RSS Feed
But She Did Help the Poor, Right?
A few days back I read somewhere that Thomas Jefferson was a lousy public speaker. Interesting, but kind of beside the point, I thought. I've had something of the same reaction to the news that Mother Teresa often felt cut off from God. Yes, I know there's gain in discussing doubt as an essential to faith. The Trappist monk Thomas Merton, speaking in Calcutta (interestingly) in 1968, perhaps said it definitively when he stated that a person of faith who suffered no doubt could not possibly be a person of faith.
Mother Teresa's letters do nothing to diminish her status as a social entrepreneur whose vision focused on helping people despised for the disease and poverty. Coming from Albania (maybe the most obscure nation in Europe), she built a worldwide organization that attracted an awful lot of people who dedicated themselves full- or part-time to helping utter outcasts achieve a measure of dignity in their living and dying.
I clapped eyes on Mother Teresa exactly once, as pure observer, in close and decidedly unusual circumstances. She struck me as tough as nails.
It happened back in the mid-1980s, when I was on a newspaper assignment in Nicaragua and a fellow journalist tipped me that that evening she'd be visiting Daniel Ortega, then (as once again) Nicaragua's president and head of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, at Ortega's house. I gathered she had come to ask permission to set up a chapter of her order. I caught a ride over and joined the small circle of journalists clustered around the two. Ortega was half Mother Teresa's age, twice her size, and, well, this was his country. The house was aswarm with his bodyguards. I think, by contrast, Mother Teresa had a single nun with her, a woman who kept pretty much to the shadows.
Still, it seemed to me that Ortega was not really in control of the situation. Which is to say that, O.K., maybe Mother Teresa had more than her share of spiritual doubts, but she knew what she could do in building an organization, including in places where she was one of the few not packing heat. Pretty creative. Gutsy, too.
By
Gustav Niebuhr
|
September 4, 2007; 11:03 AM ET
| Category:
Religion & Leadership
Share This: 
Technorati
| Del.icio.us | Digg | Facebook
Previous: Trust Christ, Not Feelings |
Next: No Faith Without a Doubt
Posted by: Christie | July 10, 2008 5:37 PM
Report Offensive Comment
The stock has gained 150% from Oct 8, 2007 to Oct 22, 2007.
By the way check this company MDFI. Their stock is set to increase because of their association with Apple iphone and Complete Care Medical. Find more about this company and stock http://www.growurmoney.com/medefile/
Posted by: gowri | October 24, 2007 6:47 AM
Report Offensive Comment
The stock has gained 150% from Oct 8, 2007 to Oct 22, 2007.
By the way check this company MDFI. Their stock is set to increase because of their association with Apple iphone and Complete Care Medical. Find more about this company and stock http://www.growurmoney.com/medefile/
Posted by: gowri | October 24, 2007 6:45 AM
Report Offensive Comment
The comments to this entry are closed.
The Bible gives the definition of faith at Hebrews 1:1: Faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld.
Sadly, many people, including Mother Teresa, give little thought to the accuracy or truthfulness of their religious beliefs.
If we are truly interested in pleasing God, should we not consider seriously the accuracy of what we believe about him? The apostle Paul spoke of certain religious people of his day who had "a zeal for God; but not according to accurate knowledge." (Romans 10:2)
The Bible tells us what is acceptable to God regarding true worship: "This is fine and acceptable in the sight of our Savior, God, whose will is that all sorts of men should be saved and come to an accurate knowledge of truth." (1 Timothy 2:3, 4)
Christianity's founder, Jesus Christ, taught that we must love God with our "whole mind," or intellect, in addition to our "whole heart" and "whole soul." (Matthew 22:37) Our mental faculties must play a key role in our worship.
When inviting his listeners to reflect on his teaching, Jesus often said: "What do you think?" (Matthew 17:25; 18:12; 21:28; 22:42) In like manner, the apostle Peter wrote to fellow believers in order to 'arouse their clear thinking faculties.' (2 Peter 3:1) The most widely traveled early missionary, the apostle Paul, exhorted Christians to use their "power of reason" and to "prove to [themselves] the good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (Romans 12:1, 2) Only by such a thorough, careful approach to their beliefs can Christians build faith that is pleasing to God and is equal to the tests that arise in life.—Hebrews 11:1, 6.
To help others build such faith, early Christian evangelizers "reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving by references" the things taught. (Acts 17:1-3) Such a reasonable approach elicited a fine response from honest hearted ones. For example, a number of people in the Macedonian city of Beroea "received the word [of God] with the greatest eagerness of mind, carefully examining the Scriptures daily as to whether these things [explained by Paul and his companions] were so." (Acts 17:11) Two things are worth noting here. First, the Beroeans were eager to listen to God's Word; second, they did not blindly assume that what they heard was correct, but they referred back to the Scriptures. The Christian missionary Luke humbly commended the Beroeans for this, calling them "noble-minded."
The true worshipers," Jesus said, "will worship the Father with spirit and truth." (John 4:23) Hence, the apostle Paul wrote: "That is also why we . . . have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the accurate knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual comprehension, in order to walk worthily of Jehovah to the end of fully pleasing him." (Colossians 1:9, 10) Such "accurate knowledge" enables sincere individuals to put their heart and soul into their worship with full confidence because they "worship what [they] know."—John 4:22
Mother Teresa, like many Catholics, did not know the God of the Bible. In the Catholic church the Bible is not respected as God’s Word. Catholics are taught the commands of men- the catechism, which teachings are in direct opposition to what the Bible teaches.
I’m not surprised that Mother Teresa doubted God’s existence. I’m sure she never used his name- Jehovah (in English), even though his name is mentioned over 7,000 in the Scriptures. How can someone believe in someone they don’t know? If Mother Teresa had been a sincere Bible student she would have come to know and love the true God, the creator of the universe, the One who sent his son, Jesus, to reconcile mankind to himself. Instead, she followed the hollow teachings of the Catholic church and died spiritually malnourished.
I don’t think less of Mother Teresa. My heart goes out to her and all those who are being spiritually poisoned. Yet, for her there is still hope.
John 5:28&29 says, “Do not marvel at this, because the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.”
In the resurrection, Mother Teresa and others, who have not had the opportunity to know the true God Jehovah, will have the opportunity to learn about him and the opportunity to choose to do his will.
I look forward to meeting her.