned to the United States,
I was grateful for what I had, and the little inconveniences were just
that—little inconveniences compared to how people experiencing poverty
live in India and Ecuador.
When I look at life in terms of my experiences, I realize how
our beliefs are a significant part of who we are regarding how we
relate to others. I also realize, more so now than before, how the
people living in those impoverished conditions in Ecuador rely on their
community for survival. The individual cannot put themselves above the
welfare of their community because the welfare of the community is vital
to their survival. In America, we rely on our rugged individualism.
There is no such concept in Ecuador in the hills of Duran, where I lived
for three months.
The people in Ecuador looked at me with such curiosity, and
they were the most loving people. I washed my clothes with them and ate
with them. We had to communicate in body language because I could not
speak their language. There was one thing that they loved to do, and
that was laugh. They were unaware of what they did not have regarding
technology because they were isolated from the rest of the world. They
were content to live in their community with one another because their
community was their family, and they could rely on each other in times
of need.
I have also learned over the years that much of my knowledge
came from books. What I have read in those books helped me acquire a lot
of knowledge, but now I recognize that I am learning much more about
myself from what I write; it is also a way of sharing a part of who I am
with the reader.
You are probably wondering what all this has to do with the
season of giving. Well, I have learned that it is not just the material
gifts that count in life, but rather it is all the unrecognized,
undetected, and unremembered acts of loving kindness that one bestows on
others that are the greatest achievements in a person's life. What we
give to humanity, we give to ourselves. What we change in ourselves, we
change in humanity. If we want to live in a better world, we must change
for the better. If we want to see a world of loving and joyous people,
we must be loving and joyous towards the people in our own lives. That
potential is part of our humanity. When we reach out to touch others, we
touch a part of the humanity within us. When we change the life of
another for the better, we change our own lives for the better.
What I have learned in Ecuador and what I have recognized in
Mother Teresa is the profound effect that she has had and continues to
have on the world. Changing and enhancing the quality of human lives
cannot be achieved by imposing our will or our beliefs on others.
Rather, it is achieved by living our lives as we would want others to
live; in doing so, others will embrace and emulate our way of life.
I find that my life has become a quest for self-discovery. My
growing self-awareness has also become my means to greater spiritual
growth. But, I need to reach out and bond with others to learn more
about myself.
I have learned that throughout history, especially in India
with its rich spiritual traditions, that the wise mystics rarely
criticized others for their shortcomings. They understood that it is
best to accentuate the positive in others. When you highlight the
positive in people, you accentuate the positive within yourself.
For me, the inward journey helps me better understand who I
am in relation to others. Greater self-awareness can only be achieved
when we better understand our humanity.
Always with love,
Thomas F O'Neill
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