In 1982, during the spring of my junior year of college, I literally bumped into a person that would change my life.
It was commencement day at Harvard. I wasn’t graduating so it was a total coincidence that I happen to be walking through Harvard yard when the featured speaker took to the podium. It was Mother Theresa from Calcutta. She had just won the Nobel Peace Prize but I really didn’t know much about her. But there is something about her voice that caught my attention and ended up standing in the back of a very large crowd and listening to her speech.
There were a few thousand people there but you could’ve heard a pin drop as we all listened to this tiny woman with a very soft voice. The essence of her talk was how important it is to help others. She said “You have never really lived until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.”
And she urged all of the graduates to go out and make their mark on the world. You don’t have to be like me she kept saying. Find your own way to make a difference and to help people.
“Go find your own Calcutta!” she told us and the crowd loved it giving her a standing ovation.
I was so moved by her speech that I stayed for the rest of the commencement program. And when it was over I watched Mother Theresa leave the stage and start to make her way towards the exit. I kind of gasped when I realized she was coming my way. I wanted to get a closer look at her so I stayed with the crowd and waited for her.
She was very gracious and shaking hands with people as she was walking out. Just like everyone else I surged forward hoping to shake her hand also.
By the grace of God when she finally got to where I was, she saw my skinny, outstretched hand and stopped to shake it.
I of course was in shock. I’ll never forget how tiny she was in her immaculate blue and white habit, standing just five feet tall and staring up at me.
Of course, I was so stunned I couldn’t think of anything to say as she gently took my hand into her two hands, clasping mine. Her hands were warm and quite large. Her hands had calloused skin. They were like the hands of a farmer or a peasant rather than the hands of the world’s most famous nun.
Time seemed to stop as Mother Teresa stared up at me with her famous deep brown eyes that are ringed with blue and green making them hazel.
“Can you help?” she asked me softly as she shook my hand slowly.
I was speechless. Overwhelmed. Twenty-two years old wearing a t-shirt and blue jeans. Totally unprepared for my encounter with a Nobel Prize winner.
I had no idea what she was asking of me or why she was asking it. And before I could say a word, she was gone. She disappeared into the crowd that was carrying her to the exit.
But her question stayed with me. And it took me many years until I understood what she was asking me.
Until I could answer her question.
And until I finally found my “Calcutta.”
