A Prodigious Love: Because I Love You

"He said, 'Why do you do this?' And I said, 'Because I love you.' "
Mother Teresa explaining to a man lying in the streets of Calcutta why she is caring for him.

There is something terribly wrong with the expression, "It is better to give than to receive."

It suggests that "receiving" is somehow less noble, less praiseworthy than "giving".

It says that somehow there is an inequality between the person receiving and the person giving.

Mother Teresa and her sisters would not agree with any of this.

Love and mercy are not transactional. They do not use a balance scale to measure the goods received against the goods given.

Jesus said, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy," not because they will receive some sort of external reward, but because they made a loving connection with another human being.