A seminarian wrote,
I remember listening to a debate in my apologetics class regarding good works. One classmate made the point that Mother Teresa never did anything good because she did not have a regenerated heart. This is a controversial statement for two reasons. The second is that most people assume that she was a Christian because of her works, though that is debatable based on her writings and what she professed.
To be sure, this debate was taking place in a Calvinist (I would like to say evangelical, but I no longer know what this term means to others besides myself) seminary, where they will be very careful to reiterate that we are never saved by works (which by the way, all Christians believe, even Roman Catholics), but the conclusion that they came to, that it is doubtful that Mother Teresa was a Christian, is incredible.
Mother Teresa is someone whom I know fairly well, from reading about her work among the poorest of the poor (including among us who are not so poor), and her testimonies as well as what others have written about her. I know a fellow Christian when I see one. How can anyone doubt that she was a Christian? Well, I suppose the same people would doubt that a Roman pope could be a Christian… but my point is, that we are wasting our time and efforts to no avail, and in fact endangering our own souls, to judge others like this. In our effort to discern what is the correct doctrine of salvation or whatever, by our shallow judgments we trample the work of Christ in His saints, when they do not fit our presumptuous dogmatic schemes. Lord, have mercy!
Just call me a mad dog barking at a dumb wall that will not fall down no matter how hard I bark, but bark I must just the same. There are people trapped behind that wall, separated from the simple Truth who is Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior of our souls, who also is knocking on the doors in that wall, seemingly to no avail.
Like the merchants of Gadara, they fear the Man who sent their livestock careening to their deaths down the cliffs by the Galilean lake. They care little about the man whose life was straightened by the Master's words, nor that he who ran naked and gashed himself is now in his right mind and clothed. They hear the Man knocking whose teachings they say they glorify and guard against the wrong-minded, and they themselves do not open the door. He might cast their livestock, their investment, into the lake too, and then they would have nothing, be nothing, except (if they still wanted it) to be His disciples. He might tell them, as He told the Gerasene demoniac, that He didn't want him to follow Him, but rather to go and tell others what had been done for him. And that's just not good enough for them. They want to sit on thrones to the Master's right and left. But can they drink the cup that He has drunk? Or will they, like the one ‘enthroned’ on the cross to His left, say, "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!"(Luke 23:39)
Over the years--even while she was alive--I have read a lot of negativity about Mother Teresa. There have been criticisms of how she raised money and what she spent it on, her associations with famous people, and even her access to medical care for herself (which I guess was considered hypocritical or unfair because the poor of India did not have the same access). I recall reading an evaluation of her by a psychologist (who never met her) who described her as masochistic and psychologically imbalanced.
ReplyDeleteI believe she has been and continues to be a convenient scapegoat for some people. I do not know if the criticisms reached her ears--if so, she seems never to have defended herself but just kept working.
Keep barking--I will keep reading and we can only trust that God will somehow direct others to read also.
One of the things I liked about Mother Teresa was her pragmatism, and her humility in accepting sound advice. Two examples…
ReplyDeleteWhen she first started out all alone and the Lord began sending girls to her from among her former students (she had been a high school teacher in India), she had it in her mind that she and the girls would eat the same diet as the poorest of the poor that they were called to serve. That meant only a small quantity of milled rice every day, and maybe some fruit or vegetables. She wanted to identify very closely with these people. But a mother superior of an order of medical missionaries told her that it was foolish to make herself and the sisters live and eat like the poorest of the poor; they would soon become ill and possibly die, because they would become weak and susceptible to diseases like the homeless. Instead, she was advised to eat well and live simply but pay careful attention to their own physical needs. The poor, explained the mother superior, mostly did not work and so did not need to eat as much, but Mother Teresa and the sisters would be on the feet all over town all day long and in terrible conditions. She gratefully accepted the advice, and this became a part of the development of the order she founded. I also agree with this. It showed that Mother Teresa had the right kind of intentions and was not living in a religious fantasy.
The other example is this. One time a priest came to lecture and teach Mother Teresa and her sisters. He was not a traditional Catholic but one of those new age types who mix philosophy and an easy living attitude with elements of the faith, but his instructions were simply untrue and also unworkable in their situation. Mother did not confront him or challenge him in any way but, like her model Francis of Assisi who always venerated the clergy even when they did not deserve it, she waited till his lessons were over and then thanked him for coming to instruct them, and showed him to the door. After he had left, Mother Teresa told the sisters, 'Forget everything he said. Pay no attention, and don't worry about it or think of it again.' She did not invite him to come back for 'part two', but continued to instruct her spiritual daughters in the way of serving Christ in the poorest of the poor, as they always had, and to just follow Jesus.
I confess also, that I have an easy time accepting Mother Teresa for the saint that she was (I am not talking of her as a canonical saint, though the Church may glorify her that way) because her Eastern European piety and practicality reminds me of my own mother's. Also, my mom, when she was in her old age, could have passed for Mother Teresa; they looked almost the same, even down to their diminutive height. My mom was not even 5 feet tall. I think that if my mother's life had been just a little different, she had it in her to live the kind of life that Mother Teresa did. Before she died she even testified to me that she wished she could have been a nun.
Anyway, sister, I thank you for your comments. That people should openly question whether a person is a Christian or not, especially basing it on their own doctrinaire ideology, is pretty sad. We have encountered this before in all varieties of Christians, though it predominates in certain types more than in others.
My brother, there is reason to ask whether Mother Teresa was a real Christian. She did not believe in evangelism; she wanted to help Buddhists become better Buddhists and Hindus become better Hindus. She did not have the joy of the Lord, at least not for most of her years of service. She believed suffering made people better, so did not focus on relieving people's suffering nor on curing their diseases. To her own Lord she stands or falls. She had amazing courage (as when she challenged President Clinton concening abortion), and I admire many things about her, but I'm certainly not confident that she was a real believer in Jesus. How many major false beliefs can a person have, and still be a true believer? I'm not sure.
ReplyDeleteI am fully aware, Jim, that you and I can never agree on this issue of 'major false beliefs' and how salvation can be effected by holding the same.
ReplyDeleteFor me, salvation has nothing to do with being 'a true believer' in ideas, but everything to do with knowing who Jesus is.
Finally and most importantly, your or my admiration for someone, and whether or not we are confident that someone is a real believer in Jesus, has no bearing on their salvation, because as holy apostle Paul writes, ‘Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand' (Romans 14:4).
As for the rest of your observations about Mother Teresa, 'she did not believe in evangelism,' et cetera, you must know more than I, to be able to assert what you do about her beliefs and practices.
Again, what you express in your comments is not something that I would ever dare say about anyone, living or dead.
Yes, we both believe in Christ and who He is, and for me that is enough to acknowledge you as a brother in Him, but do we let any other opinion or even belief separate us?
Yes, as you write of Mother Teresa, 'to her own Lord she stands or falls,' I reiterate, 'she will stand, for the Lord is able to make her stand.' I trust in His word, and for me, that is enough.
Thank you, brother, for your careful reply. I have tried not to misrepresent her her beliefs. See, for example, this interview. I agree with you that "salvation has nothing to do with being 'a true believer' in ideas, but everything to do with knowing who Jesus is." (Although I'd say, "salvation has everything to do with truly knowing the true Jesus.") As you probably know, my theology was severely defective when I became a Christian. Many would say that I couldn't have been a Christian while believing (or not believing) as I did.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying that Mother Teresa was not a Christian. I simply wonder whether her life was the fruit of knowing Jesus or the fruit of something else.
Jim, I thank you too and sincerely appreciate your careful study and consideration of these things, but I simply cannot say or think, that is, I choose not to say or think, of Mother Teresa, or of you, or even of me, in categories such as these. What is real about each of us and our relationship with Jesus is beyond description and discussion, except only as hints which we may utter for the purpose of encouraging each other to seek only Him. Was Mother Teresa's life the fruit of knowing Jesus or the fruit of something else? Who can say? We can ask the same question of ourselves. In fact I ask myself this question almost every day about myself, and I ask the Lord. Do I really know You, Lord, am I really following You? If I am, my life is in Your hands. If I am not, my life is in Your hands. Save me!
ReplyDeleteWe do, indeed, ask the same question of ourselves--in my case, it's not every day, but I do so frequently. True followers of Jesus will become more like him in the long run...both in their beliefs and in their actions. May he finish the work that we believe he's begun in us.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post, and for your comments in reply to comments. It seems obvious to me that Mother Teresa had great love, and gave glory to God for it, and was a "little Christ." That kind of life can only be lived by the power of the Spirit of God, though some might not give the Holy Trinity credit for it. She did.
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