..so this is very important for us to realize that love, to be true, has to hurt. it hurt Jesus to love us, it hurt Him...we have been created to love and be loved and then He has become man to make it possible for us to love as He loved us. He makes Himself the hungry one - the naked one - the homeless one - the sick one - the one in prison - the lonely one - the unwanted one - and He says ' you did to me. hungry for our love and this is the hunger of our poor people. this is the hunger that you and i must find, it may be in our own home.
i never forget an opportunity i had in visiting a home where they had all these old parents of sons and daughters who had just put them in an institution and forgotten maybe. and i went there and i saw in that home they had everything, beautiful things, but everybody was looking towards the door. and i did not see a single one with their smile on their face. and i turned to the sister and i asked: how is that? how is it that the people they have everything here, why are they all looking towards the door, why are they not smiling? i am so used to see the smile on our people, even the dying ones smile, and she said: this is nearly every day, 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 is where love comes. that poverty comes right there in our own home, even neglect to love. maybe in our own family we have somebody who is feeling lonely, who is feeling sick, who is feeling worried and these are difficult days for everybody. are we there, are we there to receive them, is the mother there to receive the child?
i was surprised in the waste to see so many young boys and girls given into drugs, and i tried to find out why - why is it like that? and the answer was: because there is no one in the family to receive them. father and mother are so busy they have no time..
..these are the things that break peace, but i feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a direct war, a direct killing - direct murder by the mother herself...in the scripture God says very clearly: even if a mother could forget her child - I will not forget you - i have curved you in the palm of My hand. we are curved in the palm of His hand, so close to Him that unborn child has been curved in the hand of God...the greatest destroyer of peace is abortion. and we who are standing here - our parents wanted us we would not be here if our parents would do that to us..
..we are fighting abortion by adoption, we have saved thousands of lives, we have sent words to all the clinics, to the hospitals, police stations - please don't destroy the child, we will take the child. so every hour of the day and night it is always somebody, we have quite a number of unwedded mothers - tell them come, we will take care of you, we will take the child from you and we will get a home for the child. and WE HAVE A TREMENDOUS DEMAND FOR FAMILIES WHO HAVE NO CHILDREN (note: why then is adoption, around the world, about red tape and exorbitant $...using human flesh to make $, for other agendas?), that is the blessing of God for us.
and also, we are doing another thing..we are teaching our beggars, our leprosy patients, our slum dwellers, our people of the street, natural family planning. and in calcutta alone in six years..we have had 61,273 babies less from the families who would have had, but because they practise this natural way of abstaining, of self-control, out of love for each other..and you know what they have told me? our family is healthy, our family is united and we can have a baby whenever we want...these are people who maybe have nothing to eat, maybe they have not a home wher to live, but they are great people.
the poor are very wonderful people. one evening we went out and we picked up 4 people from the street. and one of them was in a most terrible condition - and i told the sisters: you take care of the other 3, i take this one that looked 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, said one word: Thank you - and died. i could not help but examine my conscience before her and i asked what would i say if i was 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, that 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.
as that man said whom we picked up from the drain, half eaten with worms and we brought him to the home: i have lived like an animal in the street, but i am going to die like an angel, loved and cared for. and it was so wonderful to see the greatness of that man who could speak like that, who could die like that without comparing anything. like an angel - this is the greatness of our people...
..we are not real social workers. we may be doing social work in the eyes of the people, but we are really contemplatives in the heart of the world...you too try to bring that presence of God in your family..
..sometime ago in calcutta we had great difficulty in getting sugar and i don't know how the word got around to the children..and a little boy or 4 years old, hindu boy, went home and told his parents: i will not eat sugar for 3 days, i will give my sugar to mother teresa for her children...
..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. and find out about your next door neighbor - do you know who they are?
..i had the most extraordinary experience with a hindu family who had 8 children. a gentleman came to our house and said: mother teresa, there is a family with 8 children, they had not eaten for so long - do something. so i took some rice and i went there immediately. and i saw the children - their eyes shining with hunger - i don't know if you have ever seen hunger...and she took therice, she dividedthe rice and she 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 most was that she knew - and who are they, a muslim family - and she knew. i didn't bring more rice that evening because i wanted them to enjoy the joy of sharing. but there were those children, radiating joy, sharing the joy with their mother because she had the love to give. and you see this is were love begins - at home..
..when i pick up a person from the street, hungry, i give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread, i have satisfied. i have removed that hunger. but a person that is shut out, that feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person that has been thrown out from society - that poverty is so hurtable and so much, and i find that very difficult. our sisters are working amongst that kind of people in the west...
..you must come to know the poor, maybe our people here have material things, everything, but i think that if we all look into our own homes, how difficult we find it sometimes to smile at each other, and that the smile is the beginning of love. and so let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love and once we begin to love each other naturally we want to do something...smile at each other, make time for eachother in your family. smile at each other...
..if we could only remember that God loves me and i have an opportunity to love others as He loves me, not in big things, but in small things with great love, then norway becomes a nest of love. and how beautiful it will be that from here a center for peace has been given. that form here the joy of life of the unborn child comes out. if you become a burning light in the world of peace, then really the nobel peace prize is a gift of the norwegian people. God bless you!
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