Mother Theresa and Authentic Faith

I was half listening to the evening news while eating dinner, when I heard a story on Mother Theresa’s struggles with doubt. At times it sounded like a “gotch-ya now” story, as if they were poking a whole in a spiritual giant. Interested, I listened carefully. Then, this weekend I read Time magazine’s cover story on the same subject. According to that story, Mother Theresa did have extensive struggles with times when she did not feel God’s presence. I was struck by her statement that at times "I accept not in my feelings - but with my will, the will of God - I accept His will” ("The Secret Life of Mother Theresa," Time, September 3, 2007, page 42). Time quoted some atheists who jumped on the “see I told you so” band-wagon.
Not so fast.
The Time article led me to wonder if Mother Theresa may, at times, have had a greater sense of her need to love Jesus than the even greater, amazing reality that Jesus loved her. She did exhibit the true nature of belief. Doubt is part of the pathway, the struggle to understand and believe. It seemed that, in both the aired and written stories, there may have been a lack of understanding that doubt often accompanies true belief. They seemed not to understand that the good news in Christ is good news in CHRIST. The truth and reality of Jesus Christ is not found in how strongly people hold on to him or feel his presence. Jesus Christ is truth and reality . . . period.
As I reflected on this story on the evening news, I thought of John the Baptist. He sent some of his disciples to Jesus at a dark moment in his life. Having announced the arrival of Jesus as the Messiah-Christ, he told them now to ask Jesus: “Are you the Messiah, we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?” (Luke 7:19). Jesus told them to tell John what they have seen. “The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor” - all signs of the Messiah. Then he added: “And tell him, ‘God blesses those who do not turn away because of me.'" Sometimes we have to plow through doubt, holding on to what we know to be true whether we feel it or not, or whether we understand it or not. God does bless those who do not turn away.
Mother Theresa never turned away. She ministered in incredible darkness, in places where her spirit must have cried out: “why is this so?” But she never turned away.
The Bible tells us we have this treasure of Jesus Christ in clay pots (2 Corinthians 4:7). Why? So it is clear that God is the power source, not us. The good news in Christ lives in our frail human bodies, and our weak, vulnerable emotions. We are fragile. Brokenness is so close all the time. We need a Savior. It seems that those who wrote and reported about Mother Theresa’ struggles may not have understood that. It seems that they thought that the good news was in the one they could see, that little woman who labored . . . but doubted. But her doubt was the struggle to believe. And that is authentic faith.

What others are writing about these "new revelations" about Mother Theresa . . .
Christianity Today on Mother Thesesa
Dwight Stinnett on Mother Thesesa
Internetmonk on Mother Theresa