Bangalore University 2006 B.Com LANGUAGE ENGLISH (-II) - Question Paper

Today, the mission has more than 4000 nuns engaged in service of the poor. They undertake relief in the wake of natural catastrophes such as floods, epidemics, and famine, and for refugees. The primary focus however continues to be the destitute, homeless, alcoholics, persons with leprosy, cancer and AIDS sufferers.

The nuns clad in trade mark blue-bordered white cotton sarees go about their tasks valiantly and even when working in the pits of despair, have the Lord’s name and a cheery smile on their lips. “Speak tenderly to them”, the mother always instructed her wards. “Let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of you greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don’t only provide your care, but provide your heart as well”.

To attain this level of dedication, the nuns have to undergo intensive training over a period of 6 years at the end of which they go home for 3 weeks so they can decide whether they really want to spend the rest of their life as a missionary of charity. The work is not for the faint-hearted. Those who volunteer to join the mission do so from immense faith in their own love and compassion for humanity. They have as their inspiration Jesus Christ and believe: “Like Jesus we belong to the world, residing not for ourselves but for others. The joy of the Lord is our strength”.

Of selfless service Jesus said, “Whatever you do to the lowest of my brethren, you do it to me. provide a glass of water, you provide it to me. Receive a little child, you receive me”. For Mother Teresa and the nuns devoted in service, to the succour of the sick, and the outcaste, earthly sufferers are nothing less than Christ in :distressing disguise”. And they go about their tasks not with the iar of martyrdom, but joyfully and simply. Of the necessity to cultivate simplicity in residing to be able to serve better, the mother has observed, “The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you provide. But the less you have, the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is not mortification, a penance. It is joyful freedom. And in their spiritual abundance, they provide of themselves plentifully in the different houses of charity. They run serving and comforting those in need. “Unless love is among us, we can kill ourselves with work and it will only be work, not love”, the nuns remember the mother telling them as they carry on her torch of service with love. “Work without love is only slavery”. When asked for a 1 line description of her work and philosophy, Mother Teresa has gone on record saying “service in practice is love”.

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