A．Because they didn’t love Madame Tussaud.B．Because the……
TEXT D
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 9king drive, and there she was, turning my way. What a
sight: a saint in a sari commixing 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 God’s 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
"Mother’s Meditation ( in the Hospital )." In it she reflects on Christ’s
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 aren’t
interested in helping.
That’s 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 people’s 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 destroyer of peace today is abortion," she said,
and then she told them why, in uncompromising term. For about I. 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 Tussaud’s, glistening in the lights and
moving not a muscle. She didn’t 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
hadn’t offended. A US Senator turned to his wife and said, "Is my jaw up
yet"
Talk about speaking truth to power! But Mother Teresa
didn’t care, and she wasn’t afraid. The poem she gave me included her personal
answers to Christ’s 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.
Why did the President and the First Lady, the Vice President and Mrs. Gore look like seated statues at the Madame Tussaud’s
A．Because they didn’t love Madame Tussaud.
B．Because they didn’t like to move.
C．Because they were VIP.
D．Because they didn’t quite agree with Mother Teresa over the issue of abortion.
