When Mother Teresa came to this country for the first time, she said:
“I suppose that some of you are feeling that you would have to buy a plane ticket and travel to India if you were to give effective help to the poor. There is no need. The poor are right here in your own country. In the third world, there is often a famine of the stomach due to the lack of food, but the people are rich in love. They share what little they have with one another. In developed nations like yours, there is an abundance of food. But there is often a famine of the heart due to a lack of love. The victims of this famine of love are the new poor. And who are these poor people? They are the people sitting next to you”.
Why is their a famine of love in developed countries? The answer is simple and clear: we have become so selfish.
Today, Americans tend to be so isolated and self-centered. Many talk feverishly on cell phones, but never stop to say hello to the person next to them. Many are consumed with Internet chat rooms, but they have never say a word to the person living next door to them. Many are living in a narcissistic fantasy world, never having time for the children that they brought into this world. Many married people recklessly do all that they can to limit the number of children that God may be calling them to bring into this world, selfishly closing themselves off to the gift of life.
Jesus gave us the solution to selfishness: “Love one another as I have loved you”.
Here is what Mother Teresa had to say: “Let us bring peace into the world by love and compassion, by respecting life, the most beautiful gift of God. Let us love each person – the unborn, the young, the old, the sick and the poor – with the same love with which God loves each one of us, a tender and personal love”.
Christmas is the celebration of God’s unconditional love for you and for me. “God so loved the world, that he gave us his only Son; not to condemn the world, but to save it” (John 3: 16)... (Continued here.)
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