Here are some excerpts. Think what you will, as I do.
Biblical background to the philosophy that leads to ibuprofen for children dying of cancer. Taken from the pure hagiography by Edward Le Joly, "Mother Teresa of Calcutta." This is the epigraph to Chapter 23, titled "Joy in Suffering":
It makes me happy to suffer for you, as I am suffering now, and in my own body to do what I can to make up what is still lacking from the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his body, the Church. (COL.1:24)
I find this "spiritual" rationale for her work so utterly bizarre, so somehow gruesome, that I had to read that paragraph, and reverential paragraphs explaining it over and over again to be able to believe what I was reading. The "disgruntled," as you called her, Missionary of Charity whose characterization of MT's views I posted, and you doubted, was not misstating. The above lines explain a great deal. You do have to read them a few times for their bizarre meaning to sink in.
Here is a quote from MT:
"I was consoling a little girl who was sick and had much pain," said Mother. "I told her, 'You should be happy that God sends you suffering, because your sufferings are a proof that God loves you much. Your sufferings are kisses from Jesus.' 'Then, Mother,' answered the little girl, 'please ask Jesus not to kiss me so much.'"
(MT went on to praise the little girl for not asking that Jesus stop kissing her, only that he not do it "so much.")
On page 322 of this book is a fleshing out of MT's idea of Jesus's "thirst" for love of souls, which can be satiated in some manner i really can't comprehend, by suffering. I can't explain it at all, except as psychosis. The basic idea is that the suffering is an offering to the Missionaries of Charity. The Mission is something like a partnership between the workers, the Missionaries, and the patients in the clinics, the sufferers, whom she refers to as "the powerhouse of the Missionaries of Charity."
Hitchens was absolutely correct. It is about proselytizing for the Church, not about ameliorating suffering, though many who might have died in the gutter at least had cots, and food. Suffering to MT was a definitively positive thing. (Of course I am aware that suffering can sometimes yield emotional and psychological rewards to individuals, please don't anyone point out the obvious to me.)
This post is long enough. |
