Does God Spoil Us? Saint Teresa of Calcutta Knows!
Saint Teresa of Calcutta, who ministered for many years to the poor and the forsaken sick in India, spoke to this same question. While working with a young volunteer and seeing the profuse and compassionate care that Mother Teresa offered to each poor beggar, this young volunteer meekly suggested the following observation.
“I know you love these poorly neglected people,” the young volunteer explained. “You’re so kind and loving, bathing them in wonderfully fragranced water, and you dress them in fine clothing.”
Pausing she added: “You serve them wonderfully cooked meals they probably never tasted before. Then, you place them in the most comfortable beds ever experienced.” The young volunteer then whispered: “Mother Teresa, I think you’re spoiling them with too much luxury.”
Mother Teresa said nothing. After returning to the convent, Mother Teresa gently spoke: “I see these poor people as God’s neglected children. While made in his image, they never received what others may easily have. I want to give them a bit of dignity a taste of what other children of God usually enjoy.”
Then she added, “Just reflect how God has spoiled us or spoiled you. He gives us everything we need to get to heaven even dying on the cross. He gives us his love and forgives our sins. When we ask for his mercy, he speedily sends it our way. Not just once, but each time we ask, because God does not measure our life by our last mistake!”
Mother Teresa continued: “Our saviour arrived on this earth so no one would perish. Jesus’ message placed in his mouth by his Father, proclaims that in God’s eyes there are no class distinctions. All are invited to his heavenly home.”
“That is what I want these poor rejected people to know – that who they are is not a punishment. God knows them, sees them, and blesses them equally all as he does everyone else. He is their creator too. His dream for all creation is that each remembers God created so ‘that all may be one.’ God never makes junk or mistakes!”
God’s all powerful and yet he freely loves everyone. If someone needs extra love during a difficult moment, God provides it. God frequently reaches out to others through his creation. You may call that “spoiling” us, but God usually writes straight with crooked lines, and when God chooses to spoil us because God is as a loving Father embracing an ill or a needy child and everyone.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote:
The best portion of a good person’s life is his nameless and unremembered
acts of kindness towards others!
