Unbelievers should heed undaunting power of love

Friday, October 3, 1997

Unbelievers should heed undaunting power of love

Society has us thinking that happiness is hard to come by. After
all, why would we need to go out to buy the latest fashions, ogle
new cars, and feel like we would die if we missed the next episode
of our favorite TV show?

It’s a hoax society has pulled on us in order to make us willing
to work our lives away so others can turn a profit from our
consumerism.

Mother Teresa had a different story to tell: "We don’t need to
look for happiness. If we have love for others, we’ll be given it.
It is the gift of God." So the thing that we desire most is free?
That would mean there is plenty to go around and we don’t have to
save up for it. There is, however, a certain pattern to the lives
of happy people. They usually don’t need to have things their way,
and they make an effort to help others.

Our lives are not complete unless we learn to love other people.
Real love is loving those who cannot fully love us back. Mother
Teresa took a vow to give up many of the things people depend on
for happiness, so that nothing would interfere with her ability to
love. No one is born knowing how to love. Mother Teresa had this to
say about how to learn: "By becoming poor ourselves, by loving
until it hurts, we become capable of loving more deeply, more
beautifully, more wholly."

Mother Teresa’s philosophy initially began to make sense to me
during my freshman year when I was at a conference held at World
Impact in South Central Los Angeles. After putting in a day of work
restoring a pastor’s home, I was ready to hear about Mother
Teresa’s life. Her happiness was rooted in her ability to live
beyond her weaknesses by being selfless and devoted to something
bigger than herself. Although some thought she had nothing, I
thought she had it all.

Any society that embraces materialism – the pursuit of comfort,
pleasure, and wealth – will have despair, apathy and anger. We are
deluded if we think that we can satisfy our needs, when we
consistently crave more satisfaction out of life. Possessions
stupefy and distance us from each other. We become more concerned
with image than character. It is fortunate that concern for others
allows us to escape this materialistic vortex. Eventually we
realize that no one is likely to wish for more time to toil for
luxuries on their deathbed.

What we are thankful for are people who gave of themselves and
have touched our lives; I met many such people when I was 9, and
just had come to this country from Czechoslovakia. After a few
depressing months of neglect at a public school, miraculously the
small, private Gooden School gave me a full scholarship.

The change in me became immediately apparent as I returned from
school excited that "everyone was my friend." For those first few
critical years, teachers and students helped me to learn English
and catch up on work, while not lowering their expectations in my
abilities. My teachers even took me on trips in their spare time.
If it wasn’t for the initial encouragement, I don’t know if I would
have stayed at school that long and worked harder all those
years.

I thrived in that environment, and after moving to another
school, I skipped sixth grade! This American Dream involved
countless people giving themselves to a wide-eyed immigrant by
believing in him before he believed in himself. How could I not
want to give someone else the experience that I had? How do you
repay such a huge debt? I hope that no one, however penniless, can
doubt that love is real.

There is joy in caring for the poor, but first we must have
confidence in our long-term solvency, and second we must overcome
our apprehension of the homeless. We are afraid to use our money
for good, if we do not believe that our future is secure.

"Do not be anxious for your life … look at the birds of the
air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into
barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth
more than they?" (Matthew 6:26).

We need to consciously get to know the poor. For instance, next
time a homeless person asks you, "Can you spare something?" You can
answer, "I can spare 10 minutes." Although I don’t understand all
the causes of poverty, I know that people who are down on their
luck need hope. Interacting with a homeless person frequently lifts
my spirits.

Nevertheless, their lives, as well as names like "Person" and
"Cobblestone," remain an incomprehensible mystery. Never lose hope
in anyone! However unlikely it is that a person will become a
productive member of society, he or she is still deserving of our
compassion, and has something to offer us through human
contact.

I have a vivid recollection of a day three years ago when I was
in Berkeley at a conference. My friend Holly and I invited homeless
people around Berkeley to dinner in People’s Park, while others
from our group cooked. We met a temporarily homeless mother with
two small girls, Echo and Octavia. I could hardly believe my eyes!
I was indignant that no one cared enough to stop to offer help.
Back in the park, the girls got to play. That day, we provided the
family with spiritual as well as gastronomical sustenance. I was
happy to feel the change that had come over me, as I was with them
during one of their bleak days. Yet they had more hope in
providence than I have in less trying situations.

Happiness is understanding our responsibilities as citizens of
the world, and believing in justice. For instance, dealing
emotionally with Third World starvation is hard for us. However,
the enormity of the challenge should not daunt us from giving to
missions and organizations, knowing that "God chose the poor of
this world to be rich in faith" (James 2:5). We might never see the
people our money helps, but we can sleep easier knowing we have not
forgotten those who are worse off than we are. I am more optimistic
now that I believe compassion can be as instrumental as free market
economics in solving this problem.

When I was 13, seeing images on "20/20" from a Romanian
orphanage caused my mind to be in turmoil for days. I kept thinking
how fortunate I was to have born elsewhere. Even before watching, I
was already feeling depressed. We were moving out of our house, and
seeing it all in disarray made me feel as if my personal world was
disappearing. That night, I got a clear signal that I would have
the opportunity to put other people’s worlds in order. Not until
recently have I been able to do anything about what I had
experienced. Now I am learning not to take the fruits of my labor
for granted.

The college years are when we become educated and should make a
decision to stand for something. We are free to be and believe
anything we want. If we want happiness from whatever paths we take,
we must grow in the capacity to have compassion for others. In the
end, we will have the character we earn. Now is the time to live
out dreams.

Andrew Svitek

Svitek is a fourth-year philosophy and political-science
student.