Mother Teresa

The deaths of Mother Teresa and Diana, Princess of Wales was a study of both similarities and contrasts. Both were worldfamous figures, wellcovered by the media. Both had received praise for their charitable efforts, along with criticism for their political "naivete." Both were strong, powerful women able to influence large segments of the population with their statements and actions.

One, however, seemed to affirm the common values of society, while the other seemed to reverse many of them, at least in the arena of materialism and success. Diana, although working for the poor and marginalized, was herself extremely wealthy, fashionable, and central to the world of the rich, famous, and powerful. While Mother Teresa was able to speak to the world of the powerful, she herself was not wealthy, fashionable, or a participant in that world of success and the desire for worldly success. She represented a countercultural current of reversal that has long been a part of the Christian tradition.

That reversal can be traced back to the Beatitudes of the gospels, in which Jesus made a number of reversals, asserting, for example, that it was the meek who would inherit the earth. In this sermon, the values of the Mediterranean of Jesus' time were overturned, and reversed. What had been valued was no longer valuable in Jesus' words. What had previously been scorned was now valued.

Agnes Bojaxhiu decided to become a nun when she was

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