Monthly Archives: August 2007

Most people who give this matter more than a nanosecond of thought will have to wonder just what is going on here.

After all, even if you leave all matters of faith aside, what Mother Teresa accomplished amongst the downtrodden and “poorest of the poor” was truly remarkable.

From those consigned to death in the gutters of Calcutta to aids patients rejected by a supposedly sympathetic society in certain portions of San Francisco, left to die in utter loneliness and despair, Mother Teresa and her nuns brought dignity, love, and compassion.

Not the condemnation, isolation, and rejection which was all too common in their lives – rather something new, something fresh, something deep with meaning, leading to hope.

They did (and still do) this for all, with absolute no regard to the suffering person’s faith, ability to pay, agreeable personality, whatever. They simply loved each person as a unique individual, created in the image and likeness of God.

How can anyone be against this, or deny just how good this is? The best part is that this holy work continues to this very day, changing thousands of lives one day at a time.

With that in mind, any thinking person has to wonder how can it be that this seemingly remarkable woman, so public about her faith, could express such doubts in private?

The answer comes straight from the heart of the mystical tradition of the faith that Mother Teresa so boldly lived – what she experienced for so long (and this was extraordinarily long) is known as “the dark night of the soul”, amongst other names.

It is a trying of faith, a withdrawing by God of emotional comfort, of any kind of “spiritual buzz”. God permits trials like this (and other suffering in life) in order to increase our faith, to encourage our transformation from what we are to what we may become.

All people are called by God to know Him, and to those who respond he will make himself known. And transform us as we are ready, sometimes a little bit at a time, sometimes in big huge steps. It’s simply a matter of trust, perseverance, and faith.

And that is what these letters tell us of Mother Teresa—her interior transformation was as massive as her public actions—no mediocre spiritual journey here.

Mother Teresa persevered through these trials and more, through the grinding poverty and hatred of the world, through much that would have driven many to give up, in public or private. She persevered, finished the race with great faith, and to the end proclaimed the reality of the God who created us all.

From this we may draw great hope and comfort, if we have ears to hear.

All photos from this photo gallery on Time / CNN.

Technorati Tags: faith, Mother Teresa, mystic

The news that Mother Teresa – Blessed Mother Teresa, that is – struggled with doubts, fears, and went years without comfort from the God she so faithfully proclaimed has been discussed here and there since some of her correspondence with her spiritual director came to light (this happened as part of the cause for her canonization). I’ve heard Fr. Benedict Groeschel (founder of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and friend of Blessed Mother Teresa) talk on the topic occasionally, among others.

In short, it appears that Blessed Mother Teresa fought the demons of doubt and fear while being unable to count on any emotional comfort from God for most of her high-profile public ministry. In one sense not too surprising, given the grinding, nearly relentless evil that she and her sisters confronted (actually still confront) daily for oh so many years, yet in another sense almost shocking. After all, THIS IS MOTHER TERESA, arguably one of the holiest, perhaps even the holiest female public figure of the last century.

This is the Mother Teresa who always counseled joy, a smile, care for the poor, the dignity of man, the miracle of all the living, from conception to natural death, the remarkable woman who was simply “a pencil in the hand of God”.

How could she doubt? Was her public faith all a deception, or was this compelling evidence of her frail humanity and clear evidence of a heroic interior life?

Now the profile of that discussion is going way, way up, as the result of the imminent publication of what looks to be a remarkable book, “Come Be My Light … The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta” by Mother Teresa and Fr. Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C.

Fr. Kolodiejchuk ought to know, after all – he’s the postulator in her cause for canonization. (That is, he’s basically leading the charge to make the best case possible for declaring her a saint, a task which by all accounts appears to be a very laborious one indeed).

In any case this book contains many of the very letters in which Blessed Mother Teresa expresses some of her gravest doubts, at the very moments in which she was making some of her most profound public statements, doing some of her most visible acts of charity for the poor and rejected. There is also what appears to be a good overview article from Time (yup, that is actually what I meant to say!).

Though I have not yet read the book (it is most definitely on order) I am sure what will emerge is a more complete picture of one of the spiritual giants of our age, shedding some light on the depth of her spirituality and the price she paid for her faith.

In the end, that is really the question for all of us – in who or what do we have faith, and what price are we willing to pay for that faith?

Technorati Tags: faith, Mother Teresa, mystic, saints