Mr. Speaker, I submit the following for the Record. On the last day, Jesus will say to those on His right hand, ``Come, enter the Kingdom. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was sick and you…
Mr. Speaker, I submit the following for the Record.
On the last day, Jesus will say to those on His right hand,
``Come, enter the Kingdom. For I was hungry and you gave me
food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was sick and you
visited me.'' Then Jesus will turn to those on His left hand
and say, ``Depart from me because I was hungry and you did
not feed me, I was thirsty and you did not give me to drink,
I was sick and you did not visit me.'' These will ask Him,
``When did we see You hungry, or thirsty or sick and did not
come to Your help?'' And Jesus will answer them, ``Whatever
you neglected to do unto one of these least of these, you
neglected to do unto Me!''
As we have gathered here to pray together, I think it will
be beautiful if we begin with a prayer that expresses very
well what Jesus wants us to do for the least. St. Francis of
Assisi understood very well these words of Jesus and His life
is very well expressed by a prayer. And this prayer, which we
say every day after Holy Communion, always surprises me very
much, because it is very fitting for each one of us. And I
always wonder whether 800 years ago when St. Francis lived,
they had the same difficulties that we have today. I think
that some of you already have this prayer of peace--so we
will pray it together.
Let us thank God for the opportunity He has given us today
to have come here to pray together. We have come here
especially to pray for peace, joy and love. We are reminded
that Jesus came to bring the good news to the poor. He had
told us what is that good news when He said: ``My peace I
leave with you, My peace I give unto you.'' He came not to
give the peace of the world which is only that we don't
bother each other. He came to give the peace of heart which
comes from loving--from doing good to others.
And God loved the world so much that He gave His son--it
was a giving. God gave His son to the Virgin Mary, and what
did she do with Him? As soon as Jesus came into Mary's life,
immediately she went in haste to give that good news. And as
she came into the house of her cousin, Elizabeth, Scripture
tells us that the unborn child--the child in the womb of
Elizabeth--leapt with joy. While still in the womb of Mary--
Jesus brought peace to John the Baptist who leapt for joy in
the womb of Elizabeth.
And as if that were not enough, as if it were not enough
that God the Son should become one of us and bring peace and
joy while still in the womb of Mary, Jesus also died on the
Cross to show that greater love. He died for you and for me,
and for the leper and for that man dying of hunger and that
naked person lying in the street, not only of Calcutta, but
of Africa, and everywhere. Our Sisters serve these poor
people in 105 countries throughout the world. Jesus insisted
that we love one another as He loves each one of us. Jesus
gave His life to love us and He tells us that we also have to
give whatever it takes to do good to one another. And in
the Gospel Jesus says very clearly: ``Love as I have loved
you.''
Jesus died on the Cross because that is what it took for
Him to do good to us--to save us from our selfishness in sin.
He gave up everything to do the Father's will--to show us
that we too must be willing to give up everything to do God's
will--to love one another as He loves each of us. If we are
not willing to give whatever it takes to do good to one
another, sin is still in us. That is why we too must give to
each other until it hurts.
It is not enough for us to say: ``I love God,'' but I also
have to love my neighbor. St. John says that you are a liar
if you say you love God and you don't love your neighbor. How
can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your
neighbor whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live?
And so it is very important for us to realize that love, to
be true, has to hurt. I must be willing to give whatever it
takes not to harm other people and, in fact, to do good to
them. This requires that I be willing to give until it hurts.
Otherwise, there is not true love in me and I bring
injustice, not peace, to those around me.
It hurt Jesus to love us. We have been created in His image
for greater things, to love and to be loved. We must ``put on
Christ'' as Scripture tells us. And so, we have been created
to love as He loves us. Jesus makes Himself the hungry one,
the naked one, the homeless one, the unwanted one, and He
says, ``You did it to Me.'' On the last day He will say to
those on His right, ``whatever you did to the least of these,
you did to Me, and He will also say to those on His left,
whatever you neglected to do for the least of these, you
neglected to do it for Me.''
When He was dying on the Cross, Jesus said, ``I thirst.''
Jesus is thirsting for our love, and this is the thirst of
everyone, poor and rich alike. We all thirst for the love of
others, that they go out of their way to avoid harming us and
to do good to us. This is the meaning of true love, to give
until it hurts.
I can never forget the experience I had in visiting a home
where they kept all these old parents of sons and daughters
who had just put them into an institution and forgotten
them--maybe. I saw that in that home these old people had
everything--good food, comfortable place, television,
everything, but everyone was looking toward the door. And I
did not see a single one with a smile on the face. I turned
to Sister and I asked: ``Why do these people who have every
comfort here, why are they all looking toward the door? Why
are they not smiling?''
I am so used to seeing the smiles on our people, even the
dying ones smile. And Sister said: ``This is the way it is
nearly everyday. They are expecting, they are hoping that a
son or daughter will come to visit them. They are hurt
because they are forgotten.'' And see, this neglect to love
brings spiritual poverty. Maybe in our own family we have
somebody who is feeling lonely, who is feeling sick, who
is feeling worried. Are we there? Are we willing to give
until it hurts in order to be with our families, or do we
put our own interests first? These are the questions we
must ask ourselves, especially as we begin this year of
the family. We must remember that love begins at home and
we must also remember that ``the future of humanity passes
through the family.''
I was surprised in the West to see so many young boys and
girls given to drugs. And I tried to find out why. Why is it
like that, when those in the West have so many more things
than those in the East? And the answer was: ``Because there
is no one in the family to receive them.'' Our children
depend on us for everything--their health, their nutrition,
their security, their coming to know and love God. For all of
this, they look to us with trust, hope and expectation. But
often father and mother are so busy they have no time for
their children, or perhaps they are not even married or have
given up on their marriage. So their children go to the
streets and get involved in drugs or other things. We are
talking of love of the child, which is where love and peace
must begin. These are the things that break peace.
But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is
abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct
killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself.
And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child,
how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do
we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we
must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love
means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even
His life to love us. So, the mother who is thinking of
abortion, should be helped to love, that is, to give until it
hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her
child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also
give until it hurts.
By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills
even her own child to solve her problems. And, by abortion,
that father
is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at
all for the child he has brought into the world. The father
is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So
abortion just leads to more abortion. Any country that
accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to
use any violence to get what they want. This is why the
greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.
Many people are very, very concerned with the children of
India, with the children of Africa where quite a few die of
hunger, and so on. Many people are also concerned about all
the violence in this great country of the United States.
These concerns are very good. But often these same people are
not concerned with the millions who are being killed by the
deliberate decision of their own mothers. And this is what is
the greatest destroyer of peace today--abortion which brings
people to such blindness.
And for this I appeal in India and I appeal everywhere--
``Let us bring the child back.'' The child is God's gift to
the family. Each child is created in the special image and
likeness of God for greater things--to love and to be
loved. In this year of the family we must bring the child
back to the center of our care and concern. This is the
only way that our world can survive because our children
are the only hope for the future. As older people are
called to God, only their children can take their places.
But what does God say to us? He says: ``Even if a mother
could forget her child, I will not forget you. I have carved
you in the palm of my hand.'' We are carved in the palm of
His hand; that unborn child has been carved in the hand of
God from conception and is called by God to love and to be
loved, not only now in this life, but forever. God can never
forget us.
I will tell you something beautiful. We are fighting
abortion by adoption--by care of the mother and adoption for
her baby. We have saved thousands of lives. We have sent word
to the clinics, to the hospitals and police stations:
``Please don't destroy the child; we will take the child.''
So we always have someone tell the mothers in trouble:
``Come, we will take care of you, we will get a home for your
child.'' And we have a tremendous demand from couples who
cannot have a child--but I never give a child to a couple who
have done something not to have a child. Jesus said, ``Anyone
who receives a child in my name, receives me.'' By adopting a
child, these couples receive Jesus but, by aborting a child,
a couple refuses to receive Jesus.
Please don't kill the child. I want the child. Please give
me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be
aborted and to give that child to a married couple who will
love the child and be loved by the child. From our children's
home in Calcutta alone, we have saved over 3000 children from
abortion. These children have brought such love and joy to
their adopting parents and have grown up so full of love and
joy.
I know that couples have to plan their family and for that
there is natural family planning. The way to plan the family
is natural family planning, not contraception. In destroying
the power of giving life, through contraception, a husband or
wife is doing something to self. This turns the attention to
self and so it destroys the gifts of love in him or her. In
loving, the husband and wife must turn the attention to each
other as happens in natural family planning, and not to self,
as happens in contraception. Once that living love is
destroyed by contraception, abortion follows very easily.
I also know that there are great problems in the world--
that many spouses do not love each other enough to practice
natural family planning. We cannot solve all the problems in
the world, but let us never bring in the worst problem of
all, and that is to destroy love. And this is what happens
when we tell people to practice contraception and
abortion. The poor are very great people. They can teach
us so many beautiful things. Once one of them came to
thank us for teaching her natural family planning and
said: ``You people who have practiced chastity, you are
the best people to teach us natural family planning
because it is nothing more than self-control out of love
for each other.'' And what this poor person said is very
true. These poor people maybe have nothing to eat, maybe
they have not a home to live in, but they can still be
great people when they are spiritually rich.
When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him
a plate of rice, a piece of bread. But a person who is shut
out, who feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person who
has been thrown out of society--that spiritual poverty is
much harder to overcome. And abortion, which often follows
from contraception, brings a people to be spiritually poor,
and that is the worst poverty and the most difficult to
overcome.
Those who are materially poor can be very wonderful people.
One evening we went out and we picked up four people from the
street. And one of them was in a most terrible condition. I
told the Sisters: ``You take care of the other three; I will
take care of the one who looks worse.'' So I did for her all
that my love can do. I put her in bed, and there was such a
beautiful smile on her face. She took hold of my hand, as she
said one word only: ``thank you''--and she died.
I could not help but examine my conscience before her. And
I asked: ``What would I say if I were in her place?'' And my
answer was very simple. I would have tried to draw a little
attention to myself. I would have said: ``I am hungry, I am
dying, I am cold, I am in pain,'' or something. But she gave
me much more--she gave me her grateful love. And she died
with a smile on her face. Then there was the man we picked up
from the drain, half eaten by worms and, after we had brought
him to the home, he only said, ``I have lived like an animal
in the street, but I am going to die as an angel, loved and
cared for.'' Then, after we had removed all the worms from
his body, all he said, with a big smile, was: ``Sister, I am
going home to God''--and he died. It was so wonderful to see
the greatness of that man who could speak like that without
blaming anybody, without comparing anything. Like an angel--
this is the greatness of people who are spiritually rich even
when they are materially poor.
We are not social workers. We may be doing social work in
the eyes of some people, but we must be contemplatives in the
heart of the world. For we must bring that presence of God
into your family, for the family that prays together, stays
together. There is so much hatred, so much misery, and we
with our prayer, with our sacrifice, are beginning at home.
Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do, but how
much love we put into what we do.
If we are contemplatives in the heart of the world with all
its problems, these problems can never discourage us. We must
always remember what God tells us in Scripture: ``Even if a
mother could forget the child in her womb''--something
impossible, but even if she could forget--``I will never
forget you.''
And so here I am talking with you. I want you to find the
poor here, right in your own home first. And begin love
there. Be that good news to your own people first. And find
out about your next-door neighbors. Do you know who they are?
I had the most extraordinary experience of love of neighbor
with a Hindu family. A gentleman came to our house and said:
``Mother Teresa, there is a family who have not eaten for so
long. Do something.'' So I took some rice and went there
immediately. And I saw the children--their eyes shining with
hunger. I don't know if you have ever seen hunger. But I have
seen it very often. And the mother of the family took the
rice I gave her and went out. When she came back, I asked
her: ``Where did you go? What did you do?'' And she gave me a
very simple answer: ``They are hungry also.'' What struck me
was that she knew--and who are they? A Muslim family--and she
knew. I didn't bring any more rice that evening because I
wanted them, Hindus and Muslims, to enjoy the joy of sharing.
But there were those children, radiating joy, sharing the
joy and peace with their mother because she had the love to
give until it hurts. And you see this is where love begins--
at home in the family.
So, as the example of this family shows, God will never
forget us and there is something you and I can always do. We
can keep the joy of loving Jesus in our hearts, and share
that joy with all we come in contact with. Let us make that
one point--that no child will be unwanted, unloved, uncared
for, or killed and thrown away. And give until it hurts with
a smile.
Because I talk so much of giving with a smile, once a
professor from the United States asked me: ``Are you
married?'' And I said: ``Yes, and I find it sometimes very
difficult to smile at my spouse, Jesus, because He can be
very demanding--sometimes.'' This is really something true.
And this is where love comes in when it is demanding, and yet
we can give it with joy.
One of the most demanding things for me is travelling
everywhere--and with publicity. I have said to Jesus that if
I don't go to heaven for anything else, I will be going to
heaven for all the travelling with all the publicity, because
it has purified me and sacrificed me and made me really ready
to go to heaven.
If we remember that God loves us, and that we can love
others as He loves us, then America can become a sign of
peace for the world. From here, a sign of care for the
weakest of the weak--the unborn child--must go out to the
world. If you become a burning light of justice and peace in
the world, then really you will be true to what the founders
of this country stood for. God bless you!