This week’s Time magazine cover was a major story on a new book containing decades of letters from Mother Teresa of Calcutta to her spiritual mentors entitled Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light. It turns out that she confesses through the missives that while she was doing incredible work for the poor, she was herself “poor in spirit,” admitting that she felt no presence of God.
It’s a challenging story to read; about a woman who has universal respect and love. We who are believers would understand that good works such as Teresa’s spring out of a desire to love God with all of our “heart, soul, mind, and strength” (Mark 12:30) as an act of worship. No doubt that was her motivation. But her writings perhaps indicate an additional dimension.
Throughout history, some of the greatest people of God cried out in pain at their inability to sense His presence. In Psalm 88, the writer questions “Why, O LORD, do you reject me and hide your face from me?” (v. 14). Job complained about his losses and isolation. Jesus himself at the critical moment of our redemption shouted “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Matthew 27:46).
Thank God for those times where we see and feel God all around us; in the laughter of a child, in His creative beauty in nature, or in the blessing of a friend. But often our faith grows even stronger in the dry times; when it’s hard to see Him. It is His grace that keeps us going. Could it be that Mother Teresa associated her passion for saving the helpless and hopeless with The Passion of the Christ? That her work had to be sourced from the divine, that because of her despair she had nothing in and of herself to give.
It’s difficult to get your arms around, but it certainly elevates further my opinion of this amazing woman of faith.
September 1st, 2007 at 1:55 pm
This will make me sound hard-hearted, but we should really test Mother Theresa’s spiritual experience against what is described in the Bible, and not be gudied by “what seems right to us.”. (We should also remember that we are getting a second-hand account from Time Magazine, which may not contain the whole story.)
The Psalmist had experienced the loss of a sense of the presence of God for a time, and David had this experience because of his sin. (Psalm 51.)
Job, of course, experienced hardship as a result of God’s testing him, and Jesus was forsaken by God as he took God’s punishment for sin upon himself. The spiritual dryness of all of these people was severe, but temporary.
However, 50 years of spiritual dryness does not seem to fit with God’s promises to us, or with the pattern of spirituality we find in the Bible. If she really had such a long period of total lack of assurance of God’s love for her, that would be a sign of a serious spiritual problem. One fruit of the Spirit is joy, after all.
We also would make a mistake if we think her beliefs are particularly Christian. Here is a statement that she made:
“If in coming face to face with God we accept Him in our lives, then we are converting. We become a better Hindu, a better Muslim, a better Catholic, a better whatever we are, and then by being better we come closer and closer to Him. If we accept Him fully in our lives, then that is conversion. What approach would I use? For me, naturally, it would be a Catholic one, for you it may be Hindu, for someone else, Buddhist, according to one’s conscience.”
Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father but by Me.” Mother Theresa seemed to think it OK if a person becomes a better Hindu, Muslim, or Catholic. In that sense, if Hindus or Muslims followed her teachings, they were being sent farther on the road to hell.
Perhaps she was running her spiritual race in the wrong direction, and perhaps her sense of distance from God was very real.
September 1st, 2007 at 10:11 pm
I think her “crisis of faith” only serves to make her that much more amazing. Who hasn’t had a crisis of faith? I think it makes me feel better to know that someone as Holy as Mother Teresa has, like me, felt alone.
I am reminded of my favorite poem, Footprints in the sand, written by Mary Stevenson:
“One night a man had a dream. He dreamed
he was walking along the beach with the LORD.
Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.
For each scene he noticed two sets of
footprints in the sand: one belonging
to him, and the other to the LORD.
When the last scene of his life flashed before him,
he looked back at the footprints in the sand.
He noticed that many times along the path of
his life there was only one set of footprints.
He also noticed that it happened at the very
lowest and saddest times in his life.
This really bothered him and he
questioned the LORD about it:
‘LORD, you said that once I decided to follow
you, you’d walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life,
there is only one set of footprints.
I don’t understand why when
I needed you most you would leave me.’
The LORD replied:
‘My son, my precious child,
I love you and I would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you.’”
How beautiful and how true.
September 3rd, 2007 at 1:37 am
I’ve always thought less than most about Mother Teresa. Sure she was kind and compassionate when tending to the dying, the sick and the starving but the root cause of the despair and sorrowful conditions in that area was overpopulation. Too many people and not enough food and health care to go around.
When she willfully supported a policy of no condoms and no birth control she became part of the problem.It’s foolish and beyond belief to celbrate someone supporting a policy of no birth control when people are dying all around because of too many births. This is just another example of religion getting in the way of common sense and sound rational decision making.
Instead of tending to the end result, the sick and dying, her services would have achieved a more efficacious result if she would have addressed
and promoted programs that would have alleviated overpopulation.
A health care worker standing on a Calcutta corner, handing out condoms, would have done much more good than Mother Teresa did in all her years of tending the end result of an overpopulated region.
September 3rd, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Joe,
I would suggest that the problems over there are not primarily caused by overpopulation. Hong Kong has a much higher population density than Calcutta, and does not have these problems.
But there are many problems in that area related to their false beliefs. For example, a large number of Indians are in the “untouchable” caste, which forces them to only do menial jobs. If your religion forces you to repress a huge percentage of your population, then poverty will be a natural result.
Additionally, there is a widespread belief in India that if you are suffering, it is because of the evil you did in a past life, and helping a suffering person is not really doing them any good, because their bad karma has to be worked out. The result of this false belief is that many of the sick go untreated.
Birth control or the lack of it is only a small part of the problem. Remember, the United States and Europe did not have effective birth control until the last century. But they were able to industrialize, lift many of their people out of poverty, and even keep their population somewhat stable (though it rose as productivity rose) before condoms were widely available and effective.