"You Did It to Me"

On December 11, 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Here follows an excerpt of her message that day.

"Jesus makes Himself the hungry one, the naked one, the homeless one, the sick one, the one in prison, the lonely one, the unwanted one, and He says: "You did it to Me." He is hungry for our love, and this is the hunger of our poor people. This is the hunger that you and I must find, it may be in our own home...

I...[visited] a home where they had all these old parents...I saw in that home they had everything...but everybody was looking towards the door...And I turned to the sister and I asked..."How is i that these people who have everything here, why are they all looking towards the door, why are they not smiling?" I am so used to the smiles on our poor people, even the dying ones smile. And she said: "This is nearly every day...They are hurt because they are forgotten."...This is where love comes...Maybe in our own family we have somebody who is feeling lonely, who is feeling sick, who is feeling worried...Are we there to receive them?...

I was surprised in the West to see so many young boys and girls given into drugs, and I tried to find out why..."Because there is no one in the family to receive them." Father and mother are so busy they have no time...The child goes back to the street and gets involved in something...These are things that break peace.

But I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a direct war, a direct killing, direct murder by the mother herself. And we read in the Scripture, For God says very clearly: "Even if a mother could forget her child, I will not forget you. I have carved you in the palm of my hand."...That unborn child has been carved in the hand of God...

Many people are very, very concerned with children in India, with the children of Africa where quite a number die, maybe of malnutrition, of hunger and so on, but millions are dying deliberately by the will of the mother. And this is what is the greates destroyer of peace today. Because if a mother can kill her own child, what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing in between...Let us ensure this year that we make every single child born, and unborn, wanted...Have we really made the children wanted?...

We picked up [a man] from the drain, half eaten with worms, and we brought him to the home: "I have lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die like an angel, loved and cared for." And it was so wonderful to see the greatness of that man who could speak like that, who could die like that without blaming anybody, without cursing anybody, without comparing anything. Like an angel - this is the greatness of our people.

And that is why we believe what Jesus has said: "I was hungry, I was naked, I was homeless, I was unwanted, unloved, uncared for - and you did it to Me.""

*Excerpt taken from "Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light. The Private Writings of the 'Saint of Calcutta.'" Edited with commentary by Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C.