Two seemingly unrelated events occurred over the weekend – The canonization of Mother Teresa by Pope Francis and the United States’ Labor Day holiday.  Yet, are their roots and aspirations more connected than may otherwise appear?

As the Wall Street Journal pointed out, Mother Teresa is one of the most recognizable faces of the 20th century, and a Nobel Prize winner even though she never sought fame and spent her life coming alongside the dying poor in India. Pope Francis reminded us in his address, “Her mission to the urban and existential peripheries remains for us today an eloquent witness to God’s closeness to the poorest of the poor.”

The only description I could find of the scope of the Sisters of Charity she founded were Mother’s own words, published in 1994 in First Things. At that time, the Sisters of Charity included 400 foundations in more than 100 countries and nearly 5,000 sisters. In this article, she further described the scope of their work as follows,

We care for those who are often treated as outsiders in their own communities by their own neighbors—the starving, the crippled, the impoverished, and the diseased, from the old woman with a brain tumor in Calcutta to the young man with AIDS in New York City.

Some have criticized Mother Teresa for not spending more time seeking to change political and economic systems that leave so many destitute. Others criticized her for proselytizing. It is accurate to say that Mother Teresa did not devote much time to political advocacy. Yet, she made it clear to any with “ears to hear” the connection between personal faith, ideology, public policy and societies’ care for the most vulnerable.  In fact, she reminded Americans, 

Yours is the one great nation in all of history that was founded on the precept of equal rights and respect for all humankind, for the poorest and weakest of us, as well as the richest and strongest….Your constant efforts in fulfillment of that mission, far more than your size or your wealth or your military might, have made America an inspiration to all mankind.

As Mother further notes, we have fallen short and departed from these aspirations in countless ways – from slavery to abortion. I can only imagine how dismayed she would be today, seeing many of the trends in our country.

Yet, Labor Day is one small reminder that our aspirations live on. As a country we set aside a holiday to acknowledge that work is good and the laborer is worthy of respect. Given the turbulent times in which we live, may we take some comfort from this marker in our national life and consciousness. I think Mother Teresa would smile and say, “Happy Labor Day.”