Get summaries, questions, answers, solutions, notes, extras, PDF and guides for Mother Teresa’s Nobel Lecture: WBCHSE Class 11 English Literature textbook A Realm of English (B) Selection, which is part of the Semester III syllabus for students studying under WBBSE (West Bengal Board-Uccha Madhyamik). These solutions, however, should only be treated as references and can be modified/changed.
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Summary
Mother Teresa speaks about the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, which she finds very fitting for our times. She explains that God’s love is a giving love. He showed this by sending his son, Jesus, to bring the good news of peace to the world. When Mary learned she would have Jesus, she immediately went to share this news. The unborn child in her cousin Elizabeth’s womb leaped with joy, becoming the first messenger of peace. Jesus later died on the cross to show his great love for everyone, including the poor and suffering in places like Calcutta, Africa, and even wealthy cities like New York and London. The main message is to love one another as he loved us.
True love requires sacrifice and can hurt. Jesus made himself the “bread of life” to satisfy our deep hunger for love. This means he offers himself to fill our spiritual needs, not just our physical ones. He is found in the hungry, the naked, the homeless, and the lonely. Helping them is the same as helping him. Mother Teresa shares a story about visiting a home for the elderly. The people there had everything they needed but were sad because their children had forgotten them. This is a poverty of loneliness. She also saw that many young people in the West used drugs because their families were too busy for them.
She believes the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion. She calls it a direct killing by a mother. If a mother can kill her own child, she asks, what is left to stop us from killing each other? She speaks of God’s promise that he has “carved you in the palm of his hand.” This is a way of saying that each person is precious and always remembered by God. Her mission fights abortion by offering adoption. They tell clinics and hospitals that they will take any child and find them a loving family.
The poor are great people who teach beautiful lessons. Mother Teresa tells a story of a woman she found on the street. Before dying, the woman simply smiled and said, “Thank you,” giving a gift of grateful love. Another story is about a Hindu mother with eight hungry children. After receiving rice, she divided it and gave half to her Muslim neighbors who were also hungry. This shows how love begins at home with the joy of sharing. Giving should not be easy; it should be a sacrifice. A man who was paralyzed gave up smoking for a week to send a small donation. This money bought bread and brought joy to both him and the hungry people who received it. The poverty of loneliness found in wealthy countries is often harder to heal than hunger. The solution starts with a simple act: a smile. A smile is the beginning of love.
Textbook solutions
1. How did Mother Teresa want to fight abortion?
Answer: Mother Teresa wanted to fight abortion through adoption. She and her Sisters sent word to all clinics, hospitals, and police stations, asking them not to destroy the child and promising that they would take the child. They offered to take care of unwedded mothers and their children and would find a home for the child, as there was a tremendous demand from families who had no children. She also mentioned that they were teaching natural family planning to the poor, which she described as a very beautiful thing.
2. What did Mother Teresa want to suggest when she comments that poor people are very great people?
Answer: When Mother Teresa commented that poor people are very great people, she wanted to suggest that they can teach us many beautiful things. She gave an example of a poor person who explained that family planning is simply self-control out of love for one’s partner. She also suggested their greatness lies in their capacity for gratitude and grace in the face of extreme suffering. She recalled a woman she picked up from the street who, in her last moments, only said “Thank you” and gave her grateful love with a smile. She also spoke of a man found half-eaten with worms who said he would die like an angel, loved and cared for, without blaming or cursing anyone. This ability to show love and acceptance without complaint is what made them great in her eyes.
3. Narrate the experience Mother Teresa had when there was a great difficulty in getting sugar.
Answer: Some time ago in Calcutta, there was a great difficulty in getting sugar. Word of this somehow reached the children, and a little Hindu boy, who was four years old, went home and told his parents that he would not eat sugar for three days. He said he would give his sugar to Mother Teresa for her children. After three days had passed, the boy’s father and mother brought him to her home. Mother Teresa had never met them before, and the little boy could scarcely pronounce her name, but he knew exactly what he had come to do. He knew that he wanted to share his love.
4. Narrate the experience and the feelings of Mother when she visited an Old Age Home?
Answer: Mother Teresa narrated an experience of visiting a home where elderly parents had been placed in an institution by their sons and daughters, who had perhaps forgotten them. She observed that the home was well-equipped with everything, including beautiful things, but all the residents were looking towards the door. She did not see a single smile on any of their faces. This was unusual for her, as she was used to seeing smiles even on the faces of dying people.
She asked a Sister why the residents were not smiling and were all looking at the door. The Sister explained that nearly every day, they were expecting and hoping that a son or daughter would come to visit them. They were hurt because they felt forgotten. Mother Teresa felt that this was where a different kind of poverty existed, a poverty that could be found right in one’s own home, which was the neglect to love.
Additional Questions and Answers
1. Why did Mother Teresa suggest praying the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi?
Answer: Mother Teresa suggested praying the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi because they had gathered to thank God for the Nobel Peace Prize, and she thought it would be a beautiful thing to do. She also explained that she and the Sisters pray this prayer every day after Holy Communion because it is very fitting for each one of them.
2. What did Mother Teresa find surprising about the prayer of St. Francis?
Answer: Mother Teresa found it very surprising that the prayer, composed by St. Francis of Assisi 400 to 500 years ago, addressed the same difficulties that people face today. She always wondered about this, noting that the prayer fits very nicely for people in the modern world, just as it did for people in the past.
3. What was the “good news” that Jesus came to bring to the poor?
Answer: The “good news” that Jesus came to bring to the poor was peace for all people of good will. Mother Teresa explained that this is something everyone wants, which is the peace of heart. Jesus, being God, became a man to proclaim very clearly that he had come to give this good news.
4. Who was the first messenger of peace? How did this messenger react to Christ?
Answer: The first messenger of peace was the unborn child in the womb of Elizabeth. When Mary, carrying Jesus, came into the house of her cousin Elizabeth, this unborn child leapt with joy. This messenger recognised the Prince of Peace and understood that Christ had come to bring the good news.
5. What does Mother Teresa mean when she says that true love “has to hurt”?
Answer: When Mother Teresa says that true love has to hurt, she means that it requires real sacrifice. She uses the example of God, explaining that it hurt God to give His son, and it hurt Jesus to love us and die on the cross. Therefore, for our love to be true, we too must be willing to give to one another until it hurts, meaning we must give in a way that involves personal sacrifice.
6. How does Jesus make himself present among the poor and suffering?
Answer: Jesus makes himself present among the poor and suffering by becoming one with them. He makes himself the hungry one, the naked one, the homeless one, the sick one, the one in prison, the lonely one, and the unwanted one. He says that when we serve these people, we are doing it directly to him. The hunger of the poor people is a hunger for our love.
7. Why did Mother Teresa believe young people in the West were turning to drugs?
Answer: Mother Teresa believed young people in the West were turning to drugs because there was no one in the family to receive them. She observed that fathers and mothers were often so busy that they had no time for their children. When young people feel this lack of connection at home, they turn to the street and get involved in other things.
8. What does Mother Teresa consider the “greatest destroyer of peace today”? Why?
Answer: Mother Teresa considers abortion to be the greatest destroyer of peace today. She calls it a direct war, a direct killing, and a direct murder by the mother herself. She believes this is the greatest destroyer of peace because if a mother can kill her own child, there is nothing left to prevent people from killing each other.
9. What scripture does Mother Teresa quote about God’s love for a child?
Answer: Mother Teresa quotes a scripture in which God says very clearly that even if a mother could forget her child, He will not forget them. God says that He has carved them in the palm of His hand. This means that every person, including an unborn child, is held so close to God that they are carved in the palm of His hand.
10. Why does Mother Teresa argue that abortion leads to wider violence in society?
Answer: Mother Teresa argues that abortion leads to wider violence in society because it destroys the most basic foundation of love and protection. She reasons that if a mother can kill her own child, then the moral line has been crossed. There is nothing left to stop her from killing someone else, or someone else from killing her.
38. Discuss Mother Teresa’s belief that the poor are “very great people.” What lessons can be learned from them, according to her lecture?
Answer: Mother Teresa believed that the poor are “very great people” and “very wonderful people” not because of any material wealth, but because of their spiritual richness and the beautiful lessons they can teach others. She saw in them a capacity for love, gratitude, and dignity that often surpassed that of people who had everything.
According to her lecture, several important lessons can be learned from the poor:
- Grateful love: She tells of a woman she picked up from the street in a terrible condition. After being cared for, the woman gave a beautiful smile, said only “Thank you,” and died. She did not complain or ask for more; she simply gave her grateful love, teaching a powerful lesson in gratitude.
- Dignity and acceptance: She describes a man found in a drain, half-eaten by worms, who said, “I have lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die like an angel, loved and cared for.” He died without blaming or cursing anyone. This teaches a lesson about facing death with grace and dignity.
- Self-control out of love: She explains how poor families she worked with practiced natural family planning, seeing it as an act of love and self-control that kept their families united. They demonstrated that love can be expressed through discipline and sacrifice.
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