'MOTHER TERESA: COME BE MY LIGHT'

Since I last wrote about Mother Teresa I have gathered enough information to write an in-depth article about her. However, that is not the purpose of this blog. Instead, I will restrict myself to the subject of the dark nights she experienced as part and parcel of her own special contemplative journey.

In an article titled ‘Atheists attempting a show of strength’ written by Jacqueline L. Salmon of the Washington Post, published by the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper of 9-23-2007, the writer quotes Christopher Hitchens as saying: “She (Mother Teresa) couldn’t bring herself to believe in God, but she wished she could.” And Jacqueline L. Salmon indicates that reading the book, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, “has led some high-profile atheists to say her spiritual wavering was actually atheism.”

Reading this article reminded me of how I felt when I learned in Richard Dawkins’ book, The God Delusion, that he thought that Albert Einstein was basically a pantheist. And that “Pantheism is sexed-up atheism.” (P. 18) I had always thought that Einstein was religious by nature, but that he did not believe in a personal God. After reading Dawkins’ book I did not know what to think about Einstein and so I suspended my judgment until I got more information. After reading about what the modern atheists have to say about Mother Teresa, and deciding that what they said is very questionable, I now look back on Dawkins’ comments about Einstein with more skepticism.

My reading of the book, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, convinced me that, in no way whatsoever, was Mother Teresa an atheist. Yes, she did suffer from doubts about the existence of God. But who hasn’t? As a matter of fact, in his excellent article in Time magazine, dated 8-23-2007, David Van Biema quotes James Martin, S.J. as saying he feels that as a result of this book Mother Teresa will have a new legacy, and that “It may be remembered as just as important as her ministry to the poor. It would be a ministry to people who had experienced some doubt, some absence of God in their lives. And you know who that is? Everybody. Atheists, doubters, seekers, believers, everyone.”

As I thought about Mother Teresa, the one big question that kept coming to my mind was “Why did God allow her to suffer such a prolonged dark night?” One of the answers may well be in Fr. Martin’s reference to a new ministry.

The classic definition of the mystical night of the soul is given by John of the Cross in his book, The Dark Night. He divides the dark night into two spiritual purgations. He calls the first part the Night of Sense and says that those who undergo this night are no longer "beginners" in the spiritual journey. John of the Cross says that they are starting on the way of the "progressives" which is the beginning of the contemplative state.

He calls the second part, the Dark Night of the Spirit. John of the Cross indicates that the dark night of the spirit does not usually commence until some period of time has elapsed following the night of sense. He states that during this period the soul experiences "morsels" of this dark night but they do not last very long. He calls these morsels "dark contemplation" and says of them that they "are never as intense as is that terrible night of contemplation...into which, of set purpose, God brings the soul that He may lead it to Divine Union."

In the Introduction to the Ascent-Dark Night in the book, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, translated by K. Kavanaugh, O.C.D. and O. Rodriguez, O.C.D., they outline the main aspects of the passive purification or dark night of the spirit. One point that they make gives us an insight into Mother Teresa's words that she felt "unwanted" and "unloved" by God. In the Introduction they write these profound words: "The knowledge this contemplation accords generates the feeling of being abandoned by God and by creatures and deprives the soul of the connatural satisfaction it ordinarily obtains in the actuation of its faculties."

The Spiritual Marriage between the soul and God, usually occurs when the dark night of the spirit is over. Based on my reading of Mother Teresa’s letters, I can only speculate about when this spiritual marriage/transforming union took place in her life. But I certainly think it did. To me, the most likely time would have been before she undertook her ministry to the poor in founding the Missionaries of Charity. The subsequent dark nights that she experienced for approximately 50 years, right up until her death in 1997, most likely were not the purgative nights of the spirit to which John of the Cross refers to as being preparatory for this transforming union with God. Rather, it seems to me that this almost continual dark night of the spirit served three primary functions. First, it had to increase the effectiveness of her mission to the very poor and needy of this world. And secondly, as I quoted above from James Martin, S.J., Mother Teresa's letters may well be the beginning of an equally important mission for her "to people who had experienced some doubt, some absence of God in their lives." Thirdly, I think God used this very prolonged spiritual night to raise Mother Teresa to an even more sublime state of union with Himself.

POPE JOHN PAUL II's WORDS ON CONTEMPLATION

In my earlier post on 'Contemplation and the Active Apostolate' I quoted Pope John Paul II's statement that he believed that : "the future of mission depends to a great extent on contemplation. Unless the missionary is a contemplative he cannot proclaim Jesus in a credible way." Thinking about it, it seems to me that this is a pretty incredible statement! I simply had no idea that Pope John Paul felt so strongly about the role of contemplation in the mission of the Church.

I remember watching the Pope on TV at the many world youth conventions that he attended. It always amazed me how many young people were there and how enthusiastic they were. There seemed to be something about the Pope that was irresistible to the youth of the Church. Is it possible that he was a mystic, a contemplative? That this is what drew them? I remember the many times the camera panned to him, and his eyes were closed and he was holding his large crucifix in a tight grip. Was he in deep prayer?

I think he was! One of the reasons for my belief is because silence seems so important to me in establishing a relationship with Christ. If we don't listen to Him, if we don't pause in silence to let His Spirit inform us, how can we ever hope to be a contemplative? In his Apostolic Letter, Roasrium Virginis Mariae, Pope John Paul II says: "A discovery of the importance of silence is one of the secrets of practicing contemplation and meditation. One drawback of a society dominated by technology and the mass media is the fact that silence becomes increasingly difficult to achieve." The fact that Pope John emphasizes silence speaks eloquently to me of his appreciation of how to foster our relationship with Jesus.

HITCHENS ON MOTHER TERESA

The first time I checked Amazon to see if Mother Teresa's book, Come Be My Light, was available on the internet, I came up empty. Today, I ordered the book through Amazon for delivery within a week or so! After reading Christopher Hitchens' article in Newsweek, and comparing it to the article in Time magazine which I mentioned last week on this blog, I am more interested than ever in reading Mother Teresa's letters!

I was fascinated to learn in Hitchens' article that he had been invited by certain Vatican dignitaries to testify at the Beatification hearings on Mother Teresa. To many of my readers this may be surprising. However, it is standard Catholic procedure to invite people to provide negative testimony at such hearings. And that is precisely what he does in this article, The Dogmatic Doubter. As far as I remember, aside from the first sentence of the article, it is negative from start to finish. Read it and see what you think!

The one statement he makes, that I would like to comment on at this time, is "She got what she wanted, and found it a crushing disappointment." How does Hitchen's know that it was a 'crushing disappointment?' One of the ideas that I frequently ponder, is "What goes on inside a person's mind and heart, particularly when it comes to their relationship with their God?" Comments?

MOTHER TERESA

I have just finished reading the excellent article on Mother Teresa in Time magazine by David Van Biema. While I knew of Mother Teresa, the icon, I actually knew very little about her life. What an extraordinary woman! I plan to get the book, Come Be My Light, as soon as it is available. The interesting thing about the book's title is that it is taken from the words of Christ to Mother Teresa when He asked her to work in the slums with the poor. As I read this book of her letters I want to study how her faith progresses. What seems like going backwards, in actual fact, is probably just the opposite. After I read Come Be My Light, I plan to comment both on the book and on this article in Time magazine by David Van Biema.

CONTEMPLATION AND THE ACTIVE APOSTOLATE

When I was a young girl, there were two convents of nuns in our Holy Child Jesus parish. One was for the Sisters of St. Joseph who taught in our parish elementary school. The other convent housed the Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity, or as we called them, the Trinitarians. They were missionaries, whose goal was to bring Christ to everyone. They had a special concern for the poor and needy of the parish.

My very first memory of the Trinitarians was the day they took me and some other kids to Rockaway Beach, NY. They paid our entrance fee into a swimming pool complex and I had the time of my life. It was wonderful. This was the first and only time I spent at that pool, for our family had few monetary resources. And the Sisters gave me a quarter, which was a lot of money at that time, to spend as I liked.

Recently, I have been reading about the Trinitarians in the book, God's Valiant Warrior, by Father Dennis Berry, S.T. My attention was caught by the emphasis Fr. Berry places on the role of contemplative prayer in missionary work. I was very pleasantly surprised by the words he quotes from an encyclical on the Church's missionary mandate written by Pope John Paul II. The Pope writes:

"Every member of the faithful is called to holiness and to mission . . . . The Church's missionary spirituality is a journey towards holiness . . . . [I believe] that the future of mission depends to a great extent on contemplation. Unless the missionary is a contemplative he cannot proclaim Jesus in a credible way."

These words from Pope John Paul II are strong indeed. I always wondered if the Pope was a mystic. It certainly seems that he was!

In his book mentioned above, Fr. Berry writes of the Missionary Cenacle family founded by Father Thomas Judge, a Vincentian priest. The congregation of Sisters was called The Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity, while the congregation of priests and Brothers was called by the same name, except that the word 'Blessed' was replaced by the word 'Holy' in the men's order. These two missionary congregations were founded in the twentieth century and both received Pontifical Status from Rome in 1985. It was the first time in over 400 years that the rule of a new religious community had been approved by Rome. Originally, the Sisters were considered somewhat revolutionary because they did not wear habits nor veils, but rather the dress of the day. They were pioneers not only in religious dress codes, but more importantly pioneers in emphasizing the important role the laity had in the Church.

As I indicated above, Fr. Berry places emphasis on mystical contemplation. He devotes Part IV of his book to ' Apostolic Spirituality in the Mystical Theology of the Church.' He relates how he use to identify mystical contemplation with parapsychological phenomena. He speaks of the 35 years he was associated with the Missionary Cenacle during which time he did not encounter such mystical phenomena in the lives of the members. This puzzled him. However, he did find the type of holiness and selflessness which is identified as being associated with the most advanced stages of the spiritual life in the mystical tradition. He concludes, as Father Thomas Keating has written in his classic book, Open Mind Open Heart, that mystical phenomena is not integral to mystical contemplation.

Fr. Berry believes that there were many saintly Sisters who were on the mystical path. And further, he concludes that the 'active' life does not prohibit an individual from embarking upon the mystical journey to the Spiritual Marriage and beyond. Fr. Berry proceeds to make his point that the missionary apostolate must be based on a contemplative spirit if it is to be fruitful. I was very pleased to see the importance that Fr. Berry places on mystical contemplation in the world.

CISTERCIAN (TRAPPIST) SAINT

On this feast day of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, a Cistercian monk and renowned mystic, I have asked St. Bernard to be, as it were, a patron of this blog and to help me manage and make posts on it in such a way that it supports Jesus' prayer that the Father's "Will be done on earth as it is in heaven."(Mt. 6:10)

MYSTICAL CONTEMPLATION

Mystical contemplation is the main subject of this blog.