Review of Mother Teresa: Come be my light

Mother Teresa, her life and her doubts:


Mother Teresa:
Come be My Light
Edited and with commentary by Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C.
Doubleday, Rs 695.00

In a Catholic church increasingly devoid of spirituality, in a world constantly talking of war and war-mongers, in a increasingly conservative Papacy, Mother Teresa still remains an icon of true spirituality, a sort of tower amid the ruins . It was no wonder then that Vatican has been trying to fast track the long process of sainthood to prop up flagging faith worldwide. All that is required now is a confirmation of some miracle, bizarre though it may sound. The fast tracking of the sainthood is quite understandable: The catholic church has not been able to come up anything that will help increase its appeal to the youth of the first world. St Teresa was what the church needed.
But now it seems that Teresa afterall was not a saint at least when it came to her faith. The private writings of The Saint of Calcutta” which finally shows up the real a mortal person rather than a saint. The book is quite certainly going to put the skids on the fast track process, though there is no direct connection between a nun’s personal dark moments and the fully man-made processo of canonization.
The letters edited and published for the first time are all intensely personal and shows Teresa constantly at war with herself and occasionally with the stodgy clergy which run various Orders of the Catholic church. Her doubts were First it was about joining the Order, then it was about leaving the Order and then the decision to work for the poor. Now thanks to this book, we also know that during this while Teresa was also fighting the demons of disbelief. The demons had at one stage taken over Teresa’s mind that she was submitted to exorcism, a dastardly medieval custom, just before her death.
Though it may sound shocking , what the letters of doubt show is that the Teresa was as mortal as any. The question then is since Mother was not ‘in the zone’ vis-a vis divinity, then what meaning does a conferring of sainthood have? Mother Teresa actually was not a full-fledged believer in God and can such a person perform miracles on earth?. These are the two questions that the Vatican will have to find a theological explanations to as it looks for way to finally confer sainthood on her.
Critics of Teresa like Christopher Hitchens believe that her work among the poor was one way of diverting her mind from the inner demons.” “ If Santayana was right to define fanaticism as” redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim” then Mother Teresa’s international crusade against divorce, abortion and contraception was tribute that doubt paid to certainty, a strenuous and almost hysterical effort to drown out the awful fear of “ absence”.
Throughout the last quarter of her life Mother Teresa was definitely bigger than the church in every sense a sort of freelance fundamentalist. She was parallel power centre. Since she established Mothers of ‘Charity the church had no say over it and the entire attitude was that of grudging acceptance. Now on the verge of granting her sainthood, the wretched demons have arrived again.

Excerpts:
Your Grace,
… Please pray specially for me that I may not spoil His work and that Our Lord may show Himself—for there is such terrible darkness within me, as if everything was dead. It has been like this more or less from the time I started “the work.” Ask our Lord to give me courage.
Please give us Your blessing.
M.Teresa M.C

After several years of suffering in silence and with only occasional and vague references to her interior state, Mother Teresa at lat revealed to Archbishop Perier the great pain that had been tormenting her sould from the beginning of her mission with the poor. The archbishop though did not appear to understand what she was experiencing , sincer her honest but brief description gave little insight. He assumed that she was referring to the challenges of fuinding the new congregation. Suspecting that her inclination for “hastiness”‑a permanent cause of tension between the two of them‑was a possible reason for it, he advised moderation.
“ God guides you, dear Mother; you are not so much in the dark as you think

Your Grace:
I am grateful to Your Grace for Coming—I always feel the burden a little lighter after you have been. I don’t know but there is such a deep loneliness in my heart that I cannot express it.—For months I have not been able to speak to Fr Van Exem and I find it harder and harder to speak. How long with Our Lord Stay away?”
Please pray for me.

Rites of Binoo John

Being a writer I conduct a lot of rites in the course of a day. This and other activities will be on show in your fav blog which hopes to plumb the depts of despair and climb the many pinnacles of happiness