Living an Authentic Life Requires Action: A Reflection on Mother Teresa’s Calling

My husband decided Tuesday night at ten o’clock was the opportune time to passionately relay a familiar epiphany to me. He wanted to volunteer monthly in an orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico, about forty minutes from our home in San Diego, CA. Over the years he has traveled across the border multiple times (he is Mexican-American and has family there), offering his time and any resources he can conjure up from family and friends. He considers this a “calling” of sorts, which resonates in our conversations several times a year.

I was too fatigued to muster up his same enthusiasm, so I attempted to dismiss his fervent plea. How are we supposed to add even one more item to our daily calendar? We work full-time, have four kids, and are actively involved in our community. Yet, his spirited energy somehow infiltrated the fabric of my life this week. We all know people who are passionate about a cause or who look for a higher meaning in the everyday. But, what does it mean to be “called” toward a specific path? Are we each destined for a certain calling?

Since I am a religious scholar, I spend a lot of time thinking about the circumstances surrounding individuals who are called to a higher purpose. For almost 15 years, I have taught countless college students about the Abrahamic Religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). Abraham, a formative figure in each of these religious traditions, is depicted as a model of righteous devotion. According to the Old Testament, an unknown god called Abraham to leave his pagan roots and move almost a thousand miles from his homeland (Genesis 12). He went willingly and did not question this calling. Even when this god asked him to sacrifice his son, he did not waiver in his devotion; he simply woke-up the next day and traveled to the designated place (Genesis 22). Fortunately, an angel intervened at the last second, preventing the attempted infanticide. Abraham was willing to go to great lengths to please this deity, and the text specifies that he was blessed because he consistently obeyed the commands of this god.

Why are those who are “called” often willing to make sacrifices that seem outrageous and even absurd to the rational mind? Do you need to have an experience with an other-worldly being in order for your calling to be legitimatized? (Abraham, Jesus, and the Prophet Muhammad all communicated with angels). Or does a calling come from a deeper desire to make a significant contribution in the world?

My husband is not the first person I have encountered who recognizes and actively engages in a predestined course of existence. I have been living around people who feel “called” for most of my life. When I was ten years old, my parents, who are both doctors, sold everything we owned and took one suitcase and moved from Boston to India. Since I was a child and still lived at home, I was swept into the trajectory of their newfound vocation. We lived in Mumbai and New Delhi for six years, most of my adolescent and formative years. This life of service suited our family, and some of my fondest memories are tied to those years.

My thoughts have drifted back to India multiple times this month. The upcoming twenty-fifth anniversary of Mother Teresa’s passing reminded me of our chance meeting many years ago. My family visited her in Calcutta in 1996, just a year before she died. We did not have an appointment; we just wanted to meet her. So, we knocked on the door of her convent and she graciously spent time with us. She was a tiny individual, barely five feet tall; yet she is the only person I have ever met whose calling and personhood were completely intertwined. Educating us about how we could become active participants in her charities was her only focus. Mother Teresa’s passion for her “calling” oozed out of her veins, and I was struck by her steadfast commitment to the overwhelming needs of the area she served.

(author, upper left, with Mother Teresa in 1996)

She often spoke of her calling as a “call within a call.” She claims that while riding a train on September 10th, 1946, Christ told her to dedicate her life to helping the people of Calcutta. “The form of the call is neither here nor there. It was something between God and me. What matters is that God calls each of us in a different way. It is no credit to us that he does so. What matters is that we should answer the call!”1

As I was riding the train home from work on Thursday, I did not experience a divine manifestation, but I did strike up a conversation with the person sitting next to me. He noticed I was grading research papers about Abraham, and gradually our dialogue moved deeper to a discussion about what it means to be called. He was facing a new job opportunity and wanted to know if I believed that there are certain paths we are supposed to follow in our lives. Basically, how do you know if the life you are living is the life you are supposed to live?

Personally, I am not sure if every individual has a specific “calling” they are destined to pursue, but we all have an inner voice that we choose to either explore or ignore. People who are convinced they are living their life’s true purpose are passionate and determined, and can even be a bit frightening. They recognize and embrace that voice within, even when the call to action is not convenient or may require standing apart from their peers.

Mother Teresa answered a call she believed was from a higher being, and this call became her life’s work. She could have chosen not to listen to the voice on the train; she could have gone home and lived a very different life. She chose a life of service, and she will be remembered more for her devotion to the marginalized of society than for a  “calling” she encountered on a train. It is not the calling, but the response to “the voice” that matters. In her own words, “even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

My spouse may never experience a divine directive to visit an orphanage in Mexico, but I can guarantee that he will carve out time to travel to Mexico in the upcoming months. Why? Because living an authentic life requires action.

                                                                           By, Jennifer Metten Pantoja

[1] David Porter. Mother Teresa: The Early Years (London: Eerdmans Pub Co, 1986), 56.