“Works of Love, Works of Peace” An Interview with Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa of Calcutta has shown the world that works of mercy and compassion can of themselves be works of peace, and that the peace she brings transcends all politics. On her recent trip to the United States, her first since winning the Nobel Prize, she paused for a few minutes in the garden next to the convent of the Missionaries of Charity in the South Bronx, New York, and in the shadow of the high rises, she talked about the prospects of peace in the world, and about our own poverty here in America. We don't have here poverty, maybe hungry for a piece of bread. But many shanties and people who have been forgotten, have left alone, who are lonely, who feel unwanted, unloved. I think that's a very great poverty. And more difficult to remove, to satisfy that hunger for love. It's much easier to give a hungry person a piece of bread, and you have solved the difficulty. But a person who is hungry for love, for recognition, a little bit of joy, a little bit of compassion, I think that hunger takes longer time to satisfy. Is that what you mean when you say that the poverty in the West... It's much more difficult to remove. You need greater love for Christ, and greater, deeper faith. But the same faith, though, and the same love. Yes, same love, same faith, but deeper, a little more. It's greater generosity, I think. And I think, with greater insistence on involving the people who could be that love and compassion to the people that we call shanties, the people who have been forgotten. That is why works like this of the Sisters are very beautiful, because they are involving not only themselves in the service of the people, but they are involving thousands of people to share the joy of loving. You said that's a special love that the Sisters, the missionaries of charity, have. The Order is a very young Order in comparison to many of the other Orders in the Church. Where do you think the real future, in many years down the line, what sort of a course must they always remember, the missionaries of charity? The future doesn't worry us, because tomorrow has not yet come. I don't know whether it will ever come. Yesterday is gone, so we have only today to try to love Jesus with our whole heart and soul. And as Jesus has said, I was hungry, I was naked, I was homeless. He did it for me. And so, we cannot be busy with numbers, with future years. Today, I find a hungry person, unlovable person, a person who has nothing, who has nobody. I have to call my love, but that person is Jesus. He's resting in the skies, because he has said so. He did it to me. I was hungry. So it's very good, because that's why Jesus made himself bread of life, to satisfy our hunger for God. And then he makes himself the hungry one, so that we can satisfy his hunger for our love. That's why the Eucharist and the poor are so close to each other. They are one. And that's what makes the missionaries of charity different from social workers. Yeah. If we really remember that it is He, then we are really content with this. If we pray the work, if we do it with Jesus, for Jesus, to Jesus, then we are content with it, because we are 24 hours with Jesus. And that's what I think makes the difference. I know I've had a chance in the last day or so to speak to some of the sisters, and there's an incredible excitement when they know that you're coming. What is it that you want to say to them when you come to visit them? You only have a short time. Love one another as Christ loves each one of us, and grow in the likeness of Christ. People must be able, when they look up, to see only Jesus, the way we touch them, the way we love them, the way we serve them, with that conviction. Because the work is only our love for Christ in action. Our lives must be woven with the Eucharist to be able to radiate His love and His compassion, to become the sunshine of His love and compassion in the world. Is that most importantly what you look for when a young girl thinks that she wants to join the Order? Is that the most important thing that you look for? I look in her if she has health of mind and body, if she has plenty of common sense, if she has ability to learn how to love, how to pray, how to learn languages, and also if she has cheerful disposition. These are the four things that I look for. The rest can be acquired. I guess it was Malcolm Muggeridge who said that, within every saint there is a little bit of a clown. He says that in the book. Is that true? I suppose so. I don't know. It must be you also. Somebody asked me, what will you do when there will be no more poor in the world? And I said, we'll be unemployed. Because we have been all called to be saints. Jesus has insisted on that, because sanctity is not the luxury of the few, it's a simple duty for us all. And we have been called, we have been created for that. That's why we have been created in the image of God. Even the man in the street has been created for greater things, to love and to be loved. That's why we owe them that love. He's our God and our sister, wherever we live. Much of the disturbance and all the killing in the world, it's due to that. If a mother can kill her own child through abortion, what's left for others to do that to each other? As it is written in the scripture, even if mother could forget her child, I will not forget her. I have her in the palm of my hand. But today the mother is forgetting her child. The impossible has become possible. And so people feel that if mother could do that, then there's no fear for me to do to you and you to me. That is why I think abortion is the greatest destroyer of peace in the world. Not military strength, as people talk about. Not the build-up of arms. But abortion. I look at it like that. It's life. That same thing. Whether you kill a person of age or you kill a person, an unborn child, life is life. Six months baby is life. And a 60 years old person is life. A child of one year is life. And that life is created in the image of God. Any murder is murder. And your sisters? Any killing is murder. And that is why your sisters have opened the door and said... Yes, we'll fight abortion by adoption. And we do lots of natural family planning. We teach our people so that we help the country also. Since they are... We can help them to plan their family without committing sin. Without destroying life. Our poor people, the beggars, the lepers, are doing it very beautifully. So we are trying to... And they say that people... You people who have evolved chastity are the best people to teach us family planning because it's nothing but self-control out of love for each other. When you accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, you said the one thing that all men were hungering for was a peace of heart. Yeah, and they have proved by giving that Nobel Prize that works of love are works of peace. And we really listen to what Jesus has said. Love one another as I have loved you. To be able to do that, we need to bring prayer into our lives because people that pray, they stay together. And if they stay together, it's the beginning of love. They begin to love one another. And if they love one another, then there will be peace. I'll never forget the time in Calcutta after that Nobel Prize. A beggar met me in the street. And he said, Mother Teresa, everybody's giving you. I want to give you also. And today, the whole day, I've just begged one penny, not a very small amount of money, in Indian money. And I think he was very joyfully surprised that I accepted that small amount of money. It was just one rupee in our money. In your money, it's very little. But the joy and the real, real... I can't tell you the expression on the face of that man because he was able also to give. And I can tell you sincerely that I felt that his gift was much greater than the Nobel Prize because he gave all that he had. So often you speak that the work of the missionaries of charity and how it started for you is to work one-to-one, person-to-person. Yes, exactly. I was wondering now, since all the attention and the awards and all that goes on, is it still possible for you to do it one-to-one? Very much. Very much. It has not changed. It has given me extra burden. But this will pass off now. Only today. My tomorrow... This is also for the love of Jesus. If it was not for Jesus, I wouldn't do it. One way of proclaiming His love. And it gives the people a chance to share in the world. People through this Nobel Prize, they have come to know the presence of the poor. Because I accepted that prize only in their name and for them. I don't need it. And so it has created concern. It has created desire to do something. Many, many people all over India and all over the world now, they are trying to do something, beginning with their own family, to find the poor. Very often we have poor in our own family. The family life is very much broken. If the families don't pray, it's very difficult to come to live together, to love one another, to share the joy and the suffering together. That's what makes the family life livable, that one is together, that living together. It's the same thing for us. If our lives are not woven with Jesus fully, we won't be able to do what we are doing, neither to live what we are living. Same for you people in the world. Unless your lives are woven with each other, and really loving each other, and really helping each other to live a life of love and unity, it is not possible to stay together. And that's why we need to pray to be able to stay together. Prayer is the force that creates love. And once the love has been created, you have to put that into action. And that action is serving one another. So for us, we have given our lives to Christ, and that love for Christ, we need to put it into life. The poorest of the poor have the joy of being loved. You said that you have never once felt as though you have an anniversary coming up, that next year will be 50 years. Yeah, 50. Would you take just a second? 50 years is... Beautiful year. And you said once that you've never had a second doubt in your mind that you made the right decision. Yeah, and if I had to begin again, I would do the same thing. Maybe I would with greater love, but I would do the same thing. Because it is He and not I. And the work is, He is not mine. I'm just a little instrument, a little pencil in His hand. The thinking, the writing, it's His. I'm just that little pencil which He uses. And when it breaks, He sharpens it a little bit each time. Are you okay? Yes.