Each morning when garbage collectors of Calcutta made their rounds they faced a grisly task. On average, they carted away the bodies of thirty people who died on the streets during the night. These people died alone and without anyone to care for them.

“One morning as Teresa walked to the hospital, she saw in an alley a heap of rags gathered around the still form of a woman’s body. Teresa walked closer. Large rats looked up at her with beady eyes. Reluctantly, they scurried away. Teresa brushed aside the sackcloth. She pulled in her breath, shocked at the awful sight. Rats had gnawed away the woman’s feet. Ants and other insects crawled on festering sores all over her body. The smell of death became almost overpowering.

“Nevertheless, the woman was still breathing. How did she survive the night Teresa wondered? Then a more horrible thought struck her. The woman could not have crawled into the alley by herself. Someone carried her here and left her in the trash to die. Teresa picked up the woman and carried her to the hospital. When the nurse saw the sad bundle of rags, she began shaking her head. This woman cannot be admitted, the nurse said. We have no room for hopeless cases.

“Teresa was aghast. She asked, Do you want me to take her back outside to die in the street? Teresa refused to move. As Teresa waited, she saw the hospital turn others away, especially poor and dying people.

“To be in pain, destitute, without friends is pathetic. But to die in anguish and despair on the streets must be the cruelest blow of all” (excerpt from Teresa of Calcutta: Serving the Poorest of the Poor by Jeanene Watson).

Maybe you recognized the young woman in the story as Mother Teresa, a woman known for her good works. However, she didn’t start out as Mother Teresa. She simply started out as a young woman seeing a need, who did not turn away. We can learn a lot from her example of love and concern for others.

Building the connections

I have been pondering a statement a minister said in his sermon a few years back: “Help people around you grow,” he said. “It is not a chain of command, but a network of love.” I liked the sound of those words. The words make me feel safe, secure and loved. I believe that is what young Teresa began—a network of love.

Think of a spider’s web or the neuron network within our brains or even a computer with its many intertwined connections. Only look at each connection as members of a network of love. Each connection affects the state of the other connection and vice versa. When one moves, they all move, but in ways that reflect their relationship to one another.

How do we build a network of love within the Church and within our community, especially now when love seems to be growing cold and people are bustling about in busy lives, hardly having time for their own families let alone anyone else? How do you and I fit into that schematic network? What is our responsibility in building that network of love?

Within our network, you and I would have to be tuned in and be sensitive to others within that network. We can make it happen! What did Christ say? “Come, you who are blessed by my Father… For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me” (Matthew 25:34-36, New International Version throughout).

Security and comfort in the net

When my daughter was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and my husband a few months later was diagnosed with prostate cancer, we felt vulnerable, defenseless and exposed. We started thinking about the things that really count, like our relationships, especially with our family and Church family.
Our network went into action, and we experienced the compassion and encouragement of our family. My daughter and husband received cards and encouraging notes and knew that brethren they had never met cared about them and were praying for them, bringing their concerns before the very throne of God. The network of love was a lifeline to my husband, my daughter and me; and it enveloped us, giving strength and courage to go through life-threatening trials.

Making connections

It is good to heed Paul’s admonition from Galatians 6:10: “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

Those who are critically ill, aging or struggling are especially sensitive to the help and support—or the lack of it—from those around them. They are especially appreciative of others’ concern. We should never take it for granted that other brethren or family will rally around those in need. It is our job to see to it that no one falls between the netting.

When someone in your family is ill, you have to focus on them and their needs. Sometimes there is no time or energy left to do the necessary things. For instance, when my husband had to go to the cancer clinic for treatment in another city five days a week for seven weeks and we were only home on weekends, we had no firewood for the season. One of our brethren saw our need and went out to the forest, chopped logs, delivered them, chopped it into the proper size for the stove and piled them on the porch for us. He did this when we were not home. It meant a lot to us. It wasn’t just the physical act of serving, it was his selfless love that warmed us. It was love in action.

Another, an 85-year-old woman who lived 90 minutes away, offered to give me a ride to Sabbath services. She said she would get up at six in the morning if necessary and swing by my way. Now that’s love!

We read in James 2:15-18: “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

In our network of love, we should feel the vibration—the need—and should be ready, willing and able to extend our hands to assist, encourage, support in any way we can even if it is just writing a note or making a phone call. “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence” (1 John 3:17-19).

We need to be in tune, to be perceptive to what’s happening in our network. When it is your turn to be on the receiving end of that love and concern, you will be most grateful. When you or I fall into various trials, we need to know someone cares.

Additional reading

If you’re interested in learning about this network of love please request our free booklet This Is the United Church of God.