Mother Teresa, Scott Cairns, and the Holy Struggle

Last updated on: February 21, 2013 at 5:33 pm by Jeffrey Overstreet

Mother Teresa, Scott Cairns, and the Holy Struggle 2013-02-21T17:33:00-07:00 Jeffrey Overstreet

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Jesus has a very special love for you. (But) as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see — Listen and do not hear — the tongue moves (in prayer) but does not speak … I want you to pray for me — that I let Him have (a) free hand.

– Mother Teresa to the Rev. Michael Van Der Peet, September 1979

That’s the hook at the front of next week’s TIME Magazine cover story.

And the following article by David Van Biema has me intrigued…

A new, innocuously titled book, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (Doubleday), consisting primarily of correspondence between Teresa and her confessors and superiors over a period of 66 years, provides the spiritual counterpoint to a life known mostly through its works. 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 ‚Äî or, as the book’s compiler and editor, the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, writes, “neither in her heart or in the eucharist.”

Okay, but then:

Two very different Catholics predict that the book will be a landmark. The Rev. Matthew Lamb, chairman of the theology department at the conservative Ave Maria University in Florida, thinks Come Be My Light will eventually rank with St. Augustine’s Confessions and Thomas Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain as an autobiography of spiritual ascent. Martin of America, a much more liberal institution, calls the book “a new ministry for Mother Teresa, a written ministry of her interior life,” and says, “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.”

Not all atheists and doubters will agree. Both Kolodiejchuk and Martin assume that Teresa’s inability to perceive Christ in her life did not mean he wasn’t there. In fact, they see his absence as part of the divine gift that enabled her to do great work.

I’ve been reading Scott Cairns’ latest work, a tribute to… and translation of… early Christian teachers — Love’s Immensity: Mystics on the Endless Life. Each page of beautiful prayer and profundity is accompanied by a brief introduction to the writer’s life and sufferings. Their writings resonate with integrity precisely because their faith is so resilient throughout a journey of trouble, loss, rejection, persecution, and doubt… just as the Psalms are shot through with struggle.

So much of contemporary Christian writing is disposable due to the utter lack of struggle in those pages. (I would even go so far as to say that a lot of Christian writing… and art… betrays a fear of struggle, trying to cover up the reality of doubt with superficial cheer and a kind of frantic hodge-podge of scriptures pulled from their context.) Thus, a great deal of “spiritual writing” and “Christian art” seems about as substantial as an infomercial sales pitch. It’s hard to find those guides who speak from experience, and those artists who work from the heart rather than a hysteria of wishful-thinking .

I stand in awe of Mother Teresa’s life, and I look forward to the privilege of knowing the testimony of her trials.

Note: The editor of this collection the editor of the collection will be on the NBC Nightly News tonight.

Another note: I’m a little surprised that there hasn’t been a major motion picture unveiled yet, something on the scale of Gandhi. I would hope that any such effort would mine this text for insights.

Blog

Mother Teresa

Scott Cairns

Previous Post

August 21, 2007

Kate DiCamillo's Back!

Next Post

August 23, 2007 Stereo Subversion's Over the Rhine Interview

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Blog Bloggers on "Through a Screen Darkly" Browser Coming Soon Endorsements Fiction Books Film Forum Film Reviews Inspirations Interviews Journal Kindlings Muse Movie buzz Music Reviews Non-Fiction Books radio Reviewers on "Through a Screen Darkly" The Auralia Thread Through a Screen Darkly Through a Screen Darkly - Bonus Materials Top 10 (or 20 or 100) lists Uncategorized

Select a Month June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 July 2003 May 2003 March 2003 September 1999

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many commandments were written on stone tablets?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Twelve Seven Thirteen Ten