Jan 17, 2011 Monday: Mother Teresa on Criticism
Excerpt fromWhere There Is Love, There Is God: A Path to Closer Union with God and Greater Love for Others by Mother Teresa
One Bad Apple
A soul that is humble and sincere...will never stoop to criticism, which in spiritual life is called "cancer of the heart." It eats up all the love of God, all the energy that we have for God's interests. It is also most infectious. Let one sister start criticizing and in short time we shall have two, four, eight, ten, following. When we were little children my mother wanted to teach us what bad company does, so she brought a basket of apples, amongst which she intentionally put a bad apple. After few days, she called us around the basket and we saw [that] all the apples, which had been beautiful a few days before, had gone bad. She then explained how one bad apple contaminated all the others. In the same way, bad companions can harm others. Now criticism has that effect on souls. A truly generous soul must never stoop to criticism. As a rule, people that criticize never do it openly, but go about doing it in a whisper. That is a sin. Today when you go before the Blessed Sacrament, ask Jesus to preserve you from the cancer of criticism. Criticism is not a failure, not a human weakness--it is something that touches the heart. Should we have given way to it at times, let us resolve to avoid it and beg of Christ to preserve us. To keep free of criticism, we must be humble.
