Total Surrender through Love

A child and mother enjoy surrendering to each other. Mother does sacrifices in order that the child enjoys and grows as a good child. In turn, the child surrenders to the mother. This is a total surrender, in other words, a total dependency on the mother. There is a relationship between mother and child in order to depend on each other.

Surrender is dependency: Jesus surrenders himself to the Father and fulfills His Father’s will. In the Gethsemane narration, Jesus shows his emotions between being human and divine. The human emotion of Jesus does not depend on the Father, rather depends on its own self. This way the human nature has the tendency to depend on itself to arrive at a point. But, Jesus’ divine nature clearly has its point of departure in obeying God’s will or Father’s will. Jesus, therefore, yields to the will of His Father. This shows Jesus’ total dependency on God.

Mother Teresa began her ministry with bare minimum and God helped her to achieve so much but through several persons. God expects us to surrender to him and he will help us to persevere with the help other people in our lives. Mother Teresa depended on God’s assistance and God’s power not her own education and authority. This she exercised till the end of her life. In her Nobel Peace prize speech, she expressed her disposition to the prize by saying, this is for me but what have you for my people in the slums. She did not bisque in her glory rather she gave glory to God.

Surrender is love: Love is surrender and surrender is love. A mother makes sacrifices for the sake of the love that she has for her child. This sacrifice that mother makes is closely related to surrender. Jesus does His Fathers’ will not because he was forced but Jesus loved His Father. The love between Father and Son becomes reality when Jesus dies on the cross. Jesus’ love for His Father and for us is fulfilled on the cross. Jesus surrenders completely on the wood of the cross; Jesus’ surrender on the cross has a price, the price is death.

Mother Teresa loved the poor hence she surrendered to the will of God. She says, “True love is surrender. The more we love the more we surrender.” Love plays a significant role in our lives. Love drives us to surrender to whatever we are aiming. Jesus said, ‘where the treasure is, there will be your heart too.’ Mother Teresa’s love becomes complete when she went to the streets to touch and hug the poor and stinky people. This is not through force or command but merely the love she had in her heart for the poor and destitute.

Surrender is emptying oneself: Jesus Christ had to surrender his human emotions in the garden of Gethsemane in order for God to fulfill His will. Therefore, surrendering of Jesus very much closely connected with emptying of Himself. Jesus emptied Himself unto the cross. God gave himself to us, in other words, God emptied himself through Jesus Christ. He did that for our sake. God’s emptying himself has its focus, and God’s focus is each one us. Therefore, God emptied himself for our sake.

Mother Teresa, in the constitution expresses that our total surrender to God means to be entirely at the disposal of the Father as Jesus and Mary were. In giving ourselves completely to God, because God has given himself to us, we are entirely at His disposal. Mother Teresa emptied herself, through sacrificing her country, parents, siblings, and congregation in order to serve the Lord.

Surrender is to be available: Jesus surrendered to the will of the Father in order to be available for the ministry that God had given him. God anointed Jesus and he was well pleased to God. He was the adopted Son of the Father, who was sent as the savior of his people. Jesus was ever available any time he was called on.

Mother Teresa says,  “'I thirst' has no meaning unless through total surrender I give all to Jesus." It requires a total dedication of oneself to quench the thirst of the people of God. One has to make sacrifices to be available for the mission God gave us. 

Surrender is being light of the world: Jesus is the light of the world. His light becomes more visible when he surrendered himself of the cross. His light is shown to us every day of our lives through the people we serve.

Mother Teresa says, "Often you see small and big wires, new and old, cheap and expensive, lined up. Unless and until the current passes through them there will be no light. The wire is you and me. The current is God. We have the power to let the current pass through us, use us, and produce the Light of the World - Jesus; or refuse to be used and allow darkness to spread." God gives us that strength to serve the Lord and through us that strength is multiplied to his creation. We reach out to others who are in need and hence, we become the glimmer of light for them. We become light in the end of the tunnel.

Surrender is joy: Jesus surrendered himself to his public ministry with joy. He reached out people with joy. He had no regrets for doing what his Father had commanded him to do. Jesus shared his joy with his disciples, “that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be full” (John 15:11).

Kingdom of God is joy and joy is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Mother Teresa served the people in order to bring about God’s kingdom and she did it with joy. Every loving person is joyful and every joyful person is loving. God wants to be joyful and spread his love to each other.

Conclusion: In her own words, Mother Teresa shared of the simple joy of following Jesus and surrendering fully to him. Her life of radical poverty and wholehearted dedication to the poorest of the poor forms the heart of this inspiring surrender to God and to those most in need. It is part of the genius of Mother Teresa that she finds ways to tailor her spirituality to people from every state and circumstance in life. Men and women, young and old, sick and well, rich and poor, religious and lay, married and single, Catholic and Protestant, are able to join with her, sharing her vision and joy in service to Christ and the poor. Here is rich spiritual fare from Mother Teresa's letters, spiritual retreats, and instructions to her sisters, as well as from the constitution of the Missionaries of Charity.