POST 38: "DO LIKE I DO"
“Prayer in action is love, love in action is service.”Mother Teresa
It was a powerful reminder then when I heard that Mother T. spent the last 50 years of her life in a spiritual darkness. She felt abandoned by God. At times she doubted God’s existence. She felt spiritually empty. She asked why God withdrew His awareness from her. Yet she kept serving. She never stopped. In a way she understood the isolation she felt was akin to the isolation experienced by the poorest of the poor, those whom she served. In this Mother T. never wavered. It is said that Mother T. had a version of the “Paradoxical Commandments” by Kent Keith on her wall. I add this to our Practicum primer, along with the story of Elijah and the Rabbi:
People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.
This sounds like Mother T.’s song. Just do it anyway.
Imagine Mother T. feeling dark and empty, abandoned by God, yet she got up every day and went about her work with the destitute, the poor and the dying. For fifty years she got up to pray and to do the good that was in front of her to do. God gave her a very painful song to hear – a song of deep isolation that so many people on earth feel. That’s what many of Mother T.’s confessors and spiritual advisors believe. God just placed this heavy cross on her shoulders. He never really abandoned her – but that is what she experienced. So she kept pushing on with this heavy cross and this saying on her wall, which sums up so much about life. We have a choice to make. To give in, give up or get up. Today I choose to get up.
Since Mother T.’s death in 1997, she not only has been on the fast track to sainthood (beautified in 2003). However English journalists in 1994 and later studies out of Canada, paint a dimmer picture of Mother. Perhaps because of her own spiritual destitution, it is claimed she did little to alleviate the suffering of the poor in homes for the destitute and dying. Doctors further report a significant lack of hygiene, lack of proper medical care and a singular absence of painkillers. Mother T. consistently lifted up suffering as a value and giving should hurt. The vast sums of money that were raised for poor and destitute have gone to maintain a growing organization which has 517 foundations in 133 countries worldwide.
It is true that Mother T. was a conservative, old-school Catholic. Stories of her strong-arming businessmen for donations are legendary, as are evangelizing the poor in her care. She has her defenders as well as her detractors. Having seen religious fundamentalism up close, I can attest to its leadership being capable of being absolutely faithful, inspiring, caring, and yet manipulative and controlling all in the same breath. It’s called being human. The Mother T. I met was a holy woman. I felt that. I don’t think she could have got that way if she were totally corrupt. No. She got that way because something in her very human heart was open to God.
I don’t agree with her politics or some of the conservative teachings of the church that she has championed. Maybe the critics are right. As always, I believe the truth is somewhere in between. It’s like it is for all of us, we are each a bit of a sinner and of a saint.
In the end, it just depends on where you decide to focus your energy.
NOTES:
http://www.verybestquotes.com/150-mother-teresa-quotes/#sthash.eA4ynwNZ.dpuf
http://www.debate.org/debates/Mother-Teresa-was-not-so-saint-like/1/
http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/10/forbes-india-mother-teresa-charity-critical-public-review.html
https://humanizzm.wordpress.com/2010/12/21/missionaries-of-inhumanity/
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/uom-mta022813.php
Give the gift of music to the next generation through donations to:
The Manilow Music Project
8295 South La Cienega Boulevard
Inglewood, CA 90301
info@manilowmusicproject.org
Click here to go to the next post or click here to return to the previous post.
It was a powerful reminder then when I heard that Mother T. spent the last 50 years of her life in a spiritual darkness. She felt abandoned by God. At times she doubted God’s existence. She felt spiritually empty. She asked why God withdrew His awareness from her. Yet she kept serving. She never stopped. In a way she understood the isolation she felt was akin to the isolation experienced by the poorest of the poor, those whom she served. In this Mother T. never wavered. It is said that Mother T. had a version of the “Paradoxical Commandments” by Kent Keith on her wall. I add this to our Practicum primer, along with the story of Elijah and the Rabbi:
People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.
This sounds like Mother T.’s song. Just do it anyway.
Imagine Mother T. feeling dark and empty, abandoned by God, yet she got up every day and went about her work with the destitute, the poor and the dying. For fifty years she got up to pray and to do the good that was in front of her to do. God gave her a very painful song to hear – a song of deep isolation that so many people on earth feel. That’s what many of Mother T.’s confessors and spiritual advisors believe. God just placed this heavy cross on her shoulders. He never really abandoned her – but that is what she experienced. So she kept pushing on with this heavy cross and this saying on her wall, which sums up so much about life. We have a choice to make. To give in, give up or get up. Today I choose to get up.
Since Mother T.’s death in 1997, she not only has been on the fast track to sainthood (beautified in 2003). However English journalists in 1994 and later studies out of Canada, paint a dimmer picture of Mother. Perhaps because of her own spiritual destitution, it is claimed she did little to alleviate the suffering of the poor in homes for the destitute and dying. Doctors further report a significant lack of hygiene, lack of proper medical care and a singular absence of painkillers. Mother T. consistently lifted up suffering as a value and giving should hurt. The vast sums of money that were raised for poor and destitute have gone to maintain a growing organization which has 517 foundations in 133 countries worldwide.
It is true that Mother T. was a conservative, old-school Catholic. Stories of her strong-arming businessmen for donations are legendary, as are evangelizing the poor in her care. She has her defenders as well as her detractors. Having seen religious fundamentalism up close, I can attest to its leadership being capable of being absolutely faithful, inspiring, caring, and yet manipulative and controlling all in the same breath. It’s called being human. The Mother T. I met was a holy woman. I felt that. I don’t think she could have got that way if she were totally corrupt. No. She got that way because something in her very human heart was open to God.
I don’t agree with her politics or some of the conservative teachings of the church that she has championed. Maybe the critics are right. As always, I believe the truth is somewhere in between. It’s like it is for all of us, we are each a bit of a sinner and of a saint.
In the end, it just depends on where you decide to focus your energy.
NOTES:
http://www.verybestquotes.com/150-mother-teresa-quotes/#sthash.eA4ynwNZ.dpuf
http://www.debate.org/debates/Mother-Teresa-was-not-so-saint-like/1/
http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/10/forbes-india-mother-teresa-charity-critical-public-review.html
https://humanizzm.wordpress.com/2010/12/21/missionaries-of-inhumanity/
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/uom-mta022813.php
Give the gift of music to the next generation through donations to:
The Manilow Music Project
8295 South La Cienega Boulevard
Inglewood, CA 90301
info@manilowmusicproject.org
Click here to go to the next post or click here to return to the previous post.
