Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, winner of the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize
Who is this woman, you ask? You might know her by another name—Mother
Theresa. Twenty-five years ago, she was the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
because of her work with the poor, the sick, and the oppressed.
Like Wangari and Shirin, she too started up an “organization” of her own:
The Missions of Charity. Its main goal was to love and care for the unwanted
and the unloved. That was then. Today, fifty years later, her movement has
spread throughout the world to the poorest of the poor in Asia,
Africa, and Latin America. In
times of crisis—flood or famine—her group is there to help. And in North
America, Europe, and Australia,
other “lepers” find a helping hand, particularly those suffering from AIDS,
addictions, and alcoholism.
One woman—who decided to give up all she had to go live and work in the
slums of Calcutta. One woman—who
opened a home for dying people and abandoned babies. One woman—who was willing
to face illness, unsanitary living conditions, and a life of poverty herself to
show others that someone cared. That was Mother Theresa.
When asked why she did what she did, this woman of peace replied, “There is
a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives—the pain, the
loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have
right in your own family. Find them. Love them. Put your love for them in
living action….”
For her, it is not pity that drives her to reach out, but something entirely
different: “The poor give us much more than we give them. They’re such strong
people, living day to day with no food. And they never curse, never complain.
We don’t have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from
them.”
Indeed, we all have much to learn from them and from these three strong
women. A tree planter with a Ph.D., a lawyer and a judge with a plan, and a nun
with a love for the unloved. Muslim or Christian, professional or woman of the
streets, it doesn’t seem to matter—what binds these three women together, past
and present, is a heart for humanity.