And miles to go

Desolation in the Spiritual Life

I made a quick trip to Detroit over Labor Day weekend to visit my aging and ailing parents.  On the way back, I spied the Time magazine issue with a photo of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta on the front cover.  I was very happy I did.

The first news reports that I had heard on television and read in print characterized Doubleday’s newly published letters, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, as depicting a religious woman who, during most of the time she served as a Sister of Charity, was having a “crisis of faith,” even doubting the existence of God.  The implication of those headlines was that Mother really was not the person she presented herself in public to be.

In point of fact, the Time article was more balanced than those reports.  The reporter found in these letters a complex process of Mother’s growth in holiness despite, and even because of, her dryness in prayer and the doubts that this dryness caused her to have.

The editor of the published letters, Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, is quoted at length by the Time reporter.  This priest makes three key points:

1.   A letter to her spiritual director indicates that Mother’s abiding confidence was not in her feelings, since she did not feel God’s presence to her, but rather in God’s Will.  Her love for Jesus involved commitment, fidelity and vulnerability.  Despite not feeling Christ’s love, she was at prayer each morning at 4:30 a.m. and still writing to him, “Your happiness is all I want.” 

2.   Even though Jesus was not available to her, Mother never slackened in her efforts to work on behalf of the poorest of the poor.  Father Kolodiejchuk says this is equivalent to a person, believing she cannot walk, going out and running a 100 meter race in the Olympics.  To the end, Mother was faithful to what Jesus asked of her.  Consider this quote:  “True love is surrender.  The more we love the more we surrender.  If we really love souls, we must be ready to take their place, to take their sins upon us and face the anger of God.”

3.   Finally, Father Kolodiejchuk distinguishes between two types of “dark nights” as identified in Catholic theology:  the first is purgative, meaning it is meant to prepare a contemplative person for final union with Christ; the second is reparative, meaning a state of purity in which one suffers willingly on behalf of the salvation of souls, all the while being without sin.  This latter state was the “dark night” for Jesus in Gethsemane and his Blessed Mother at Calvary.  Father Kolodiejchuk puts Mother Teresa in that same company.

Of course, a similar spiritual dryness characterized the last year in the life of Mother’s namesake, St. Therese of Lisieux.  In the third book of her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, she writes about the loss of her hope of ever receiving the gift of eternal life.  This absence of “feeling” tormented her until the very moment of her death.

What significance can we draw from all this?  Well, first of all, I believe that we must get rid of the notion that being good and growing in holiness will guarantee us a more comfortable, tranquil life.  In fact, just the opposite should be expected.  If we are growing closer to Jesus, we will be called to share more fully in His sufferings and experience “the loss of all things” (Philippians 3:8) in order to be found in Him.

Secondly, I think we need to challenge the “Hallmark card” mentality that love is just a feeling.  Certainly, emotions are an essential aspect of our personality and we must pay them heed.  But more than a “feeling,” love is a commitment that we freely accept “for better or worse, in sickness or in health, until death….”  Such a love transcends all of our romantic notions.  It also is a key to understanding the Church’s teaching that pre-marital intercourse, cohabitation, same-sex unions, promiscuity and divorce do not conform to the dignity of the human person nor do they benefit the common good.  These teachings are not meant to discourage the expression of love, but rather to ensure that such expressions of love lead to salvation, that is, to union with God.

And all of this just because I saw the cover of Time magazine!  What a happy coincidence!  But, wait a minute, was it really that?

May God love you! 

October, 2007

Falta Mucho por Recorrer

Durante el fin de semana largo del Día del Trabajo tuve la dicha de visitar a mis padres. Ellos ya están en una edad avanzada y no están bien de salud. A mi regreso, revise la revista Time. En la pasta de la revista estaba la foto de nuestra Santisima Madre Teresa de Calcuta.

Las primeras noticias que escuche en la televisión y de leer cartas publicadas en el Doubleday, Madre Teresa: Ven y se mi Luz, la representan como una mujer religiosa, que por mucho tiempo fue la Hermana de la Caridad. Ella tenía una "crisis de fe," incluso dudaba de la existencia de Dios. A consecuencia de esos titulares era que Madre Teresa no era la persona que ella representaba ante el público. 

De hecho, el artículo de la revista Time fue más equilibrado que esos reportes.  En dichas cartas el reportero encontró de ella un proceso complejo del crecimiento en santidad  a pesar de su dolor espiritual y las dudas que eso le causo.  

¿Cuál es la importancia que podemos obtener de todo esto?  Bien, en primer lugar, creo que debemos eliminar el concepto que siendo buenos y creciendo en santidad nos garantizará una vida más cómoda y tranquila.  La realidad es que se debería esperar lo contrario.  Si crecemos más en Jesús, entonces, seremos llamados más para compartir en sus sufrimientos y experiencias "perderlo todo" (Filipenses 3: 8) para encontrarse en él.

En segundo lugar, pienso que necesitamos desafiar la mentalidad de la "tarjeta Hallmark" al decir que el amor es un sentimiento solamente. Ciertamente, las emociones son un aspecto esencial de nuestra personalidad y tenemos que prestarle mucha atención.  Pero más que un "sentimiento", el amor es un compromiso que nosotros aceptamos libremente "en las buenas y en las malas hasta que la muerte…"

Tal amor supera todas nuestras nociones románticas.  También es una llave para entender la enseñanza de la Iglesia que las relaciones sexuales antes del matrimonio,  la cohabitación, las uniones con el mismo sexo, la promiscuidad y el divorcio no se asemejan a la dignidad de la persona ni se benefician al bien común.  Esto no quiere decir que estas enseñanzas nos vayan a desalentar con la expresión del amor, al contrario es garantizar que tales expresiones del amor nos conlleven a la salvación, es decir, a la unión con Dios.

October 2007)