[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 120 (Thursday, September 4, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1680-E1681]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




ADDRESS OF MOTHER THERESA TO THE NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST, FEBRUARY 5, 
                                  1994

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOSEPH R. PITTS

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, September 3, 2003

  Mr. PITTS. 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

[[Page E1681]]

     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!

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