THis is long but worth it.
Edward W. Desmond in 1989 for Time magazine > >..................... > >Time: What did you do this morning? > >Mother Teresa: Pray. > >Time: When did you start? > >Mother Teresa: Half-past four > >Time: And after prayer > >Mother Teresa: We try to pray through our work by doing it with >Jesus, for Jesus, to Jesus. That helps us to put our whole heart and soul >into doing it. The dying, the cripple, the mental, the unwanted, the >unloved >they are Jesus in disguise. > >Time: People know you as a sort of religious social worker. Do they >understand the spiritual basis of your work? > >Mother Teresa: I don't know. But I give them a chance to come and >touch the poor. Everybody has to experience that. So many young people give >up everything to do just that. This is something so completely unbelievable >in the world, no? And yet it is wonderful. Our volunteers go back different >people. > >Time: Does the fact that you are a woman make your message more >understandable? > >Mother Teresa: I never think like that. > >Time: But don't you think the world responds better to a mother? > >Mother Teresa: People are responding not because of me, but because >of what we're doing. Before, people were speaking much about the poor, but >now more and more people are speaking to the poor. That's the great >difference. The work has created this. The presence of the poor is known >now, especially the poorest of the poor, the unwanted, the loved, the >uncared-for. Before, nobody bothered about the people in the street. We >have picked up from the streets of Calcutta 54,000 people, and 23,000 >something have died in that one room [at Kalighat]. > >Time: Why have you been so successful? > >Mother Teresa: Jesus made Himself the bread of life to give us life. >That's where we begin the day, with Mass. And we end the day with Adoration >of the Blessed Sacrament. I don't think that I could do this work for even >one week if I didn't have four hours of prayer every day. > >Time: Humble as you are, it must be an extraordinary thing to be a >vehicle of God's grace in the world. > >Mother Teresa: But it is His work. I think God wants to show His >greatness by using nothingness. > >Time: You are nothingness? > >Mother Teresa: I'm very sure of that. > >Time: You feel you have no special qualities? > >Mother Teresa: I don't think so. I don't claim anything of the work. >It's His work. I'm like a little pencil in His hand. That's all. He does >the >thinking. He does the writing. The pencil has nothing to do it. The pencil >has only to be allowed to be used. In human terms, the success of our work >should not have happened, no? That is a sign that it's His work, and that >He >is using others as instruments - all our Sisters. None of us could produce >this. Yet see what He has done. > >Time: What is God's greatest gift to you? > >Mother Teresa: The poor people. > >Time: How are they a gift? > >Mother Teresa: I have an opportunity to be with Jesus 24 hours a >day. > >Time: Here in Calcutta, have you created a real change? > >Mother Teresa: I think so. People are aware of the presence and also >many, many, many Hindu people share with us. They come and feed the people >and they serve the people. Now we never see a person lying there in the >street dying. It has created a worldwide awareness of the poor. > >Time: Beyond showing the poor to the world, have you conveyed any >message about how to work with the poor? > >Mother Teresa: You must make them feel loved and wanted. They are >Jesus for me. I believe in that much more than doing big things for them. > >Time: What's your greatest hope here in India? > >Mother Teresa: To give Jesus to all. > >Time: But you do not evangelize in the conventional sense of the >term. > >Mother Teresa: I'm evangelizing by my works of love. > >Time: Is that the best way? > >Mother Teresa: For us, yes. For somebody else, something else. I'm >evangelizing the way God wants me to. Jesus said go and preach to all the >nations. We are now in so many nations preaching the Gospel by our works of >love. "By the love that you have for one another will they know you are my >disciples." That's the preaching that we are doing, and I think that is >more >real. > >Time: Friends of yours say that you are disappointed that your work >has not brought more conversions in this great Hindu nation. > >Mother Teresa: Missionaries don't think of that. They only want to >proclaim the Word of God. Numbers have nothing to do with it. But the >people >are putting prayer into action by coming and serving the people. >Continually >people are coming to feed and serve, so many, you go and see. Everywhere >people are helping. We don't know the future. But the door is already open >to Christ. There may not be a big conversion like that, but we don't know >what is happening in the soul. > >Time: What do you think of Hinduism? > >Mother Teresa: I love all religions, but I am in love with my own. >No discussion. That's what we have to prove to them. Seeing what I do, they >realize that I am in love with Jesus. > >Time: And they should love Jesus too? > >Mother Teresa: Naturally, if they want peace, if they want joy, let >them find Jesus. If people become better Hindus, better Moslems, better >Buddhists by our acts of love, then there is something else growing there. >They come closer and closer to God. When they come closer, they have to >choose. > >Time: You and John Paul II, among other Church leaders, have spoken >out against certain lifestyles in the West, against materialism and >abortion. How alarmed are you? > >Mother Teresa: I always say one thing: If a mother can kill her own >child, then what is left of the West to be destroyed? It is difficult to >explain , but it is just that. > >Time: When you spoke at Harvard University a few years ago, you said >abortion was a great evil and people booed. What did you think when people >booed you? > >Mother Teresa: I offered it to our Lord. It's all for Him, no? I let >Him say what He wants. > >Time: But these people who booed you would say that they also only >want the best for women? > >Mother Teresa: That may be. But we must tell the truth. > >Time: And that is? > >Mother Teresa: We have no right to kill. Thou shalt not kill, a >commandment of God. And still should we kill the helpless one, the little >one? You see we get so excited because people are throwing bombs and so >many >are being killed. For the grown ups, there is so much excitement in the >world. But that little one in the womb, not even a sound? He cannot even >escape. That child is the poorest of the poor. > >Time: Is materialism in the West an equally serious problem? > >Mother Teresa: I don't know. I have so many things to think about. I >pray lots about that, but I am not occupied by that. Take our congregation >for example, we have very little, so we have nothing to be preoccupied >with. >The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the >less you have the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is not >a mortification, a penance. It is joyful freedom. There is no television >here, no this, no that. This is the only fan in the whole house. It doesn't >matter how hot it is, and it is for the guests. But we are perfectly happy. > >Time: How do you find rich people then? > >Mother Teresa: I find the rich much poorer. Sometimes they are more >lonely inside. They are never satisfied. They always need something more. I >don't say all of them are like that. Everybody is not the same. I find that >poverty hard to remove. The hunger for love is much more difficult to >remove >than the hunger for bread. > >Time: What is the saddest place you've ever visited? > >Mother Teresa: I don't know. I can't remember. It's a sad thing to >see people suffer., especially the broken family, unloved, uncared for. >It's >a big sadness; it's always the children who suffer most when there is no >love in the family. That's a terrible suffering. Very difficult because you >can do nothing. That is the great poverty. You feel helpless. But if you >pick up a person dying of hunger, you give him food and it is finished. > >Time: Why has your order grown so quickly? > >Mother Teresa: When I ask young people why they want to join us, >they say they want the life of prayer, the life of poverty and the life of >service to the poorest of the poor. One very rich girl wrote to me and said >for a very long time she had been longing to become a nun. When she met us, >she said I won't have to give up anything even if I give up everything. You >see, that is the mentality of the young today. We have many vocations. > >Time: There's been some criticism of the very severe regimen under >which you and your Sisters live. > >Mother Teresa: We chose that. That is the difference between us and >the poor. Because what will bring us closer to our poor people? How can we >be truthful to them if we lead a different life? If we have everything >possible that money can give, that the world can give, then what is our >connection to the poor? What language will I speak to them? Now if the >people tell me it is so hot, I can say you come and see my room. > >Time: Just as hot? > >Mother Teresa: Much hotter even, because there is a kitchen >underneath. A man came and stayed here as a cook at the children's home. He >was rich before and became very poor. Lost everything. He came and said, >"Mother Teresa, I cannot eat that food." I said, "I am eating it every >day." >He looked at me and said, "You eat it too? All right, I will eat it also." >And he left perfectly happy. Now if I could not tell him the truth, that >man >would have remained bitter. He would never have accepted his poverty. He >would never have accepted to have that food when he was used to other kinds >of food. That helped him to forgive, to forget. > >Time: What's the most joyful place that you have ever visited? > >Mother Teresa: Kalighat. When the people die in peace, in the love >of God, it is a wonderful thing. To see our poor people happy together with >their families, these are beautiful things. The real poor know what is joy. > >Time: There are people who would say that it's an illusion to think >of the poor as joyous, that they must be given housing, raised up. > >Mother Teresa: The material is not the only thing that gives joy. >Something greater than that, the deep sense of peace in the heart. They are >content. That is the great difference between rich and poor. > >Time: But what about those people who are oppressed? Who are taken >advantage of? > >Mother Teresa: There will always be people like that. That is why we >must come and share the joy of loving with them. > >Time: Should the Church's role be just to make the poor as joyous in >Christ as they can be made? > >Mother Teresa: You and I, we are the Church, no? We have to share >with our people. Suffering today is because people are hoarding, not >giving, >not sharing. Jesus made it very clear. Whatever you do to the least of my >brethren, you do it to me. Give a glass of water, you give it to me. >Receive >a little child, you receive me. Clear. > >Time: If you speak to a political leader who could do more for his >people, do you tell him that he must do better? > >Mother Teresa: I don't say it like that. I say share the joy of >loving with your people. Because a politician maybe cannot do the feeding >as >I do. But he should be clear in his mind to give proper rules and proper >regulations to help his people. > >Time: It is my job to keep politicians honest, and your job to share >joy with the poor. > >Mother Teresa: Exactly. And it is to be for the good of the people >and the glory of God. This will be really fruitful. Like a man says to me >that you are spoiling the people by giving them fish to eat. You have to >give them a rod to catch the fish. And I said my people cannot even stand, >still less hold a rod. But I will give them the fish to eat, and when they >are strong enough, I will hand them over to you. And you give them the rod >to catch the fish. That is a beautiful combination, no? > >Time: Feminist Catholic nuns sometimes say that you should pour your >energy into getting the Vatican to ordain women. > >Mother Teresa: That does not touch me. > >Time: What do you think of the feminist movement among nuns in the >West? > >Mother Teresa: I think we should be more busy with our Lord than >with all that, more busy with Jesus and proclaiming His Word. What a woman >can give, no man can give. That is why God has created them separately. >Nuns, women, any woman. Woman is created to be the heart of the family, the >heart of love. If we miss that, we miss everything. They give that love in >the family or they give it in service, that is what their creation is for. > >Time: The world wants to know more about you. > >Mother Teresa: No, no. Let them come to know the poor. I want them >to love the poor. I want them to try to find the poor in their own families >first, to bring peace and joy and love in the family first. > >Time: Malcolm Muggeridge once said that if you had not become a >Sister and not found Christ's love, you would be a very hard woman. Do you >think that is true? > >Mother Teresa: I don't know. I have no time to think about these >things. > >Time: People who work with you say that you are unstoppable. You >always get what you want. > >Mother Teresa: That's right. All for Jesus. > >Time: And if they have a problem with that? > >Mother Teresa: For example, I went to a person recently who would >not give me what I needed. I said God bless you, and I went on. He called >me back and said what would you say if I give you that thing. I said I will >give you a "God bless you" and a big smile. That is all. So he said then >come, I will give it to you. We must live the simplicity of the Gospel. > >Time: You once met Haile Mariam Mengistu, the much feared communist >leader of Ethiopia and an avowed atheist. You asked him if he said his >prayers. Why did you risk that? > >Mother Teresa: He is one more child of God. When I went to China, >one of the top officials asked me, "What is a communist to you?" I said, "A >child of God." Then the next morning the newspapers reported that Mother >Teresa said communists are children of God. I was happy because after a >long, long time the name God was printed in the papers in China. Beautiful. > >Time: Are you ever afraid? > >Mother Teresa: No.1 am only afraid of offending God. We are all >human beings, that is our weakness, no? The devil would do anything to >destroy us, to take us away from Jesus. > >Time: Where do you see the devil at work? > >Mother Teresa: Everywhere. When a person is longing to come closer >to God he puts temptation in the way to destroy the desire. Sin comes >everywhere, in the best of places. > >Time: What is your greatest fear? > >Mother Teresa: I have Jesus, I have no fear. > >Time: What is your greatest disappointment? > >Mother Teresa: I do the will of God, no? In doing the will of God >there is no disappointment. > >Time: Do your work and spiritual life become easier with time? > >Mother Teresa: Yes, the closer we come to Jesus, the more we become >the work. Because you know to whom you are doing it, with whom you are >doing >it and for whom you are doing it. That is very clear. That is why we need a >clean heart to see God. > >Time: What are your plans for the future? > >Mother Teresa: I just take one day. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has >not come. We have only today to love Jesus. > >Time: And the future of the order? > >Mother Teresa: It is His concern. _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com **************************************************************** This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to this mailing list, visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet For automatic help, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] ****************************************************************
