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#253585 - 09/21/07 03:30 PM
Re: Mother Teresa: Come be My Light
[Re: theophan]
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Member
Registered: 01/30/02
Posts: 4240
Loc: Chicago
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Yes, Bl. Mother Teresa's own "dark night of the soul" was not a crisis in faith, as some uncharitably suggest, but a trial of faith!
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#253671 - 09/22/07 02:22 PM
Re: Mother Teresa: Come be My Light
[Re: Terry Bohannon]
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Moderator
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Registered: 11/27/02
Posts: 5316
Loc: Hollidaysburg, PA
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I thought this little portion of a sermon by St. Augustine fits the thrust of this book rather well. It's something we want to forget, safe as we are in our country. BOB From St Augustine's sermon On Pastors (from the Office of Readings for Saturday, September 22, 2007; Liturgy of the Hours)
Offer the bandage of consolation
Scripture says: God chastises every son whom he acknowledges. But the bad shepherd says: “Perhaps I will be exempt”. If he is exempt from the suffering of his chastisements, then he is not numbered among God’s sons. You will say: “Does God indeed punish every son?” Yes, every one, just as he chastised his only Son. His only Son, born of the substance of the Father, equal to the Father in the form of God, the Word through whom all things were made, he could not be chastised. For this reason he was clothed with flesh so that he might know chastisement. God punishes his only Son who is without sin; does he then leave unpunished an adopted son who is with sin? The Apostle says that we have been called to adoption. We have been adopted as sons, that we might be co-heirs with the only Son, and also that we might be his inheritance: Ask of me and I will give you the nations as your inheritance. Christ gave us the example by his own sufferings.
But clearly one who is weak must neither be deceived with false hope nor broken by fear. Otherwise he may fail when temptations come. Say to him: Prepare your soul for temptation. Perhaps he is starting to falter, to tremble with fear, perhaps he is unwilling to approach. You have another passage of Scripture for him: God is faithful. He does not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength. Make that promise while preaching about the sufferings to come, and you will strengthen the man who is weak. When someone is held back because of excessive fear, promise him God’s mercy. It is not that temptations will be lacking, but that God will not permit anyone to be tempted beyond what he can bear. In this manner you will be binding up the broken one.
When they hear of the trials that are coming, some men arm themselves more and, so to speak, are eager to drain the cup. The ordinary medicine of the faithful seems to them but a small thing; for their part they seek the glorious death of the martyrs. Others hear of the temptations to come, and when they do arrive, as arrive they must, they become broken and lame. Yet it is right that such things befall the Christian, and no one esteems them except the one who desires to be a true Christian.
Offer the bandage of consolation, bind up what has been broken. Say this: “Do not be afraid. God in whom you have believed does not abandon you in temptations. God is faithful. He does not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength. It is not I who say this, but the Apostle, and he says further: Are you willing to accept his trial, the trial of Christ who speaks in me? When you hear this you are hearing it from Christ himself, you are hearing it from the shepherd who gives pasture to Israel. For of him it was said: You will give us tears to drink in measure. The Apostle says: He does not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength. This is also what the prophet intends by adding the words: in measure. God rebukes but also encourages, he brings fear and he brings consolation, he strikes and he heals. Do not reject him”.
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#253679 - 09/22/07 03:53 PM
Re: Mother Teresa: Come be My Light
[Re: Michael McD]
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Moderator
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Registered: 11/27/02
Posts: 5316
Loc: Hollidaysburg, PA
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Michael:
Someone sent me a piece written by an Orthodox monastic--I think it was Archbishop Averky of ROCOR, but I can't put my hands on it. The thrust of the piece was that the Christian life is meant to be a life of penance, sacrifice, suffering, and hardship so that we may enter the Passion of Christ and, as St. Paul puts it, "fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ" by shouldering our cross with love, joy, patience, and peace.
We so often forget that and adopt a rather Calvinistic attitude that sees suffering as God's punishment on us, as opposed to worldly success which the same mindset thinks is God's blessing on His own: the opposite of Apostolic spirituality in both East and West.
BOB
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#253758 - 09/23/07 05:59 PM
Re: Mother Teresa: Come be My Light
[Re: Terry Bohannon]
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Registered: 11/27/02
Posts: 5316
Loc: Hollidaysburg, PA
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Would someone with a Calvinistic attitude towards suffering be able to bear a fraction of the suffering of the dark night? Terry: I think the difference in bearing the pain of suffering is that Mother Teresa's was borne with a joy that seems to develop as one progresses through her correspondence. The Calvinistic approach can leave one in a despair that may or may not become permanent. Without the idea that our suffering has eternal value when nailed to the Cross, what differentiates it from the suffering of anyone else in the world at any time either before or after Christ? To me, nothing. It's entirely human to want to avoid suffering and to seek answers for the "why?" of it. Think of defining suffering as God's punishment. What does it leave one with? Does it lend itself to the idea that "God so loved the world that HE sent His Only-Begotten Son . . ."? Job in the Old Testament could not relate to the Christian concept that we have now. But his clinging to faith in God despite what he had to endure is something we have as a foundation on which our later concept of nailing our suffering to the Cross of Christ can be built. He points the way to Christ, IMHO. There seems to be a certain mystery to suffering. Indeed. We see everything, including our suffering, from the vantage point of the door of the empty Tomb. We look out on the whole of our world and all of our experiences, standing in that doorway. In Christ, BOB
Edited by theophan (09/23/07 06:00 PM)
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#253762 - 09/23/07 06:27 PM
Re: Mother Teresa: Come be My Light
[Re: Terry Bohannon]
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Member
Registered: 04/21/07
Posts: 575
Loc: Holmdel, NJ, USA
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Terry, Would someone with a Calvinistic attitude towards suffering be able to bear a fraction of the suffering of the dark night?
I was close to someone who had that attitude. A family tragedy was God's punishment on her unfaithfulness, then her sister was injured from the same motivation. Nothing I said steered her away from that way of seeing, she was doggedly persistent at it with every aspect of life. I had wondered at this.
There seems to be a certain mystery to suffering. Though Job did not know why he was suffering, his faith did not waver. Why is there such difficulty with this mystery in our time?
Terry St. Josemaria Escriva used to distinguish between "crosses" that we make for ourselves, and the "true cross" (which can be as simple as being on time for all our classes). When it is a self-made cross, or when we call "cross" what is the consequence of our disorderly conduct or laziness, it doesn't unite us to Christ (although any sorrow for it can unite us to Christ). When it comes without our provoking it, it has the ability to unite us ever more closely to Christ, if we embrace it with His help. The "dark night of the soul" is never the consequence of self-made crosses; it's not the consequence of our negligence. Mother Teresa was a heroic disciple and saint. That's why all the talk about "her doubts" is nonsense: her spiritual suffering resulted from her continual fidelity to the Will of God, not from her defects. That's why she always had a smile for people.
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#254043 - 09/25/07 07:50 PM
Re: Mother Teresa: Come be My Light
[Re: theophan]
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Grateful
Member
Registered: 08/03/04
Posts: 3446
Loc: Ohio, USA
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It occurred to me this morning that the darkness described by Mother Teresa
[ . . . ] may be the same darkness that people feel who take their own lives. Bob, I honestly disagree. The former are experiencing a darkness that has been drawn over them, like a veil. The latter are experiencing a darkness that they have chosen to focus upon because it is their way to flee the pain in their lives. The former actively seek the Light of Christ, despite the pain. The latter have difficulty seeing the Light of Christ, and some consciously turn away from it, because they are trying to escape from their pain. How fortunate every member of this board is to have had the gift of faith and know deep inside that the darkest darkness is light when we are "in Christ." Amen, brother, amen . . . -- John
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#254044 - 09/25/07 07:56 PM
Re: Mother Teresa: Come be My Light
[Re: harmon3110]
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Moderator
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Registered: 11/27/02
Posts: 5316
Loc: Hollidaysburg, PA
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JOHN: You're probably right. Not everything that occurs to me has value and I appreciate your insight. I guess I was focused on the darkness and not the reason behind it. Well put. Back to the book.  In Christ, BOB
Edited by theophan (09/25/07 07:56 PM)
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#254095 - 09/26/07 07:34 AM
Re: Mother Teresa: Come be My Light
[Re: harmon3110]
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Moderator
Member
Registered: 11/27/02
Posts: 5316
Loc: Hollidaysburg, PA
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JOHN: Thought about this darkness some more overnight--didn't lose any sleep, however. The darkness, the emptiness, the loneliness, the sense of abandonment that Mother Teresa speaks of in her correspondence and that some many spiritual writers allude to when they speak of Jesus' cry from the Cross seems to me to be something that can put one to the brink of suicide if one has no faith to hold onto as an anchor. Mother Teresa seems, by her letters to have just plain "hung on" in spite of everything--what she called "blind faith" in Christ even when it felt like HE had abandoned her completely. She goes on to equate it to the poor who have never heard of Christ--not only those who were materially poor in India, but also those who are spiritually poor in never having heard of Christ. What I'm saying is that somehow we can all get there, whether it is a God-given gift for purification or it is a self-willed state, it's still a frightening place to be for any human being. It occurred to me that even those who have a large family and a large social network can feel this way and that maybe that's why it seems so unreal when someone who seemingly should hve no reason to do so chooses suicide. Maybe I'm still trying to find some answer for the people I serve who ask and I have no answer--I'd still have no answer even though I might come to some dim understanding of the state that people must be in. Or am I still off the mark trying to equate two different things? BOB
Edited by theophan (09/26/07 07:39 AM)
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#254097 - 09/26/07 08:01 AM
Re: Mother Teresa: Come be My Light
[Re: harmon3110]
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Member
Registered: 04/21/07
Posts: 575
Loc: Holmdel, NJ, USA
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John and Bob, The former are experiencing a darkness that has been drawn over them, like a veil. The latter are experiencing a darkness that they have chosen to focus upon because it is their way to flee the pain in their lives.
The former actively seek the Light of Christ, despite the pain. The latter have difficulty seeing the Light of Christ, and some consciously turn away from it, because they are trying to escape from their pain.
Thanks to both of you! I think there is a third situation, which is what I think one of my daughters is suffering from: anxiety. There is a psychological diagnosis, but, also another, spiritual one also. I think my daughter is a case of the second phenomenon John mentions above: the difference is that she is not "consciously turning away", some trauma has "fused" or "frozen" her mind/heart so that she only "remembers" the pain at the moment of trial, and so "fails" consistently given the same challenge. I believe no amount of "treatment" can really help here; only Love can thaw the knot in her mind/heart. She told me yesterday that she hasn't had a good "cry" in years; I'm praying for God's grace to melt her heart, so she can truly be able to love him back. I think she has become afraid to love (God, parents, friends), to become vulnerable and be hurt again. Somehow, and against all the actual facts, she sees herself as worthless. Is this Satan's doing?Michael P.S. I would suggest she read Mother Teresa's book, except that if I do, it will have "Dad-cooties", and not be read. 
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#254109 - 09/27/07 08:07 AM
Re: Mother Teresa: Come be My Light
[Re: theophan]
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Member
Registered: 05/15/07
Posts: 2232
Loc: Houston, TX USA
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Bob,
Not just faith, but a solid spiritual grounding as well. It's hard for me to disregard the standards set by how some see faith through Sola Fide.
Where I've seen suicide or its attempts, it is a total act of despair. That darkness would seem to be more of a selfish darkness, that one feels abandoned by everybody. If that person comes from the faith, I can see where you are going if that feeling of abandonment includes thoughts such as, "Even You abandon me, my Lord?" That could lead to the shift of weights that imbalance a person's temper.
But when I've seen it, sometimes the person who is suicidal fails to see, or acknowledge, that people care. Other times they build an immense hatred of themselves. They push everybody away and then despair that nobody is around or they focus on a past hurt or mistake they cannot change. Someone in that position can also push God away, and if this is done willfully that would seem an act of unfaith (however you want to put it).
I have only read articles and good reviews of Mother Teresa's book, so I may change my mind when I read the work; but Mother Teresa's darkness seems a bit different than the darkness that can lead to despair. I think it is a difference of occasion. In the beautiful images from Isaiah, there is a scene where he is purified before he comes into the presence of God; even the seraphim cover their faces before the Lord. It would make sense that her darkness was as deep as it was because of the intimacy of her visions, and because she was for a time enveloped in the presence of Christ. She was given a mission and this intimacy was cut off. That darkness would be far darker because of the spiritual height she was brought. I like the image C.S. Lewis uses in The Great Divorce: that our world is but a shadowland when compared to the reality of heaven, and that man is but a shadow of what he will be in the new creation. Is it possible to touch the spiritual heights and not be blinded into darkness? I am under the impression that St. John of the Cross taught that at the peak of Mt. Carmael, at the peak of spiritual maturation, the body cannot hold back the soul from unity with God.
Is this darkness of the soul why God hid his face from Moses who, after being in His intimacy and seeing His back, had shone with glory? I can't imagine that a suicidal darkness would be as dark as the dark night of the soul; faith, hope, and love allow the latter to bear it. Would someone without faith be so graced as to be lifted to spiritual heights for a moment, or a series of moments, to then live the rest of their lives in apprehension of being in the eternal presence of God?
Terry
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#254119 - 09/27/07 09:25 AM
Re: Mother Teresa: Come be My Light
[Re: harmon3110]
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Member
Registered: 04/21/07
Posts: 575
Loc: Holmdel, NJ, USA
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Is this darkness of the soul why God hid his face from Moses who, after being in His intimacy and seeing His back, had shone with glory? No one may see God, and live. I believe Mother Teresa's pain was due to how "almost" she actually did see God (even in others). This purified her; she knew that through faith, accepted it for the medicine it was, and loved it -- no despair, just fidelity.
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#254137 - 09/27/07 11:26 AM
Re: Mother Teresa: Come be My Light
[Re: Terry Bohannon]
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Grateful
Member
Registered: 08/03/04
Posts: 3446
Loc: Ohio, USA
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But the perception of the darkness wouldn't be the same. And that could make a difference. Agreed. That, I think, is entirely the point; and it is the basis from which people choose to react to it. -- John
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