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Such joy. It was the spring of 1985, and President Reagan had just given Mother Teresa the Medal of Freedom in a
Rose Garden ceremony. As she left, she walked down the corridor between the Oval Office and the West Wing drive,
and there she was, turning my way. What a sight: a saint in a sari coming down the White House hall. As she came
nearer, I could not help it: I bowed. "Mother", I said, "I just want to touch your hand." She looked up at me -- it may have been one of Gods subtle jokes that his exalted child spent her life looking up to everyone else -- and said only two words.
Later I would realize that they were the message of her mission. "Luff Gott," she said. Love God. She pressed into
my hand a poem she had written, as she glided away in a swoosh of habit. I took the poem from its frame the day
she died. It is free verse, 79 lines, and is called "Mothers Meditation (in the Hospital)." In it she reflects on Christs
question to his apostles: "Who do you say I am?" She notes that he was the boy born in Bethlehem," put in the
manager full of straw... kept warm by the breath of the donkey," who grew up to be "an ordinary man without much
learning." Donkeys are not noble; straw is common; and it was among the ordinary and ignoble, the poor and sick,
that she chose to labor. Her mission was for them and among them, and you have to be a pretty tough character to
organize a little universe that exists to help people other people arent interested in helping. Thats how she struck me
when I met her as I watched her life. She was tough. There was the worn and weathered face, the abrupt and definite
speech. We think saints are great organizers, great operators, great combatants in the world. Once I saw her in a
breathtaking act of courage. She was speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington in 1995.
All the Washington Establishment was there, plus a few thousand born-again Christians, orthodox Catholics and Jews, and searchers looking for a faith. Mother Teresa was introduced, and
she spoke of God, of love, of families. She said we must love one another and care for one another. There were great
purrs of agreement. But as the speech continued it became more pointed. She asked, "Do you do enough to make sure
your parents, in the old peoples homes, feel your love? Do you bring then each day your joy and caring?" The baby
boomers in the audience began to shift in their seats. And she continued. "I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace
today is abortion," she said, and then she told them why, in uncompromising term.
For about 1.3 seconds there was complete silence, then applause built and swept across the room. But not everyone:
the President and the First Lady, the Vice President and Mrs. Gore, looked like seated statues at Madame Tussauds,
glistening in the lights and moving not a muscle. She didnt stop there either, but went on to explain why artificial
birth control is bad and why Protestants who separate faith from works are making a mistake. When she was finished,
there was almost no one she hadnt offended. A US Senator turned to his wife and said, "Is my jaw up yet?" Talk
about speaking truth to power! But Mother Teresa didnt care, and she wasnt afraid. The poem she gave me included
her personal answers to Christs question. She said he is "the Truth to be told... the Way to be walked... the Light to
be lit." She took her own advice and lived a whole life that showed it
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