"The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy," she said, "it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, dispair, and hopelessness is love. There are many people in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty - it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love as there is a hunger for God." - Mother Teresa of Calcutta
It is easy to love from a distance... It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve loneliness and the pain of being unloved. It is easier, from a distance, to tell the lonely and the unloved that you will pray for them than it is to get close and truly love. - Me
Instead of simply praying for the unloved and the lonely we should also, and more importantly, pray for ourselves, that we may know the love of the Father. We cannot possibly love unless we have love to offer. God is love. The lonely and unloved need to also pray to God, the Father, but first they need to experience the loving hands of God.
The Church is the mystical body of Christ. We are His hands and his feet. We are the practical expression of love to a lonely and unloved world. Jesus is the lover of our souls, but he is also the sick, the imprisoned, the poor, the orphans, widows, oppressed, and lonely.
37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' - Matthew 25:37-45
40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' - Matthew 25:37-45
"LOVE TO BE TRUE HAS TO BEGIN WITH GOD in prayer. If we pray, we will be able to love, and if we love, we will be able to serve... YOU AND I HAVE BEEN CREATED FOR greater things. We have not been created to just pass through this life without aim. And that greater aim is to love and be loved." - Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Come on Church! Lets get on our knees before God and pray. Then lets get up off our knees and love this lonely world.
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