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The National Prayer Breakfast Famous Speech by Mother Teresa
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The National Prayer Breakfast Famous Speech by Mother Teresa
Washington, D.C. - February 4, 1994
On the last day, Jesus will say to those at 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 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 the 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 eight hundred 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 that good news is 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 peace of heart which comes from loving
- from doing good to others.
And God loved the world so much that he gave his son. 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,
Jesus also died on the Cross to show that greater love. He died for you
and for me, and for that leper and for that man dying of hunger and that
naked person lying in the street - not only of Calcutta, but of Africa, of
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 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
for us - to save us from our selfishness and sin. He gave up everything to
do the Father's will, to show us that we too must be willing to give
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 for one
another, sin is still in us. That is why we too must give to each other
until it hurts.
Love always 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 no 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 for 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, maybe, forgotten them. 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 his 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."
See, this neglect to love brings spiritual poverty. Maybe in our 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 that they have no time for their children, or perhaps they are not
even married, or have given up on their marriage. So the 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, the father is
told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child
he has brought into the world. That 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 the people to love, but to
use any violence to get what they want. That 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.
"I want this child!"
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
other 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, out 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 has 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
3,000 children from abortions. 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 gift 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.
The greatness of the poor
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. 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 them 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. Those who are materially poor can be
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 a beautiful smile on her face. She took hold of my
hand, and she said one thing only: "Thank you." Then she died.
I could not help but examine my conscience before her. 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 like
that. 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 am going to die as an angel, loved and cared
for." Then, after we had removed all the worms from this 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.
A sign of care
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 the Scripture: Even if the mother could forget the child in
her womb - something that is 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.
Bear the 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 a neighbor from 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 were "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. 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 there 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 traveling 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 traveling 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. lf 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!
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The National Prayer Breakfast Famous Speech by Mother Teresa
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