The Smile of a Child
The Lord smiles, then laughs. 'You didn't know?' He says.
'That was when we DANCED'."
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WHATEVER YOU DID UNTO ONE OF THE LEAST, YOU DID UNTO ME
Mother Teresa of Calcutta
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, no 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 were 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!
Given at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC
Thur, 3 Feb 94.