Listening to Mother Teresa during Lockdown in France and the USA

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, I am sitting at home, in “confinement,” the term employed by the French. It’s been almost two weeks and I’ll admit staying inside does not weigh heavy on me. I have a garden; I spend time there each day. I’d like to go for a long walk, but walking outside for pleasure, initially authorized, has been scratched off the list of things we can do. Too many people were rushing to parks and woodland paths. The crowded beaches of Brittany and the Riviera made it look like France was on holiday. The government put a stop to that.

Now we are limited to shopping for food or medicine, helping family members in distress and going to work if we have a certificate from our employer. We can also walk or exercise outside for an hour each day, remaining within a one-kilometer perimeter from home. Day by day, the physical boundaries of our lives shrink a bit more. At the time I write, there is serious talk of extending our “confinement” to 60 days.

As for journalism, all over the world, the corona virus, like a greedy pacman, has gobbled up all other topics, an unfortunate side effect of the disease.

But I think I’ve found a way to tell you about my recent trip to Calcutta (Kolkata), India. While in that teeming, vibrant city, my friend Sarah and I visited the mother house of the Missionaries of Charity, founded by Mother Teresa, at 54A A. J. Bose Road, a building that would look like a warehouse if it were not for the shutters on the windows to keep out the heat. From our hotel, Sarah and I walked there along Ripon Street through a busy Muslim neighborhood bustling with street vendors.

The mother house is spartan and clean. Visitors can view the simple room where Mother Teresa slept or enter the chapel, home to her tomb. There I sat among the sisters and other visitors in relative silence. Outside, the city roared.

Many readers remember, I’m sure, the 1995 visit of Mother Teresa to the convent of the Missionaries of Charity in Mahanoy City. When Pope Francis declared her a saint in 2016, Saint Joseph’s Church, where Mother Teresa attended mass, became the parish of Saint Teresa of Calcutta.

In Calcutta and elsewhere, Mother Teresa is a controversial figure. Some feel she gave too much importance to death over life, not providing adequate medical care to those she and her missionaries found lying in Calcutta’s streets. In her day, Indian relief organizations felt she stole the spotlight, diverting attention from their dedicated work among the poor. Still others believed one of her goals was to seek converts, turning Hindus away from their faith.

Yet, she and her missionaries gave themselves wholeheartedly to the words of Christ: I was hungry and you gave me food, thirsty and you gave me drink, homeless and you took me in. And some of the words of Mother Teresa herself could serve as stepping-stones to guide us through the current worldwide health crisis:

“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments.”

At this time, the goal is to limit the spread of Covid-19. We can only do that if we are disciplined and take lockdown seriously. We all saw the images of college students frolicking on the beaches of Florida because the governor of that state refused to close them. If politicians are not doing their jobs, then individual citizens must discipline themselves to take the steps necessary to stop the virus’s spread. Healthcare workers, cashiers in supermarkets and all those who must go to work will thank us. A great site for guidelines is provided by Johns Hopkins University: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/

“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.”

Currently, we are required to practice a strange kind of charity. We’re giving the most when we stay away from others, keeping a safe distance from neighbors, strangers and even family members if we ourselves are contaminated by the virus. Here in France, where Covid-19 struck earlier and peak contamination is expected in the coming week, I cannot emphasize enough how important “doing it alone” is.

Nor can we wait for leaders. In Europe, in the USA, they have reacted instead of acting. And some have profited. After a briefing on the virus on January 24th, aware of the dangers to come, some US Senators sold off stocks as President Trump told the American people, “It will all work out well.” At that time, he knew, they knew, a whole lot more than us.

“Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for development and greater riches.., so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of the peace of the world.”

Here Mother Teresa puts her finger on one of the true “pathologies” of our day, the rushing, not after riches, but what it takes to pay the bills; and in some families, members have more time for their phones and screens than they have for each other. Paradoxically, in lockdown, families find themselves forced to spend time together, and in cities like Paris, where public parks are closed, togetherness is more a challenge than a pleasure.

As one mother said on a call-in radio show in response to the advice of writer-adventurer Sylvain Tesson, who has spent much time alone in Siberia, “I’d love some solitude. For the moment, I’m teacher, cook and cleaning woman for a family of six and confined to a small apartment.”

Let’s just hope that the “disruption of the peace of the world” does not begin in the tight spaces where families are confined.

“It is a kindly act to assist the fallen.”

On the other side of the Covid-19 pandemic, a new world awaits us. In the US, on Friday, March 27, President Trump signed the $2 trillion coronavirus relif bill. Once again, let’s hope the banks and big business don’t take it all. Americans workers are being laid off without severance pay, families cannot pay the bills, many are going hungry and risk losing their homes, and as opposed to the French, many are without health insurance. These are certainly the people Mother Teresa would put first.

As should President Macron, as should President Trump.

While our leaders decide who gets aid, I’ll let Mother Teresa conclude:

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”