A celebration of faith occurred today at the Vatican as thousands of pilgrims celebrated the canonization of Mother Teresa, a richly deserved honour for this remarkable woman.
Like so many other saints, her life was a gift to others. One could say that she was '"all in" when it came to the game of life.
I suppose that's what faith is all about, that is, the belief and participation in something much bigger and more important than one's own agenda.
Another example of a life of selflessness was brought to my attention yesterday in a homily by Father Mark Clarke at Holy Cross Church in Ottawa. He spoke about a woman, Pinin Brambilla Barcilon, who gave twenty years of her life in the restoration of The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci.
From 1979 to 1999, she worked tirelessly to successfully restore the luminosity of the original 9 by 5 metre painting. Often, it took her an entire day to complete a square no larger than the size of a postage stamp.
Now at the age of 91, she is almost blind due to the tremendous strain on her eyesight during the restoration process. She's also suffering from acute arthritis, a result of working in cramped quarters for such a long period of time.
I'm not sure if her efforts qualify her as a saint. In fact, I'm not even sure she's a Catholic. But I do know that she gave her talent and time to a project to be enjoyed by others for years to come.
Like Mother Teresa, she was a person who was 'all in.'
And I believe that's a big part of what it means to be a person of faith.
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