In his homily commemorating the canonization of Mother Teresa of Calcutta in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, Pope Francis said that she was a generous dispenser of divine mercy in all aspects of her life through her welcome and defense of human life, both born and unborn.

Vatican Radio is reporting on the very moving homily of Pope Francis on a bright and sunny Sunday morning in Rome when he elevated one of the world’s most beloved women – Mother Teresa of Calcutta to sainthood. She was a model of holiness, he said, and a good example to all about what living the Christian life is all about.

“The Christian life . . . is not merely extending a hand in times of need. If it is just this, it can be, certainly, a lovely expression of human solidarity which offers immediate benefits, but it is sterile because it lacks roots. The task which the Lord gives us, on the contrary, is the vocation to charity in which each of Christ’s disciples puts his or her entire life at his service, so to grow each day in love.”

He continued: “Following Jesus is a serious task, and, at the same time, one filled with joy; it takes a certain daring and courage to recognize the divine Master in the poorest of the poor and to give oneself in their service. In order to do so, volunteers, who out of love of Jesus serve the poor and the needy, do not expect any thanks or recompense; rather they renounce all this because they have discovered true love.”

We must treat others as the Lord has treated us, he said.

“Just as the Lord has come to meet me and has stooped down to my level in my hour of need, so too do I go to meet him, bending low before those who have lost faith or who live as though God did not exist, before young people without values or ideals, before families in crisis, before the ill and the imprisoned, before refugees and immigrants, before the weak and defenseless in body and spirit, before abandoned children, before the elderly who are on their own. Wherever someone is reaching out, asking for a helping hand in order to get up, this is where our presence – and the presence of the Church which sustains and offers hope – must be.”

Mother Teresa exemplified this life by welcoming and defending all human life, from the unborn to the abandoned and forgotten.

“She bowed down before those who were spent, left to die on the side of the road, seeing in them their God-given dignity; she made her voice heard before the powers of this world, so that they might recognize their guilt for the crime of poverty they created. For Mother Teresa, mercy was the ‘salt’ which gave flavor to her work, it was the ‘light’ which shone in the darkness of the many who no longer had tears to shed for their poverty and suffering.”

Her mission to the urban and existential peripheries remains an eloquent witness of God’s closeness to the poorest of the poor, he said.

Invoking her as an emblematic figure of womanhood and consecrated life, he prayed: “May this tireless worker of mercy help us to increasingly understand that our only criterion for action is gratuitous love, free from every ideology and all obligations, offered freely to everyone without distinction of language, culture, race or religion.”

As Mother Teresa loved to say, “Perhaps I don’t speak their language, but I can smile”, Francis implored all to “carry her smile in our hearts and give it to those whom we meet along our journey, especially those who suffer. In this way, we will open up opportunities of joy and hope for our many brothers and sisters who are discouraged and who stand in need of understanding and tenderness.”

Click here to read the full content of the Pope’s homily.

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