Mother Teresa on Abortion
By peace | August 15, 2008
Blessed Mother Teresa on Abortion
At the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C, on February 5, 1994, Mother Theresa dared to speak her mind and heart about the right to life. Here is the text of her unforgettable address.
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 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. 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!
Source: catholicnewsagency
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Excerpt From Life Of Sir Stamford Raffles II
By peace | August 14, 2008
Among the men who have established the political and commercial power of this country in the seas of India and China, no one would deny a foremost place to Stamford Raffles. This silent acquiescence is the tribute paid by national gratitude to the greatness of a name, when the precise nature of the man’s work has been consigned to oblivion, or perhaps never appreciated. But the work in this case was an achievement well worth description for its own value, and not less noteworthy because accomplished by a humble individual in the teeth of personal prejudice and official opposition. Raffles owed nothing to favour or fortune; he was the architect of his own position and reputation; while the breadth of his views and the boldness of his deeds often brought him the censure of his narrow-minded and faint-hearted superiors. But the difficulties and malice which nearly crushed him during life enhance his posthumous fame, and to him will ever be given the chief, if not the sole, credit of instituting the measures which permanently assured our hold on the sea route to the Far East.
Excerpt From Life Of Sir Stamford Raffles - Clouds and Death
Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles, to give him his full name, was the only son of Benjamin Raffles, who at the time of his famous son’s birth, was captain of a merchant vessel trading between London and the West Indies.
Thus closed suddenly, and under the shadow of ill-health, pecuniary losses, and personal disappointment, the career of Sir Stamford Raffles. In years he had only just entered the period of middle life, and the work he had performed, as well as the experience he had gained, would have entitled him to take a further prominent part in the affairs of the East. Had his life been prolonged, there can be little doubt that he would have won fresh fame as a statesman on the floor of the House of Commons, or as an administrator in some new station beyond the seas. He had done enough, however, in his brief, and almost meteroic career, to obtain a place among the few great intellects and brave spirits that have pointed out for this country the path to empire in Southern Asia. Opposition, prejudice, aclumny during his lifetime and since his death, forgetfulness, and the haste which prevents our realising that our Empire came to us by inheritance from our forefathers, have not undone his work or diminished his reputation.
What was his work? Let the reader throw back his mind and consider all that Raffles had done, written, and inspired in the twenty-one years between the day on which he left the home-country, a young man, serious but hopeful, half-educated, he said in his modesty, but employing his time on ship-board in learning Malay, resolute to succeed by his own merit, but still more resolute to promote the interests of England — and that early summer morning when his wife found him dead by the foot of the stairs at Highwood. His rise in the official service of the Company was extraordinarily rapid.
The marvel is that his detractors were so few; and great must have been the merit, subtle must have been the charm of manner, that at that period disarmed the enmity of the privileged ranks of the services and made so many of them his friends and admirers. His success, the resolution with which he carried his own views and policy into effect, were the more remarkable, because he never put on the hollow aspect of humility, so often used as a screen for ambition.
Such was the spirit in which he accomplished his life’s mission. Sanguine in temperament, quick in his judgment, fixed in his resolutions, courageous in the execution of his plans, and undaunted in the face of difficulty, Raffles revealed on all critical occasions those qualities which are essential to the man of action, whether he be a statesman or a soldier.
The founding of Singapore was a great achievement — great by reason of the method and the attendant conditions of its accomplishment. It was also a definite and concrete performance which everyone can see and understand. But, after all, this single act was not the real claim of Stamford Raffles to rank in the front group of English statesmen.
We may well ask ourselves in conclusion, whether in these days of checks and counter-checks upon individual initiative, when democratic institutions and interdependent councils combine with the telegraph to render it difficult to fasten responsibility on any one short of some ill-defined central authority, it is possible for such men as Stamford Raffles to obtain and to turn to account the opportunities that fall to their lot for the national aggrandisement. And if the individual statesman and soldier cannot obtain the chance, how is this Empire to be carried on, how are the triumphs of the past to be repeated in the future history of the world? With, however, the example and career fresh in our minds of this great man, this buoyant English statesman, who would have said, in the words of Shakespeare, “Come the three corners of the world in arms, and we shall shock them,” doubt and fear would be out of place. Not of such as Raffles was Tennyson’s mind full when he wrote the lines –
“Pray God our greatness may not fail
Through craven fears of being great.”
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Excerpt From Life Of Sir Stamford Raffles I
By peace | August 13, 2008
Excerpt From Life Of Sir Stamford Raffles - Clouds and Death
Raffles had never been physically a strong man, and the little strength he possessed had been so sapped by the sustained and indefatigable labours which he undertook in the course of his public duty, that it is not surprising to find that his health was bad, and a constant source of anxiety to his relatives after his final return in 1824. He had never complained at that time of the effect of that climate which proved fatal to his first wife, his children, and his best friends — one after another; but, none the less, it told its tale on him. It was not merely in repeated attacks of illness that this was shown, but in the difficulty of writing. His hand became cramped, and he suffered from pains in the head. His active and comprehensive mind was full of great schemes, but he had not the physical strength to carry them out.
There is no doubt that Sir Stamford Raffles was a man of a delicate and sensitive mind, as well as of a precarious constitution.
The story of the last eighteen months of the life of Sir Stamford Raffles is a sad one; and there has seldom, if ever, been a case of a man, who had done so much for his country, passing away under such a cloud of varied misfortunes as befell him, without a contributory act of his own. His courage and eagle spirit would no doubt have enabled him to bear up under these trials, and to have triumphed, as he had done before, over all opponents; but successive attacks, premonitory of the malady that killed him, sapped his vigour, and exhausted, with each fresh effort, the remaining powers of his body.
The following extracts from his correspondence with Dr Raffles will show the reader how much he suffered during the last year of his life. On the 24th May 1825, he wrote: “Thank God I can return a tolerably satisfactory answer to your kind inquiry by saying, that though still rather weak and nervous, I am again getting about. My attack was sudden and unexpected, but fortunately was not apoplectic, as was at first feared. I was inanimate for about an hour, but on being bled, got better, and have had no return”; and again on 6th June, he wrote:”This last attack has so shaken my confidence and nerves, that I have hardly spirit at the present moment to enter upon public life, and prudence dictates the necessity of my keeping as quiet as I can until I completely re-establish my health.” On the 10th Novemeber in the same year, he wrote:”I have been confined to my bed the whole of the day with one of my most violent headaches”, and on the 7th February 1826 he said,”I have, upon the whole, very much improved in my general health than I have enjoyed since my return to England… I have, however, had, and still have, a good many annoyances and inquietudes, which have occasionally disturbed my peace of mind, owing to the misconduct and distresses of friends; but I hope these will soon be over.”
The Gentleman’s Magazine, for July 1826, gives the following particulars of Sir Stamford’s death, which occurred early in the morning of the 5th of that month, the day before his forty-fifth birthday,”He had passed the preceding day in the bosom of his family, and excepting a bilious attack under which he had laboured for some days, there was ntohing in his appearance to create the least apprehension that the fatal hour was so near. Sir Stamford had retired to rest on the Tuesday evening (4th July) between ten and eleven o’clock, his usual hour when in the country. On the following morning at 5 0′clock, it being discovered that he had left his room before the time at which he generally rose, 6 0′clock, Lady Raffles immediately rose, and found him lying at the bottom of a flight of stairs in a state of complete insensibility. Medical aid was promptly procured, and every means resorted to, to restore animation, but the vital spark had fled. The body was opened, under the direction of Sir Everard Home, the same day, who pronounced his death to have been caused by an apoplectic attack, beyond the control of all human power. It was likewise apparent that the sufferings of the decesased must, for some time past, have been most intense.” In the course of an appreciative notice the writer concludes as follows:” Considered as a whole, the character of the late Sir T. Stamford Raffles displays little, if anything, to censure, and much to applaud. His name will live in British History, not among warriors, but among the benefactors of mankind, as a philanthropist and statesman of the very first eminence.”
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