Someone once said that the greatest of all diseases is to be nobody to anybody.
To love your neighbor is an obligation. A world without love can only be termed a desert even if it is entirely a forest.
There was once a person who dared to love; someone who stood for love all through life.
This person called loneliness and being unwanted the most terrible of all the forms of poverty. This person noted that the hunger for love is much harder to satisfy than the hunger for food.
This person is Mother Teresa. She was an incredibly courageous woman who was not unduly concerned with what others thought of her. She stood for values and never compromised on her core beliefs no matter how hard the going got. She was never the type to say anything just to be diplomatic or to soothe anyone’s ego.
In the year 1997, in the presence of thousands of people, and with the U.S. President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton on stage, she courageously raised her voice against legalized abortion. She termed abortion to be the biggest killer of peace in the world. She asked how one could reasonably expect people to refrain from murdering one another when a mother was allowed to snuff out her own child’s life.
Mother Teresa was also firm in her opposition to the death penalty. In 1990, seven years before her death, Robert Harris, a prisoner, was sentenced to be executed. Mother Teresa contacted the governor of California and urged him to have mercy on the condemned man. The governor stated that his hands were tied and that to grant clemency to the condemned man would be contrary to the law of the land. Mother Teresa implored him to do what Jesus would do if he were handling the situation. The governor tried to reason with her, but Mother Teresa remained firm.
Although the execution eventually happened, this episode exemplifies Mother Teresa’s strength of character.
Mother Teresa was very clear about one thing. She was not a social worker but a Catholic nun, and wherever she went, she put the faith first. She helped thousands of terminally sick street people die a peaceful death surrounded by love. The last thing that bothered her was the allegation of right-wing fundamentalist groups that her work was a cover for the conversion of people to Catholicism.
Many people speak and give great discourses, but very few walk the talk. Mother Teresa was one of them.
Let’s take a leaf out of Mother Teresa’s life and make a courageous stand for the causes that are dear to us.
Sometimes, courage looks like being honest to ourselves about the things we believe in.
Have a day filled with love and light.