Excerpts

One Feed the Hungry "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." As these words make clear, Mother ­Teresa's sensibility to the hungry is evident in the way she was moved by her direct contact with them. She was stirred in the depths of her heart by her encounter with those suffering real physical hunger, as is clear especially in the way she recounted the stories of her experiences with the hungry. These experiences began when she was a child. Her mother had accustomed her and her siblings to serve and look after people from the street. When she witnessed hunger (or any other need of the poor) her reaction was "We have to do something about it." She then did anything possible (and at times also the nearly impossible) in order to bring food to the hungry. At times, she tried to literally "move the world" to provide food for those who were starving. Hunger may be something that is remote from our experience or from our immediate surroundings. Maybe we "meet" the poor who suffer hunger only through the disturbing reports about some faraway disaster. However, if we "open our eyes to see," as Mother Teresa challenges us to do, we might encounter many more people suffering from having their basic need for sustenance unmet. Mother Teresa is known not for setting up great programs that resolve world hunger (worthy and necessary as they are) but for "feeding the hungry," one by one, one at a time. Yet in doing so she made a great difference first in the lives of these individuals, and ultimately in the world. There is another type of hunger that Mother Teresa began to speak of, especially after opening her houses in the West. She often repeated that people are "not only hungry for bread but hungry for love." Though suffering from this need is not commonly referred to as poverty, she realized that this type of poverty was "so much more difficult to remove." Thus it was also this "hunger for love" that she wanted to alleviate. She challenged her sisters, "You are meant to be that love and compassion to the people here [in the West]." 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 hurtful and so much, and I find that very difficult. Our sisters are working amongst that kind of people in the West. Finally, Mother Teresa found another type of hunger, in countries both poor and rich, among people of all classes and religious backgrounds. "People are hungry for God," she used to say. This reality of "spiritual hunger," which she experienced deeply and encountered wherever she went, she addressed in a simple and timely manner. She wanted to be "God's love, His compassion, His presence" wherever she went, so that people looking at her might come to know the God whom she wished to reflect. HER WORDS It's Because He Loved Before [Jesus] taught the people, He had pity on the multitude, and He fed them. He made a miracle. He blessed the bread, and He fed five thousand people. It's because He loved the people. He had pity on them. He saw the hunger in their faces and He fed them. And only then He taught them.1 More than ever people want to see love in action through our humble works--­how necessary it is for us to be in love with Jesus--­to be able to feed Him in the hungry and the lonely. How pure our eyes and hearts must be to see Him in the poor. How clean our hands must be to touch Him in the poor with love and compassion. How clean our words must be to be able to proclaim the Good News to the poor.2 The Pain of Hunger Some time ago one woman came with her child to me and said, "Mother, I went to two, three places to beg some food, for we have not eaten for three days but they told me that I am young and I must work and eat. No one gave me anything." I went to get some food and by the time I returned the baby in her hand had died of hunger. I hope it was not our convents that refused her.3 We all speak of the terrible hunger. What I have seen in Ethiopia, what I have seen in other places, especially these days in places like Ethiopia, the people in hundreds and thousands are facing death just for [lack of] a piece of bread, for [lack of] a glass of water. People have died in my own hands. And yet we forget, why they and not we? Let us love again, so let us share, let us pray that this terrible suffering be removed from our people.4 The pain of hunger is terrible and that is where you and I must come and give until it hurts. I want you to give until it hurts. And this giving is love of God in action. Hunger is not only for bread, hunger is for love.5 The other day I picked up a child in Calcutta. From her dark eyes I saw she was hungry. And I gave her some bread and she was eating crumb by crumb. I told her, "Eat the bread, you are hungry."6 I asked her why she eats so slowly. She replied: "I am afraid to eat faster. When I finish this piece, soon I will be hungry again." I told her: "Eat faster then I will give you more." That small child already knows the pain of hunger. "I am afraid." See--­we don't know. As you can see we do not know what hunger is. We do not know how it is to feel pain because of hunger. I have seen small children dying for [lack of] a cup of milk. I have seen mothers in awful pain because children were dying in their own hands out of hunger. Don't forget! I am not asking for money. I want you to give of your sacrifice. I want you to sacrifice something you like, something you would like to have for yourself. . . . One day a very poor lady came to our house. She said: "Mother, I want to help but I am very poor. I am going from house to house to wash other people's clothes every day. I need to feed my children, but I want to do something. Please, let me come every Saturday to wash your children's clothes for a half an hour." This woman gave me more than thousands of rupees because she has given me her heart completely.7 This morning I went to see the cardinal of Marseille, who is in charge of Cor Unum, to ask [them] to send food for our people in Africa. There is great poverty in Africa. The other day our sisters wrote that the people just come in front of our gate for food and many of them died of hunger. If the situation continues like now, many are in danger of death; children are dying in the arms of their mothers--­what a terrible suffering. So I went to this cardinal to ask if he could send some food to our sisters. He was very nice; he told me that until our sisters went, they were not aware of the presence of the poor.8 Love, to Be True, Has to Hurt 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 has 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 [a Muslim family]are hungry also." What struck me most that she knew, and who are they? A Muslim family. And she knew. And I did not 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 their 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.9 Love, to be true, has to hurt and this woman who was hungry--­she knew that her neighbor was also hungry, and that family happened to be a Mohammedan family. So it was so touching, so real. This is where we are most unjust to our poor--­we don't know them. We don't know them--­how great they are, how lovable they are, how hungry they are for that understanding love.10 We have another word, free. I cannot charge anything for the work I do. People criticize us and say ugly things because of this word, free. The other day I read in one article, written by [a priest], that charity is like a drug for the poor--­that when we give the people things free, it is like giving them drugs. I've decided that I will write to him and ask him: "Why did Jesus have pity on the people?" He must have drugged them also when He fed them by the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. He came to give Good News to the people but when He saw that they were hungry and tired, He fed them first. One more question that I'm going to ask him, "Did you ever feel the hunger of the poor?"11 You know we cook for thousands of people in Calcutta. It happened one day that a sister came to me and said, "Mother, we have nothing to cook." It had never happened before. Then, at nine o'clock a truck arrived, full of bread. The government had closed the schools for the day and sent us the bread. See again, God's concern. He even closed the schools, but He would not let the hungry ones die--­that tenderness and concern of God.12 We Want to Serve The other day a Gujarati family came to Dum Dum13 where we have crippled people and undernourished children and TB patients. This family, the whole family, came with cooked food. Once upon a time people would never think of going near to these people. When they came I told the sisters to go and help them in the serving. [To] my surprise they said, "Mother, we want to serve by ourselves." For them it is a great thing, for they become unclean. This is our privilege. Some of them were even old. Nothing prevented them; unbelievable for a Hindu family to say and to do such things.14 Together, We Can Do Something Beautiful for God Love is for today; programs are for the future. We are for today; when tomorrow will come we shall see what we can do. Somebody is thirsty for water for today, hungry for food for today. Tomorrow we will not have them if we don't feed them today. So be concerned with what you can do today.15 I never get mixed up in what governments should or should not do. Instead of spending time [on] those questions I say, "let me do [something] now." Tomorrow may never come--­our people may be dead by tomorrow. So today they need a slice of bread and a cup of tea; I give it to them today. Somebody was finding fault with the work and said, "Why do you always give them the fish to eat? Why don't you give them the rod to catch the fish?" So I said, "Our people, they cannot even stand properly on account of hunger and disease, still less, would they be able to hold a rod to catch the fish. But I will keep on giving them the fish to eat and when they are strong enough and they can stand on their feet, I will hand them over to you and you give them the rod to catch the fish." And I think this is the sharing. This is where we need each other. It's where what we can do, you may not be able to do. But what you can do, we cannot do. But if we put these two works together, there can be something beautiful for God.16 The other day again, a group of Hindu schoolchildren came from very far. All the first and second prize-­winners went and asked the headmistress to give the money instead of the prizes. So she put all the money in an envelope and gave it to them. Then they all asked: "Now take us to Mother Teresa: we want to give the money to her poor people." Now see how wonderful it was that they did not use that money for themselves. Because we have created this awareness, the whole world wants to share with the poor. Whenever I accept money or an award or anything, I always take it in the name of the poor, whom they recognize in me. I think I am right, because after all what am I? I am nothing. It is the poor whom they recognize in me that they want to give to, because they see what we do. Today people in the world want to see.17 Tremendous Hunger for Love In Ethiopia and in India hundreds of people are coming and dying just there for [lack of] a piece of bread. In Rome and London and places like that people die of loneliness and bitterness.18 You see, we have a wrong idea that only hunger for bread is hunger. There is much greater hunger and much more painful hunger: hunger for love, for the feeling of being wanted, to be somebody to somebody. A feeling of being unwanted, unloved, rejected. I think that's a very great hunger and very great poverty.19 We have houses all over Europe and the United States and other places where there is no hunger for a piece of bread. But there's a tremendous hunger for love, a feeling of being unwanted, unloved, shut in, rejected, forgotten. There are people who have forgotten what is a human smile, what is a human touch. I think that is very, very great poverty. . . . And it is very difficult to remove that poverty while [satisfying that] hunger for a piece of bread, or nakedness for a piece of cloth, for a home made of bricks . . . , I think that's the much greater poverty, much greater disease, much greater painful situation of today.20 Another time I was walking through the streets of London in a poor area where our sisters also work. I saw a man in a truly terrible condition sitting there looking so sad and alone. So I walked up to him and took him by the hand and asked him how he was. When I did this he looked up at me and said, "Oh, after such a long time, I feel the warmth of a human hand. After such a long time, someone is touching me." And then his eyes brightened, and he started to sit up straight. Such a tiny attention had brought Jesus into his life. He had been waiting so long for a show of human love, but it was actually a show of God's love. These are beautiful examples of the hunger I see in these people, the poorest of the poor, the ignorant and unwanted, the unloved, the rejected, and the forgotten. They are hungry for God. This is something you priests must meet continually; not only a hunger in people suffering physically, but also a great hunger in people suffering spiritually and emotionally--­people suffering in their hearts and souls, especially young people.21 Terrible Hunger for the Word of God "Where is that hunger in our country?" Yes, there is hunger. Maybe not the hunger for a piece of bread, but there is a terrible hunger for love. There is a terrible hunger for the word of God. I will never forget when we went to Mexico, and we went visiting very poor families. And those people we saw had scarcely anything in their homes, and yet nobody asked for anything. They all asked us: "Teach us the word of God. Give us the word of God." They were hungry for the word of God. Here, too, in the whole world there is a hunger for God, among the young especially. And it is there that we must find Jesus and satisfy that hunger.22 HER EXAMPLE: The Testimonies We Carried Food on Our Heads and Waded Through the Water In 1968 there was a big flood in Calcutta. We went in our truck at night to give food to the people affected by the flood in Tiljala. We carried food on our heads and waded through the water. At one moment the flood current almost carried Sr. Agnes away and so we sent her back to the truck. We were drenched to the skin and freezing. When we returned home at three a.m. Mother was waiting for us at the gate. She had kept hot water for all of us to bathe and a nice strong cup of hot coffee to make us warm. We were very touched by Mother's tender loving care for us her children.23 Filling the Measuring Container Full and Pressing Mother joined us to make Christmas hampers for the poor. How I lifted up my mind to God seeing Mother filling the measuring container full and pressing. You could hear voices, "Mother, we have yet so many hampers to make." "God will send" was the reply. Piles of hampers, we were not short. Mother's faith and trust in God was something living, had become part of herself, one could sense it; yes, one could see Mother had a close Friend, powerful and faithful, working with her all the time. Mother's principle: give what He takes and take what He gives with a big smile. No doubt it was hard for me, yet when done generously it became a touch of God's love.24 Others Hesitated--­but Not Mother I was deeply touched, when millions of [refugees from Bangladesh] poured into India and for her numbers did not matter [i.e., did not discourage her]. She would somehow or other do it. She just said, "We will do what we can," while moving everything possible to get every possible priest, sister, to help her in this work. "Why, this is God's work. These children are suffering, they are dying. We have to do something about it." She went out there and she was concerned about getting enough bread, getting the food. She would call the Sisters aside, find out, try to get medical aid especially when the chicken-­pox epidemic broke out at the Salt Lake camp. There were two hundred thousand there at the time. She immediately had to find somebody to assist them. She was just thirsty, impatient to find out other ways to get more people to come and assist them. To me, I think this was another example of her deep love--­that she could embrace the whole world like the good "Mother" she was. At the time when the whole world was aghast at the influx of millions of refugees into India--­this little woman, so weak--­just went ahead to spur us on to help them. Her whole attitude being: if it is for Him, it can't fail. Others hesitated--­but not Mother.25 A Messenger of Peace in Beirut In August 1982 the violence in Beirut was at its height. Mother . . . arrived on August 15, at a time when the bombing and shelling were at their worst. She had often told others, "Let us not use bombs and guns to overcome the world but let us radiate the peace of God and extinguish all hatred and love of power in the world and in the hearts of all men." . . . Mother found the sisters safe in Mar Takla in East Beirut. Mother came to know through the Red Cross that there were children mentally and physically ill in an asylum in West Beirut. Bombs had damaged the home and the children suffered from dire neglect. Upon hearing this news and despite repeated reminders from Church leaders as to how unsafe the situation was, Mother . . . was determined to take the children out of danger. . . . However, because there was open firing, she could not cross the Green Line into West Beirut to do so. In her great faith she prayed for a cease-­fire. And it happened! With an unexpected cease-­fire in place, Mother traveled (carrying the Blessed Sacrament on her person) with four Red Cross vehicles and rescued the thirty-­eight severely mentally retarded and crippled children. She helped the Red Cross and hospital workers to carry them one by one to the vehicles and then set off from there to Mar Takla convent. Two days later, Mother again crossed the Green Line to evacuate another twenty-­seven children. . . . Clothes, food, and other supplies came from neighboring people. . . . Twelve-­year-­olds were so malnourished that they looked like five-­year-­olds. They were like little animals, eating whatever they could reach (e.g., nappies and bedding). They even tried to eat each other. To cure their diarrhea and at the same time prevent them from eating up the rubber bedding, I hung pieces of toasted bread around their cot sides. There was no water or electricity but slowly help started to arrive. . . . By November the children had improved so much. . . . A sad ending for all of us was the day when the children had to be returned to the same hospital from where Mother had rescued them. . . . God's love once again had been blocked by man's greed for money, the government money grant provided for these children. It was a big disappointment to Mother. Her hands were tied and she had to abandon them into God's mercy. As Mother said, "Do not allow yourself to be disheartened by any failure as long as you have done your best." I experienced from this situation in Beirut an example of how Mother was often the first to reach areas devastated by natural causes or human conflict. The need that arose spurred her on to take immediate action even at the risk of her own safety. This first of all brings out to me her heroic charity in such dangerous and impossible missions. Her trust in God was so great that there seemed to be nothing human that could come as an obstacle between His call and the fulfillment of it. The belief that God wanted her there seemed to enable a tremendous power to enter into her and so she arrived in Beirut and accomplished her mission against all "the prudent advice" given her.26 She Asked Not for Personal Needs When she came to Delhi, we were driving to the airport and the commander of the Indian Air Force had asked if it was possible for Mother to visit and bless him in his office, and she agreed to do this. And she [said] in the car, "What can the Air Force do for us?" One of us said, "Mother, there is nothing the Air Force can do. Maybe you can ask him if when there is a need, will he provide a helicopter for you to go to some rescue or on some humanitarian cause." So she said, "Helicopter?" We went in, met with the chief. She said, "By the way, can your army men"--­and it was the Air Force; she didn't make the connection--­"plant trees?" And he said, "Yes, Mother. Well, could you elaborate?" "Somebody has given us a property to develop a home for the needy. It will be wonderful if we have fruit trees where these people can have fruit, because fruit will be good for them." He said, "We will look into it." Later we prompted her on what she did ask! Well, it was Divine Providence, because the next day the Air Force sent some people. But there was no water in this place and there was no way of getting water. The Air Force ended up drilling three tube wells to irrigate the soil to plant the trees, and today there is an orchard there. Yes, she asked, but not for personal needs. Nobody would have thought of asking the Air Force commander to plant trees! But she kept herself open to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.27 Collect Leftover Food Mother asked for [the leftover] food not only in planes but also in hotels. That request was not for any show--­truly, with that extra food, a food fund for Mother's girls was formed. Part of the evening and morning meal at Dum Dum is given from Calcutta airport and extra food. The leftovers from "Flurys Bakery" is given to "Shanti Dan" as tiffin for one or two days in a week. Besides these, I have seen in Delhi that the extra food from the planes is used for the patients in their homes. The sisters collect all these things regularly. Sometimes the people from the airport also [deliver] the food to these centers.28 The Expense of the Dinner, a Gift for the Poor Sr. Agnes and I went with Mother to Oslo and witnessed her Nobel Prize speech. . . . Through all the ceremony and applause, Mother sat there quietly as if it was all for someone else. She accepted nothing but water at the reception after the ceremony. The banquet that usually followed had been canceled at Mother's request, and the expense of the dinner was given to Mother as a gift for the poor. . . . "I am myself unworthy of the prize. I do not want it, personally. But by this award the Norwegian people have recognized the existence of the poor. It is on their behalf that I have come."29 Love, to Be True, Has to Cost Mother used to love to tell of the sacrifices the poor made to her work "to share the joy of loving" through the sisters' works of charity. She told us about the Buddhist monks who visited her at Mother House and afterward imitated the Missionaries of Charity (MC) First Friday fast that Mother and the sisters make for the poor each first Friday of the month. The monks imitated the MC custom to sacrifice one meal and use the money to buy food for the poor. Those monks on their own decided not to eat their lunch one day and they saved that cost of the meal and brought the money to Mother, asking her to use it to buy food for the poor. Mother loved to share those stories, which reflected unexpected goodness and generosity, because she believed in that goodness within each individual. She just invited people to find it within themselves, and to share it with others. The benefactors who made a real sacrifice to give, Mother used to lift up as beautiful examples of love, because "Love, in order to be true, has to cost." Surely many good people gave her large donations for the poor, but Mother only told of the little people who make a real sacrifice in order to share--­just as Jesus Himself gave praise for the donation of a widow's few pennies to support the temple. One of Mother's favorite examples was of a beggar man out on the streets in front of Mother House who came up to her and pulled three rupees from under his rags and offered it as his contribution to Mother's work. She knew it was probably all he had, but she said she had to accept it in order to respect his sacrifice for others.30 When Mother came to visit us in Nairobi, some rich people brought very expensive cakes. Mother said, "Send it all to the patients and children." We sent all to them. Many times I have seen in her that courage to give up, to sacrifice. Mother was happy to give up, to sacrifice for love of Jesus.31 Do It Happily I used to go out on apostolate with Mother. We used to walk a great distance to take care of a crippled boy with tuberculosis named Nicholas. . . . He had two big bedsores; Mother used to clean and dress his wounds. . . . The family was very poor so Mother used to carry daily food for them. I used to be so tired and felt like crying every day, but Mother used to say, "We have to save souls and we must do it happily." I knew Mother was also tired, but she did not show it in any way. This we did for several years.32 With Due Dignity, Love, and Tender Care The way she fed people in the home for the dying was so edifying and so exemplary that she clearly did not treat them like recipients of her mercy, but rather she approached them with due dignity, love, and tender care. . . . Although there were so many people, she dealt with each one individually. She used to say that just as the priest handles the Body of Christ at the altar, so we who receive the Body of Jesus so respectfully, must also treat the broken bodies of the poor with the same respect and reverence.33 Have Faith in God I remember during the Indochina War, in Darjeeling all the roads to the plains were cut off. I did not know where I would get food for sixty children, fifty old people, the poor people who came for food, and the sisters. I phoned Mother and asked, "What shall we do?" Mother asked me, "Did you say the Our Father?" I said, "Yes"; then she told me, "Have faith in God." That was the last phone call I was able to make or needed to make. Suddenly people from the hills around knew that we had so many people to feed, brought us food, milk, and so many other things, that till the war was over, we had enough.34 As God Loves Them For Mother, Charity meant to love all people as God loves them. With Mother this was so outstanding, this love of neighbor. If they were in need of bodily care, she would do this first, clean them and feed them. And then she would take care of their souls. As Mother said, "On an empty stomach one can hardly think of God. Jesus fed the people." In Nirmal Hriday (Mother Teresa's Home for the Dying), Mother did just this. And seeing these acts of charity, the sick felt that Mother, in her love for them, Mother was [like] God.35 Don't Talk, Do Something About It There was a conference on World Hunger in India in 1987 and Mother was invited to speak. When we arrived at the side entrance of the building . . . there was a man on the ground. He was hungry and wanting something to eat. She said to me, "I'm going to take him home." We had a stretcher in the van, and I said I would take him, but she said no, that she was going to do it. She did this, which meant we got to the conference an hour and a half later. She said nothing about that at the time, didn't use this as an example, but here we are, it was a conference to eradicate hunger, and hunger was at the front door. Her attitude was always do one thing, one thing, one thing. At this conference I was assuring her, "You go in and I will look after him," because there were a million people on the roads in India, but that was the type of person she was; she had to look after this one person herself. She would say, "Don't talk, do something about it." There were lots of criticisms that she didn't speak to politicians. She said, "I'm a religious. I'm here to give Christ to that person."36 Mother Herself Would Go On one occasion, while I was in Calcutta as a first-­year novice, there was a big flood in Calcutta and we could not go out to the poor families because the land was flooded above the knee. We went with Mother to distribute bread to the hungry and the poor. People could not pass the street because of the water, but Mother in her great and tender love for God and his poor went down into the water and started giving bread to the hungry; because for her it was Jesus who was hungry. And Mother didn't allow us novices to go down into the water. But Mother did that heroic act of love of God until it hurt.37 At times a poor person came and they would say to Mother, "Mother, I have not eaten today." Mother would sit them down in the parlor and call me to bring food. If I was not there, Mother herself would go to the cupboard and get food. She was always concerned about the poor people.38 Never Send Away a Hungry Person She taught us never to send away a hungry person even if you have nothing. Mother said, "Give them your smile and a word of comfort." . . . Wherever Mother opened a house, people, both rich and poor, came flocking from every denomination and asked if they could help the poor. Mother never ordered them nor demanded any help. All she said was "Give whatever you can, and if you have nothing, do not worry; give your hands to serve and hearts to love. By helping others, you will be rewarded with peace and joy."39 People Were More Hungry for God The first foundation in Albania was made in Tirana on March 2, 1991. Mother immediately found out that the country was empty of everything. People were not only hungry for material things, but more hungry for God. It was a state of emergency--­work must start immediately. Mother got back many churches that had been used as cinema halls, stadiums, storehouses, etc., from the government. She went to the central mosque where sick and homeless people were sheltered, opened the gate, and took them to our second house in Tirana, and handed the mosque over to the Muslim imam.40 REFLECTION "I was hungry and you gave me food." (Mt 25:35) "Today they are hungry--­tomorrow it may be too late."41 "Today, the poor are hungry--­for bread and rice--­and for love and the living word of God."42 Am I able to recognize a "hungry" person in my family, community, parish, neighborhood, city (or even farther away) and find a way to offer some relief of that hunger (material help, a simple gesture of my love and kindness, God's word)? Could I fast in solidarity with those who suffer hunger or join a volunteer program at a local charity? I will express my gratitude to God for the food I receive through His Providence by praying before and after meals. Also I will not waste food, remembering those who go without. PRAYER Make us worthy, Lord, to serve our fellow men throughout the world, who live and die in poverty and hunger. Give them through our hands, this day, their daily bread, and by our understanding love, give peace and joy. --­Blessed Pope Paul VI Excerpted from A Call to Mercy: Hearts to Love, Hands to Serve by Mother Teresa of Calcutta All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.