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 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 the 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 expressed 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.

Prayer of St. Francis

     Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. where there is hatred let
     me sow love, where there is injury let me sow pardon, where there is
     doubt let me sow faith, where there is despair let me give hope, where
     there is darkness let me give light, Where there is sadness let me give
     joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not try to be comforted but to
     comfort, not try to be understood but to understand, not try to be loved
     but to love. Because it is in giving that we receive, it is in forgiving that
     we are forgiven, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

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 that good news is 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 that 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 no
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 and to be loved, and God has become man to make it
possible for us to love as He loved 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, comfort- able 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 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 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 there to be with them, or do we merely put
them in the care of others? 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 the 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, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility
at all for the child he has brought into the world. That 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 gift 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 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 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 are touching the body of Christ and we are always in his
presence.

You too 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 there 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!