* "Oh, I hope I am converting. I don't mean what you think. I hope we are converting hearts. Not even Almighty God can convert a person unless that person wants it. What we are all trying to do by our work, by serving the people, is to come closer to God. If in coming face to face with God we accept Him in our lives, then we are converting. We become a better Hindu, a better Muslim, a better Catholic, a better whatever we are, and then by being better we come closer and closer to Him. If we accept Him fully in our lives, then that is conversion. What approach would I use? For me, naturally, it would be a Catholic one, for you it may be Hindu, for someone else, Buddhist, according to one's conscience. What God is in your mind you must accept. But I cannot prevent myself from trying to give you what I have" [Desmond Doig, Mother Teresa: Her People and Her Work, (Glasgow: William Collins Sons &Co. Ltd., 1976), p. 136].
Some reactions are found here, here and here
Like I said before, I can not know for certain what went on at the last moments of Mother T whether she held on to this or not. All we can do in this discussion is do conditional discussion. This means one can only make statements like this "if Mother T believed this then ....". That is the question, we do not know for certain if she recanted this and finally got to see the Gospel etc. Within the confines of conditionality, I think fair statements can be made and some educational interchange is still fruitful.
What do ya think?
4 comments:
Mother T's quote is just sad. Steve's commentary is very good. I especially found his point 8 intriguing, "Finally she has a very unrealistic grasp of what it means to experience the reality of God. For her, God is absent unless he’s present in some extraordinary way. A mystical encounter. Signs and wonders. Visions and auditions. Trumpets and fireworks." Sounds just like what I spent years looking for! A former pastor (Lutheran) of mine used to compare Evangelicalism to RC in a negative way that I had trouble grasping. He had seen much more in his life as a pastor than I had, so I accepted his comparison. Steve's commentary helps me understand the comparison a bit more.
Hi sis,
Absolutely absolutely right. She longed for a mystical relief and I too am saddened by that. Did not Luther once said, we are all enthusiasts by nature? Adam and Eve were like that too? I thought the smelly monk said something like that.
If we can not be satisfied by Word and Sacrament, what reliable source can we have? Nothing.
Where can we go, Jesus has the Words of Eternal life. I do not know if she soaked herself with the Scripture, the RC tradition does not hammer on that but I should think some relief should be experienced - did not Luther meditated on Scripture too when he was searching for relief?
LPC
You can soak yourself with Scripture and end up reading nothing but Law. Been there, done that...
Kelly,
That is hypothetical, we do not know if Mother T would have the same experience as you suppose. I have not read much but the Scripture did not seem to function in Mother T's religiosity, and being a former RC myself, that would not be strange.
Aprently the experience of Luther was the reverse, for there he got the Gospel!
Sure you may get the Law but where do you find the Gospel except in the Word.
The Word of the Lord will not return void.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of Christ.
Goodness, If we go to the Word of the Lord the means of grace, and still find there no hope, well, Christ has left us without hope.
In the RC system, the sacraments are not the best way to go because they are being used as ex opere operato. Mother T and Luther had plenty of that.
Luther and Mother T were both RCs, the former resorted to Scripture and found the comfort of his soul, the latter, well I got no data on her.
Lito
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