After I preached a sermon on Mark 12:28-34 about loving one’s neighbor, one of our members shared with me an article she read. In it, Mother Teresa is interviewed. The interviewer suggests that though Mother Teresa in her ministry works hard and does some good things, in the long run, it makes little difference. Her efforts do not alleviate poverty on a large scale.
Here is Mother Teresa’s response:
“I do not agree with the big way of doing things,” Mother Teresa replied. “To us what matters is an individual. To get to love the person, we must come in close contact with him. If we wait till we get the numbers, then we will be lost in the numbers. And we will never be able to show that love and respect for the person. I believe in person to person; every person is Christ for me, and since there is only one Jesus, that person is only one person in the world for me at that moment.”[i]
I appreciated her focus on loving the person and not getting lost in the numbers. We do the one and avoid the other. We can focus on loving people, our neighbors.
