We have been told that the earth is round and we believe it. Pictures from space show that the earth is round. From our earliest school days, we were taught about the solar system and about the planet Earth.
Those are facts and we believe it without further questions.
But from our limited observation, the earth seems flat. As far as we can see, it is flat. When we go to the beach and look at the horizon, we see that it is flat. And even from the plane, the earth looks flat enough.
Well, if the earth is really flat, then there would a solution for those people who give us problems. We just have to bring them to the edge of the world and then push them over! Problem solved!
But as it is, the problems of life are not so easily solved. Maybe that is why the earth is round. We push one problem away and it travels round the world and comes back again.
So even though we know that the earth is round, we wish it was flat. If it was flat, then we just have to bring these problems to the ends of the world, or the edge of the world and push them off and they would disappear from the face of the earth.
So what we wish the world to be can be very different from what the reality is. And what we ourselves wish to be, can also be very different from the reality.
Just like once upon a time when people thought that the earth was flat and the sun rotated round the earth, we would also like to be the center and everything and everyone rotate around us.
And then when discoveries were made about the solar system and that it was actually the earth that rotated round the sun, people initially found it hard to believe.
It was until explorers sailed round the world and came back that people slowly began to accept that the earth was round and that it was the earth that rotated round the sun.
Just as it was difficult for people then to realize that the earth was round, neither would it be that easy for us to understand the mind of God.
As the 1st reading would tell us: What man indeed can know the intentions of God? Who can divine the will of the Lord? The reasonings of mortals are unsure and our intentions unstable.
In the gospel, Jesus used the examples of building a tower and a king marching out to war against another king of a larger army.
The point is that on what resources are we relying on? If we relying on ourselves and our own abilities, then we are likely to fail and to fall.
That is why Jesus tells us that we cannot be His disciples unless we give up all our possessions.
In other words, we cannot be the centre and want everything to rotate around us. Only when Jesus is the centre, then will everything come together.
Today the Church celebrates the canonization of someone who is familiar to us, someone of our time.
Pope Francis will officiate the canonization of Mother Teresa at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.
Sister Teresa began teaching history and geography in Calcutta at St. Mary’s, a high school for the daughters of the wealthy. She remained there for 15 years and enjoyed the work, but was distressed by the poverty she saw all around her.
In 1946 Sister Teresa traveled to Darjeeling for a retreat. It was on that journey that she realized what her true calling was: “I heard the call to give up all and follow Christ into the slums to serve Him among the poorest of the poor.”
It took two years of lobbying before Sister Teresa set aside her nun’s habit – adopting instead the simple sari and sandals worn by the women she would be living among, and moved to a small rented hut in the slums to begin her work.
She had no income and had to resort to begging for food and supplies.
Mother Teresa experienced doubt, loneliness and the temptation to return to the comfort of convent life during those early years.
But when the call is from the Lord, then He will also provide the necessary graces to overcome the difficulties.
There are many stories about the life and work of Mother Teresa but this story shows that her work and mission was not about herself but rather for the Lord and for others.
One day Mother Teresa went to a local bakery to ask for bread for the starving children in the orphanage. The baker, outraged at people begging for bread from him, scolded her and spat at her face and refused.
Mother Teresa calmly took out her handkerchief, wiped the spit from her face and said to the baker, “Thank you for what you have given for me. Will you now give something for my children?
The baker, shamed by her response, gave her the bread she wanted for the children.
Mother Teresa knew she was not the centre, nor can she can make everything and everyone rotate around her.
She let Jesus be the centre and when He called her for the mission she got things in motion with His help.
That is what being a disciple of Jesus is all about. To give up the possession of wanting to be the centre. Only Jesus can be the centre; then everything will come together.
