To many of you, this article may come as a surprise. In his new book, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (Doubleday), her “postulator”, the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk shows us her most personal, intimate letters which encompass over 60 years of her life. Though Mother Teresa has been venerated by Catholics and Protestants alike, the man given the task of petitioning her sainthood discloses what appears to be a spiritually vacant soul.
David van Biema of Time magazine writes,
The letters, many of them preserved against her wishes (she had requested that they be destroyed but was overruled by her church), reveal that for the last nearly half-century of her life she felt no presence of God whatsoever — or, as the book’s compiler and editor, the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, writes, “neither in her heart or in the eucharist.”
We read that, Kolodiejchuk, “produced the book as proof of the faith-filled perseverance that he sees as her most spiritually heroic act.”
Are we ever called to persevere on our own strength, apart from trusting in the promises of God? I believe if Mother Teresa had embraced the authority of the epistle to the church at Rome instead of the Roman Catholic church, she could have had a peace and security not in the goodness of her actions in spite of doubt, but on the basis of Christ’s work done in perfect obedience, graciously imputed to her by faith.
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1-2)
She wrote of her own effervescent smile, calling it, “…a mask…a cloak that covers everything.”
Contrast that with the words of Peter,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:3-9, NASB)
Philip Yancey’s “Reaching for the Invisible God”.
I’m sorry, but this post makes me quite upset. It’s fine to have opinions, to believe your way is best — but to criticize someone for not “feeling” properly?
Heaven help us. And me, especially.
Colossians 3:15 says “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts…and be thankful.” If that doesn’t involve any sort of feeling, heart change, or attitudinal adjustment, I have no idea what that means. He promises this peace to those who trust in him for salvation. We will experience that peace if we just let him reign in us!
In John 14:26-27, Jesus says, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”
But if we doubt God, relying upon ourselves instead, Scripture has warnings much more stern than anything I wrote…
James 1:6-8 “… the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
The core idea here is autonomy. If someone believes they can acquire salvation, please God, or remain in fellowship with Christ apart from complete reliance upon the mercy, grace, and lordship of Christ, they are doomed. If someone cannot sense Christ at work in themselves for, “nearly [a] half-century”, they are missing out on this. Yet as the author tells us about this, he commends her for good works in spite of this…Christ condemns the Pharisees for the exact same approach in Luke 18:9-14.
Feelings are not belief.
It did not say she kept doubting forever. She felt a separation for a long time. There’s a world of difference.
“That absence seems to have started at almost precisely the time she began tending the poor and dying in Calcutta, and — except for a five-week break in 1959 — never abated.”
It’s interesting to me that she, somehow, experienced a removal of the feeling of absence when she took a break in 1959. But whenever she was in the midst of her ministry in India, helping others…she felt the absence of God.
Contrast that with Paul in 4 Timothy, when he was in the midst of his ministry and deserted by all his friends. Yet we read this,
“At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me; may it not be counted against them. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me(!), so that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was rescued out of the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
2 Timothy 4:16-18
In the midst of the service of God, the people of God are comforted and ministered to by the son of God. Amidst hard time, his presence envelops them, protects them, and sustains them (Hebrews 2:17-19). Daniel, Jeremiah, Joshua, Paul…me, and you.