Men in Kalighat, 1981. Photo credit: M. Kobayashi, Exile Images On the plane to Calcutta last week I read a book on the Concentration Camp of Dachau, and on the plane back I watched a movie on Auschwitz. While in Calcutta, I went to Mother Teresa’s famous Home for Dying Destitutes, “Kalighat” (it was a BBC documentary called Something Beautiful for God, filmed in Kalighat, that gained Mother Teresa worldwide recognition in 1969). Dachau, Auschwitz, and Kalighat all look pretty much the same: skeletal men in rags languishing in gray concrete buildings. The fundamental difference between them, however, is the presence of God. Love suffuses Kalighat like the morning sun, while a frightening darkness oppresses the concentration camps. At Kalighat, the BBC crew said in 1969 that filming in such dark conditions would not work, but producer Malcom Muggeridge later wrote how an unexplained light shone in the film, what he called the first recorded “miracle on celluloid.”
Some think that one day Mother Teresa will be declared a doctor of the Church like her patron saint, Therese of Lisieux. Saints do not repeat each other, but they often rhyme. Both Mother Teresa and St. Therese had little formal education but a wisdom far beyond most scholars; both taught how even the simplest souls can reach perfection by doing "small things with great love," both attracting a worldwide popularity beyond most celebrities.
History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes. Much like Russia in 1917 and Germany in 1933, we are again falling into totalitarianism. The powers gaining control today do not look like Marxist Communism or National Socialism, but the means of control are same: suppression of information and free speech “for the good of the people.” The technology used to stifle dissent is new, but the result is the same. “Social cancelation” has replaced a bullet to the head, and “virtual concentration camps” have replaced brick and mortar camps, but dissent is again silenced by the ruling party.
To know what’s happening today, we need to know what happened yesterday. I recommend the book on Dachau, The Priest Barracks, and the movie on Auschwitz, The Zone of Interest. Both portray what actually happened, and is happening again, although the book is Catholic and the movie is not. Ironically, the movie, while portraying Nazi totalitarianism, falls captive to the feminist dictates our own totalitarianism: the film contains good and bad female characters, but all the male characters are bad!
Better than the book on Dachau or the movie on Auschwitz, however, is a good book on Mother Teresa (I recommend Something Beautiful for God by Malcom Muggeridge). Mother Teresa went through 50 years of interior darkness, of feeling unwanted and even “hated” by God, but she never lost her faith. "Jesus in my heart," she taught her sisters to pray, "I believe in your tender love for me. I love you." Soviet Communism and German Socialism, considering themselves “enlightened,” brought a terrible darkness to their Christian nations. Mother Teresa, knowing her own darkness in humility, brough an extraordinary light to her non-Christian nation.
On my last day in Calcutta I decided to walk to the famous Howrah Bridge on the Hooghly River, a seven mile round trip through exceedingly crowded sidewalks and streets. I passed at least one hundred individuals every minute, looking on the faces of over 13,000 people during my 130 minute brisk walk. Each of those ten thousand individuals was unique, beautiful, and precious to God. Mother Teresa taught us that every person is infinitely good because every person is Jesus. “What you did for least of my brothers” (she quoted Jesus), “you did to me.” Beginning to believe in His "tender love for me," I can begin to love Him in return, and I can begin to love every last human person on our teeming planet. With that love, Auschwitz becomes Kalighat, a place of radiant love rather than a place of dark despair.
Some think that one day Mother Teresa will be declared a doctor of the Church like her patron saint, Therese of Lisieux. Saints do not repeat each other, but they often rhyme. Both Mother Teresa and St. Therese had little formal education but a wisdom far beyond most scholars; both taught how even the simplest souls can reach perfection by doing "small things with great love," both attracting a worldwide popularity beyond most celebrities.
History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes. Much like Russia in 1917 and Germany in 1933, we are again falling into totalitarianism. The powers gaining control today do not look like Marxist Communism or National Socialism, but the means of control are same: suppression of information and free speech “for the good of the people.” The technology used to stifle dissent is new, but the result is the same. “Social cancelation” has replaced a bullet to the head, and “virtual concentration camps” have replaced brick and mortar camps, but dissent is again silenced by the ruling party.
To know what’s happening today, we need to know what happened yesterday. I recommend the book on Dachau, The Priest Barracks, and the movie on Auschwitz, The Zone of Interest. Both portray what actually happened, and is happening again, although the book is Catholic and the movie is not. Ironically, the movie, while portraying Nazi totalitarianism, falls captive to the feminist dictates our own totalitarianism: the film contains good and bad female characters, but all the male characters are bad!
Better than the book on Dachau or the movie on Auschwitz, however, is a good book on Mother Teresa (I recommend Something Beautiful for God by Malcom Muggeridge). Mother Teresa went through 50 years of interior darkness, of feeling unwanted and even “hated” by God, but she never lost her faith. "Jesus in my heart," she taught her sisters to pray, "I believe in your tender love for me. I love you." Soviet Communism and German Socialism, considering themselves “enlightened,” brought a terrible darkness to their Christian nations. Mother Teresa, knowing her own darkness in humility, brough an extraordinary light to her non-Christian nation.
On my last day in Calcutta I decided to walk to the famous Howrah Bridge on the Hooghly River, a seven mile round trip through exceedingly crowded sidewalks and streets. I passed at least one hundred individuals every minute, looking on the faces of over 13,000 people during my 130 minute brisk walk. Each of those ten thousand individuals was unique, beautiful, and precious to God. Mother Teresa taught us that every person is infinitely good because every person is Jesus. “What you did for least of my brothers” (she quoted Jesus), “you did to me.” Beginning to believe in His "tender love for me," I can begin to love Him in return, and I can begin to love every last human person on our teeming planet. With that love, Auschwitz becomes Kalighat, a place of radiant love rather than a place of dark despair.
Schoolgirls at St. Teresa's school in Calcutta, where Mother Teresa taught from 1935-1938
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