Mother Teresa Persevered Through Doubt
A Light in the 21st Century's "Dark Night"By Elizabeth Lev
ROME, AUG. 30, 2007 (Zenit.org).- As a respected Boston lawyer once remarked of recent biographies, "It's tough times for the dead." A case in point was the cover of last week's Time magazine. Splashed across the front page ran the headline "The Secret Life of Mother Teresa," accompanied by the gloomiest picture you ever saw of the saintly nun.
With its sensationalist title, Time magazine not only descended to the level of tabloid journalism, but betrayed a woeful ignorance of the meaning of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta's spiritual journey.
Capitulating to the fad of finding the sordid behind the glitter, where titles like "Britney's Breakdown" or "Lindsay in Crisis" are guaranteed to boost sales, the article itself feeds into the mentality that things are never as pretty as they seem. In our age of masking our own shortcomings by pointing out the flaws in others, it suggests that Mother Teresa's joyous love of the poor hid a darker, almost sinister side.
Recent interest in the extraordinary founder of the Missionaries of Charity stemmed from the recently published book "Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light." Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, postulator for the cause of canonization of the saintly nun who died in 1997, compiled her letters and writings, including a number that revealed Teresa's spiritual trials.
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posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 9:37 PM
2 Comments:
Still, that rather ghastly Time Magazine photo does leave you wondering is it possible Mother Teresa was battling something more like clinical depression. Her spiritual struggles are a mystery but we maybe need to look beyond the dichotomies of a saint who lived St John of the Cross's Dark Night longer than he or anyone, and the mere dismissal of her life and life and work. I have attempted to see other perspectives in my article
"Mother Teresa: Sainthood Running on Religious Empty" at
http://rollanscensoredissuesblog.blogspot.com/
All of Elizabeth Lev's articles can be found on her website at: www.elizabethlev.com
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