Daily Verse
Monday, September 7, 2026
Compassion for the Poor and Needy
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Monday's Reflection
Matthew 25:40 — And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
In 1948, a teacher left a comfortable convent school in Calcutta and walked into the city's worst slums with almost nothing. Agnes Bojaxhiu — the woman the world came to know as Mother Teresa — had felt what she called "a call within a call" to serve the poorest of the poor. Two years later she founded the Missionaries of Charity, beginning with twelve sisters. By the end of her life the order had spread to more than 130 countries.
What drove her was a single conviction drawn straight from this verse. She taught her sisters to see "the face of Jesus in every person, especially the poorest of the poor." She spoke of serving Christ "in the distressing disguise of the poor." When she lifted a dying man from a Calcutta gutter, when she held an abandoned baby, when she cleaned the wounds of a leper — she believed she was touching Jesus Himself.
That conviction let her find purpose where others saw only misery. When she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, she did so "in the name of the hungry, the naked, the homeless... all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for." Her secret wasn't superhuman strength. It was a way of seeing — recognizing Christ in the least of these, and serving Him there.
Prayer: Lord, give us eyes to see You in the people the world overlooks, and let our kindness to them be kindness offered to You. Amen.