Small Acts, Great Love

CHRISTIAN CORONA ‘25, DIOCESE OF TYLER

Idid not know what I was getting myself into when I started serving with the Missionaries of Charity. I thought I was there to feed the poor—in the end, they fed me. This August, the College had a showing of the new documentary about the life and mission of Mother Teresa.

The main themes of her life, specifically poverty and surrender, speak powerfully to me as I have been working with the Missionaries of Charity for almost a year as part of my apostolic formation here in Rome. It is inspiring to see these sisters care for the poor and the sick. Day in and day out they spend themselves, giving their time and energy to care for the poor in seemingly mundane acts of love. Helping the sisters care for the impoverished is an experience that brings one to the utter profundity of the human condition. All transient pleasures and securities pass, suffering comes, and even one’s own health will one day leave. They continually show me that I am completely in the hands of God, though I might be numb to it because I distract myself with my own pleasures. At our deepest level, we are all equally as poor.

Yet, for the sisters, this understanding is not a source of depression or existential angst; this is precisely the source of their hope. The sisters are deeply aware that it was only through the Cross that Christ brought redemp-

Christian Corona '25 (Tyler) makes his way to the Missionaries of Charity's apostolate in Rome's San Gregorio al Cielo. The sisters serve men in need by providing them with food, housing, and care. tion to the whole human race. They understand their poverty and are confident in Christ’s intimate love and redemption. It is only here that they are truly free. They are free from the cares and worries of the world and focus their eyes on Christ. They surrender themselves fully to his call and allow his will to become their own. It is Christ who calls them to love others in their lowest moments—to enter into poverty and sufferings. In the eyes of the world, they are poor, but with eyes of faith we see they are rich in love. Put simply, Christ calls them to love with his love.

The beauty of the Missionaries of Charity is not in its grandiosity, but in its simplicity. Having surrendered themselves to the will of God for the sake of his love, they do whatever is needed to help the poor. As Mother Teresa said, they perform “small acts with great love.” Some sisters scrub floors, others cook, clean, do laundry, or whatever else is needed. Most importantly, however, they all pray and offer their work as sacrifice to God on behalf of the poor.

Their testimony of Christ’s love has impacted my heart. It is powerful to see them gently care for the helpless, daily supplying for their most basic needs. The sisters have truly given everything, even their own being, to the Lord in order to become his instrument through which He can love. They lead lives of surrender that ultimately lead straight back to God. They are concrete examples of the Lord’s untiring work in the lives of the poor, examples that we can imitate daily. n