"A Nation Shall Not Lift Up Sword Against Country"

      Mother Teresa was largely responsible for my returning to the Catholic faith, and now perhaps this was an opportunity to thank her personally.


      Monday, February 25, 6:00 PM, JFK International Airport. Flight 111 for Geneva departs at 7:30 PM giving me ample time to reexamine what I am doing and to reconsider going on a "peace pilgrimage" with Joe Cosgrove, a brilliant and dedicated public defender.
      Joe's plan was simple. We would go to Rome, meet Mother Teresa, and ask her to present his report to the Pope, who, in turn, would approach the World Court and demand an immediate cease-fire in the Gulf. Wishful thinking? Pure nonsense? Perhaps an equal measure of both.
      6:45 PM I am now firmly resolved to tell Joe of my intention to withdraw from the sophomoric misadventure. After listeninng patiently to me, he asks, "How can we determine what's in store before we even take the first step?" I have to agree. More often than not, it was the unplanned journey that proved more fruitful and rewarding. I have been moved by the Spirit to join this peace pilgrimage and I decide to trust that Spirit. We're pilgrims -- not diplomats -- and we must surrender to what lies in store for us and stop trying to determine the work of grace.
      Tuesday, February 26, 5:00 PM (Rome time). Joe and I made our way up the Piazza San Gregorio to the residence of the Missionaries of Charity and rang the bell. No sooner had we begun to settle in than a tiny sister appeared in the doorway. It was Mother Teresa of Calcutta! I was astonished at her size. Not taller than five feet, she could not have weighed more than 90 pounds, yet I had never in my life experienced a more powerful presence. She was simply overwhelmingly ssimple, which made her completely disarming. As we rose to greet her, she took our hands and gave us each a blessing.
      "Now what can I do for you?" she asked. Joe said that he had been moved by the Spirit to draw up a legal petition for the World Court in The Hague, to sue for a cease-fire in the Gulf, that he needed to present this brief on behalf of a state, since the World Court does not acknowledge individuals as litigants. "I have never heard of a World Court," Mother Teresa said. Explaining that it had been founded when the UN charter had been ratified, Joe gave the brief to Mother in an envelope addressed to Pope John Paul II.
      After a reflective pause, Mother Teresa said, "You know both Saddam Hussein and Mr. Bush have ignored the Holy Father's plea to end the war. I also wrote to both of them, but neither one of them responded." She told us she had considered going to Baghdad to see saddam. "What good could I do?" What good? I thought, recalling how she had caused an immediate cease-fire during the civil war in Lebanon simply by her presence in Beruit. Mother Teresa finally said, "I am going to see the Holy Father tomorrow and, I will give it to him then." Relieved and gratified, we talked to each other for another forty-five minutes --- like three old friends.
      Wednesday, February 27. After a meeting Mother Teresa, the Pontiff, as part of his regular midweek general audience, issued a strong statement against the horrors of the war in the Gulf.
      Thursday, February 28, 6:00 AM, Missionaries of Charity Chapel. On Mother Teresa's invitation, we returned for a Mass of celebration. Earlier that morning the news of a cease-fire in the Gulf had reached us in Rome.
      Was there any meaning in our journey? Did it have any impact on the course of the war and the beginning of peace? Who can say? In his traditional Urbi et Orbi speech given on Easter Sunday, Pope John Paul II was vehement in his criticism of the Gulf War. He repeated the moral chastisement that he had used since the war's beginning, but in an unusal moment, the Pope also called the war a "violation of international law." To place a secular label on this terrible event was a dramatic move by the Holy Father. Was it coincidence that the brief Mother had given the Pope on our behalf outlined the illegality of the war based on international law? Perhaps. A letter, dated three days after Mother Teresa's meeting with the Holy Father, and written by the Vatican secretary of state, thanked Joe on behalf of the Pontiff for the information given to him. In it's final paragraph the letter bestowed the Pope's apostolic blessing on us. a fair reward for our humble effort, reminding us once again what Daniel Berrigan has always taught: Our work for essential human needs seeks not results, but instead remuneration in the goodness, the rightness of the work itself. And that is a blessing of apostolic proportion.


      Written by Martin Sheen (OMNI November 1991)