Pastor John Wright

We live in a day of wars and rumors of wars. The de-stabilization of Mesopotamia continues to threaten new outbreaks. Oil prices continue to climb. One wonders what would happen if, according to rumors in the press, the United States plan to bomb Iran would commence.

I finished reading the book by/about the Blessed Teresea of Calcutta, "Come Be My Light." It is profound at several levels; someone needs to do a Balthasarian type of study of her life as a type of first-order language of Christian theology. I recommend it to all. What I would like to do in light of this current situation is to copy Mother Teresea of Calcutta's letter that she wrote before the outbreak of armed hostilities in Iraqi in 1991. She addressed the letter to both George H. W. Bush and Saddam Hussein. Tragically, both parties ignored Teresea's wisdom. What she feared still goes on today.

2nd January, 1991
Dear President George Bush and President Saddam Hussein

I come to you with tears in my eye and God's love in my heart plead to you for the poor and those who will become poor if the war that we all dread and fear happens. I beg you with my whole heart to work for, to labour for God's peace and to be reconciled with one another.

You both have your cases to make and your people to care for but first please listen to the One who came into the world to teach us peace. You have the power and the strength to destroy God's presence and image, His men, His women, and His children. Please listen to the will of God. God has created us to be loved by His love and not to be destroyed by our hatred.

In the short term there may be winners and losers in this war that we all dread, but that never can, nor never will justify the suffering, pain and loss of life which your weapons will cause.

I come to you in the name of God, the God that we all love and share, to beg for the innocent ones, our poor of the world and those who will become poor because of war. They are the ones who will suffer most because they have no means of escape. I plead on bended knee for them. They will suffer and when they do, we will be the ones who are guilty for not having done all in our power to protect and love them. I plead to you for those who will be left orphaned, widowed, and left alone because their parents, husbands, brothers and children have been killed. I beg you to please save them. I plead for those who will be left with disability and disfigurement. They are God's children. I plead for those who will be left with no home, no food and no love. Please think of them as being your children. Finally, I plead for those who will have the most precious thing that God can give us, life, taken away from them. I beg you to save our brothers and sisters, yours and ours, because they are given to us by God to love and to cherish. It is not for us to destroy what God has given us. Please, please let your mind and your will become the mind and will of God. You have the power to bring ward into the world or to build peace. PLEASE CHOOSE THE WAY OF PEACE.

I, my sisters and our poor are praying for you so much. The whole world is praying that you will open your hearts in love to God. You may win the war, but what will the cost be on people who are broken, disabled and lost.

I appeal to you--to your love, your love of God and your fellow men. In the name of God and in the name of those you will make poor, do not destroy life and peace. Let love and peace triumph and let your names be remembered for the good you have done, the joy you have spread and the love you have shared.

Please pray for me and my sisters as we try to love and serve the poor because they belong to God and are loved in His eyes, as we and our poor are praying for you. We pray that you will love and nourish what God has so lovingly entrusted into your care.

May God bless you now and always.

God bless you,
M. Teresa, M.C.

From Come be my Light, pp. 313-17.