Sometimes I get ahead of myself, I
think we all do at times, projecting what we to see, over and against the
reality of what is, as in the title of this piece.
Saint Mother Theresa of Calcutta; the
patron saint of doubters.
In truth, the Church has named Mother
Theresa the Patron Saint of World Catholic Youth Day, and that is fair: in her
time the good mother inspired many young people, she inspired them through her
life of austerity and selflessness. She inspired many of us to good things, to
want to be good people.
In the most significant ways Mother
Theresa;s life was emblematic of what we see reflected in the first reading for
today (Colassians 1:9 – 14)[1].
She was a tiny woman, but she was
strong. She inspires through her strength and her commitment to her ideals,
despite the painful realities that she experienced, despite her understanding that
the suffering she sought to ease would never cease, that the suffering of the
world has no end.
We must be like the wise mother and pray
for strength, for wisdom and understanding, for perseverance. Mother Theresa
did not expect that by praying for these things God would transform her, or
that God would give her supernatural powers, but that the act of praying would
fortifies her, that it would give her the strength she needed to get through
her day.
Mother Theresa was sainted for her
life-long commitment to the good, to serving the poor, for setting an example
of patience and endurance; for setting such a strong example that if each of
the rest of us were able to approximate a small degree of her fundamental
stance toward justice and compassion, to give a small part of ourselves over to
the healing of the world, the world might stop spinning in its spiral of
violence. In that moment we might see something of the glory that is sung in
the psalm we are given for today’s meditation (Psalm 97[98])[2].
It is right and good to praise God,
the creator of the universe, because creation is miraculous and mysterious, and
beyond the scope of human comprehension.
And while it is right and good to
praise God, to doubt God’s purpose in the world is not a sin, but rather it is
the natural movement the heart, beating within the breast of a person who loves,
of someone who confronts the pain and suffering of the world, and falls into
despair.
It is not sinful to doubt God, or God’s
purpose in the world or what the tradition of the Church has said about God so
fulsomely.
Let us be clear about a few things:
God is not a giver of victories. God
has no enemies. In God, within whom all things exist and have their being…in
God there is no conflict.
It is not God’s justice that is shown
in the work of human beings, it is human justice, and when human justice
approximates the justice of God, it is expressed in mercy and compassion and
that is good.
Pope Francis, canonized Mother Theresa
on September the 4th, 2016, on the 23rd Sunday in
Ordinary Time of that year, her feast was celebrated for the first time and
from that day forward, on the 5th of September, which is today.
Christians of every stripe, and non-Christian
alike, remember her for her desire to embrace all people, no matter how flawed
or marginalized they might be, and all people will remember this brilliant
woman, servant and sister, this theologian; they will remember her for a brilliance
that grows even greater in her afterlife.
Consider the acclamation from today’s
reading (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14)[3].
God chose her, as God chooses all of;
God chose her from the beginning, to receive the sanctifying spirit, he created
her in the divine image, placing within her a seed of the eternal Word to
enliven her. God made her this way, in the same way that God makes everyone,
but what made the sainted mother different from most of the rest of us was that
she saw clearly the truth of it, she saw the divine image in the people she
bent down to serve, she saw it in the poor and the sick, in the blind and the
leper, she saw God suffering in them and she responded with the love God had
instructed her in.
Mother Theresa is famous for her
service and her impressive life, and the inspiration she gave to millions of
people. She heard the call and followed (Matthew 4:19)[4].
When I reflect on the life of Saint
Theresa of Calcutta, it is her memoirs, which were published after her death, which
had the greatest impact on me.
Saint Theresa struggled, like all of
us do, with the sense that God had abandoned her, and that God had abandoned
the world. She managed to do the good works she did, to serve the Church and
all of its members, to fulfill her commitment to her order, to lead them; to
make of her life a daily sacrifice even in the midst of her own profound doubt,
great personal suffering, as she experienced the suffering of other’s (which
she shared), and in consideration of her deep-felt sense of alienation from
God.
To persevere in goodness, in the face
of her doubts, to admit to the pain that she brought to others, even as she
tried to serve them, to confess and ask forgiveness, and to lead them. To bear
witness to the suffering of the world, even to hold God accountable for it in
her heart, and still follow the calling of the Spirit despite her indictment of
the even, that is why she will be known as the Patron Saint of Doubters.
Mother Theresa was different from the
disciples who followed Jesus and witnessed his miraculous life, as we read
about in today’s gospel (Luke 5:1-11)[5].
Her example of how to fulfill the
Christian life in the face of the deepest doubts is what makes her life exemplary,
a life that will continue to shine on us long after the sun has collapsed and
human beings are scattered throughout the galaxy.
We will carry the memory of Saint
Theresa of Calcutta with us, a shining light for us in the darkness.
Let us take a moment to reflect on
this in consideration of the gospel reading for the day.
This is not a story about fishing, and
there is no such thing as magic, it is right to doubt a literal reading of the gospel.
This is a story about moving beyond
boundaries, reshaping context, exceeding expectations, and organizing the work
of one’s partners.
These are the things Mother Theresa
exemplified most.
Jesus led his closest followers into a
new way of life, and a new mode of teaching, he showed them how to go beyond
the boundaries, so that they were able to provide their ministry to greater
numbers of people. Mother Theresa did this and followed the example to the end,
go to the poorest places, to serve the most downtrodden, the people who were
being crushed by the wheel of life. She lifted them up and cared for them, to
show them for a moment something of God’s love that they may not have felt
before.
In the Gospel reading we see that
Saint Peter goes to Jesus to ask for forgiveness on account of him being a
sinful man. Peter had doubted Jesus’ method, and when he came to understand his
misjudgment he felt a deep sense of shame and guilt.
Peter’s doubts were not sinful.
Doubt is not a sin.
Mother Theresa taught us this in her
final words to us.
There is something historically
significant about her relationship to her doubts that we would all do well to
be mindful of.
The history of Christianity in India
has always been connected to the missionary work of the Apostle Thomas, of Saint
Thomas the doubter who did not believe that Jesus had risen from the dead until
he placed his own fingers into the wounds Christ bore, the wounds which still
marred his body even after he was reborn.
Never mind the historical realities of
the origin of the Church in India, set aside the legends held closely by the
faithful in India, the accuracy of that history is unimportant, what matters is
their faith.
It is not important that Saint Thomas
the disciple of Jesus never travelled there; a myth that Christians in India
have believed this for centuries, what is important is that the beliefs of the
Church in India are themselves a historical reality, a reality that cannot be
ignored one that has shaped their communities for as long as those communities
have existed.
There is no doubting that, or how the
character of Saint Thomas the doubter has shaped the character of their faith,
to be free doubt, as Thomas did, as Theresa did, as Peter did not.
Thomas is the patron saint of doubt,
Theresa is the patron saint of doubters. Saint Thomas tells us that doubt is an
integral part of faith. Saint Theresa comes to aid us in the midst of it.
Be mindful of this as you struggle to
persevere.
09.05.2019
Given First 09.03.2016
[1] Colossians
1:9-14 © (NJB) Through perfect wisdom and spiritual understanding, may you
reach the fullest knowledge of God’s will. So you will be able to lead the kind
of life which the Lord expects of you, a life acceptable to him in all its
aspects; showing the results in all the good actions you do and increasing your
knowledge of God. You will have in you the strength, based on his own glorious
power, never to give in, but to bear anything joyfully.
We thank the Father who has made it possible for us to
share in the saints’ inheritance of light. He has taken us out of the power of
darkness and created a place for us in the kingdom of the Son that he loves. In
him, we gain our freedom and the forgiveness of our sins.
[2] Psalm
97 (98) (NJB) The Lord has brought salvation. Acclaim the King, the Lord. Sing
a new song to the Lord, for he has worked wonders. His right hand, his holy
arm, have brought him victory. The Lord has shown his saving power, and before
all nations he has shown his justice. He has remembered to show his kindness and
his faithfulness to the house of Israel. The farthest ends of the earth have
seen the saving power of our God. Rejoice in God, all the earth. Break forth in
triumph and song! Sing to the Lord on the lyre, with the lyre and with music. With
trumpets and the sound of the horn, sound jubilation to the Lord, our king. Let
the sea resound in its fullness, all the earth and all its inhabitants. The
rivers will clap their hands, and the mountains will exult at the presence of
the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge all the world in
justice, and the peoples with fairness
[3] 2
Thessalonians 2:13-14 © (NJB) We feel that we must be continually thanking God
for you, brothers whom the Lord loves, because God chose you from the beginning
to be saved by the sanctifying Spirit and by faith in the truth. Through the
Good News that we brought he called you to this so that you should share the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[4] Matthew
4:19 (NJB) Follow me, says the Lord, and I will make you into fishers of men.
[5] Luke
5:1-11 © (NJB) Jesus was standing one day by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the
crowd pressing round him listening to the word of God, when he caught sight of
two boats close to the bank. The fishermen had gone out of them and were
washing their nets. He got into one of the boats – it was Simon’s – and asked
him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds
from the boat.
When he had finished speaking he said to Simon, ‘Put
out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.’ ‘Master,’ Simon
replied, ‘we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so,
I will pay out the nets.’ And when they had done this they netted such a huge
number of fish that their nets began to tear, so they signalled to their
companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they
filled the two boats to sinking point.
When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of
Jesus saying, ‘Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.’ For he and all his
companions were completely overcome by the catch they had made; so also were
James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners. But Jesus said to
Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on it is men you will catch.’ Then, bringing
their boats back to land, they left everything and followed him.
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