JULY 2010JULY 2010

COLUMBIACOLUMBIAKNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS

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THE LIGHTAMID

DARKNESS

Understanding the heroic faith and love

of Mother Teresa in view of her dark night

of the soul

by Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, MC

MOTHER TERESA’S LIFE AND MISSION

BLESSED TERESA of Calcutta, the diminu-tive Catholic nun whose life was spent in serv-ice to, and as an advocate for, the “poorest ofthe poor,” died Sept. 5, 1997, and was beati-fied by Pope John Paul II in 2003. As she ad-vances toward sainthood, she remains an iconof faith and selfless dedication to others. Tocommemorate the 100th anniversary of herbirth (Aug. 26, 1910), an exhibition titled“Mother Teresa: Life, Spirituality and Mes-sage” will be on display at the Knights ofColumbus Museum until Oct. 4, 2010.

Mother Teresa addressed the assembled em-ployees of the Knights of Columbus at theOrder’s international headquarters in NewHaven, Conn., in 1988. She was also the in-augural recipient of the Knights’ highesthonor, the Gaudium et Spes Award, in 1992.Additional information about her close rela-tionship with the K of C are included in theexhibition. In the following pages, we shareshort reflections about her inspirational lifefrom two men who knew her well.

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The publication of the book Come, Be My Light (2007), con-taining many of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta’s letters to her

spiritual advisors, provoked a good deal of discussion and, un-fortunately, confusion as a result of hasty and superficial inter-pretations. Could Mother Teresa really have lost — or at leasthad doubts about — her faith? An essential key to understand-ing the meaning of Mother Teresa’s “darkness” is to examine itin light of her religious and missionary vocation, and to grasphow she lived a heroic life of faith and charity, sharing in Christ’smission of saving souls.

The private writings of Mother Teresa do not constitute a bi-ography, nor do they say everything about her interior life.Rather, they present several hidden aspects of her spiritual lifethat give us a hitherto unknown window into the profundity ofher holiness. The first of these was the private vow she made in1942, “binding under [pain of ] mortal sin, to give to God any-thing that He may ask, ‘Not to refuse Him anything.’”

Four years later, after telling Mother Teresa in prayer what hewanted from her, Jesus referred to this vow. She wrote, “In allmy prayers and Holy Communions He is continually asking‘Wilt thou refuse?’” The manner and details of this “call withina call” to serve the poorest of the poor is the second hidden as-pect of Mother Teresa’s life. Her letters disclose that in 1946 and1947, she received locutions, visions and (most probably) had

moments of spiritual ecstasy. Her confessor, Father Van Exem,wrote of her “continual, deep and violent union with God.”

CONSOLATION AND LONGINGEven though Mother Teresa knew the consolation of great inti-macy with God, Jesus also declared that her “vocation is to loveand suffer and save souls”; that she and her sisters were to be“victims of My love”; and that “if you are My own little Spouse— the Spouse of the Crucified Jesus — you will have to bearthese torments on your heart.” Mother Teresa had no way ofknowing at the time what exactly these words meant and howmuch she would have to suffer to fulfill this vocation and to be-come a “victim of love.”

Her mission in the streets of Calcutta began in earnest in1949. During this time, the experience of darkness began again.She felt a terrible sense of loss, a great loneliness and the tormentof thinking she was not wanted by God. Even more painful thanthis sense of loss was the pain of unfulfilled longing. “It is sopainful to be lonely for God,” she wrote. We can only imaginehow terrible this experience was for someone who, in her ownwords, wanted “to live only for love of Him.”

An important key to understanding Mother Teresa’s faith is thefact that she had already reached union with Jesus, the state ofcontemplative prayer. In his book Fire Within (1989), Marist Fa-

of the poor, sharingtheir spiritual desti-tution.

In the end, ratherthan being some-thing negative in anotherwise holy life,Mother Teresa’s “darkness” was an important and essential aspectof her vocation to be a religious and a missionary. MotherTeresa, I believe, is one of the great mystics and, as others havesaid as well, among the great saints of the Church. For the loveof Jesus and the poor, she accepted the pain of not experiencingGod’s love.

In 1988, reflecting on Christ’s experience of abandonment onthe cross, Pope John Paul II stated: “That lack of interior conso-lation was Jesus’ greatest agony.” We can say the same of MotherTeresa, who was sent to “proclaim the good news to the poor, thegood news that God is love and that He loves each one of us” (cf.Lk 4:18). Indeed, Mother Teresa fulfilled the vocation Jesus gaveto her — paradoxically while in darkness, to be his light.♦

MISSIONARY OF CHARITY FATHER BRIAN KOLODIEJCHUK is thepostulator of the cause for canonization of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and the editorof Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (Doubleday, 2007).

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From far left: Supreme Knight Carl A. An-derson stands with Sister Mary NirmalaJoshi, who succeeded Mother Teresa of Cal-cutta as superior of the Missionaries of Char-ity, and other members of the communityduring a visit to the Knights of ColumbusMuseum May 5. • Mother Teresa comingdown stairs. • Missionary of Charity FatherBrian Kolodiejchuk delivers a lecture at theKnights of Columbus Museum June 1. •Past Supreme Knight Virgil C. Dechantstands at a podium with Mother Teresa in1992 during the inaugural presentation ofthe Gaudium et Spes Award.

ther Thomas Dubay explains that in this state of union, the per-son experiences consolation or the joy of union as well as mo-ments of dryness and longing for even greater union. WhileMother Teresa did experience consolation and joy, her faith waslater characterized by extreme dryness and a very intense longing.

A TRIAL OF FAITH AND LOVEJesuit Father Joseph Neuner, who was a spiritual advisor to MotherTeresa, offered a key insight into Mother Teresa’s life in 1961. Hesaid that Mother’s darkness was her way of union with Jesus andthe “spiritual side of her work.” Mother Teresa often stated thatthe greatest poverty in the world today is to be “unloved, un-wanted, uncared for” — and she experienced this with Jesus. Inthis regard, it is important to note that Mother Teresa did not havea crisis of faith — that is, a real existential or intellectual question,as if on an intellectual or volitional level she entertained the pos-sibility that God really did not exist. Instead, Mother Teresa expe-rienced a trial of faith and, even more, a trial of love.

Nonetheless, her faith, hope and love remained unshakable,even though she could not feel them. It was for this reason thatChrist could share for so long and so intensely his most painfulsuffering –– the “torments of his heart” — that he underwentduring his agony and crucifixion. And because Mother Teresa wasso united to Jesus, she also identified with the spiritually poorest

MOTHER TERESA STA

IRS: Raghu Rai/M

agnum Photos

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu onAug. 26, 1910, was very private about her own upbringing.

Accounts of Mother Teresa’s life report the bare essentials of herearly years because she was reluctant to talk about them. In a1960 letter to her biographer, Eileen Egan, she wrote, “In thebook you are writing — please omit anything about me person-ally…. I want you to leave me and my family out.” She did nottalk in detail about her home life in Skopje, Macedonia, or theeffect that the premature, tragic death of her father had uponher family.

Nonetheless, we do know that she had wonderful parents as wellas an older brother and sister, and that her family was plunged intopoverty when her father died in 1919. The relatively comfortablechildhood she enjoyed ended for her at the age of nine.

But this reversal of fortune seemed not only to draw the Bojax-hiu family closer together, but also to engrave upon Agnes’ heartan awareness of the beauty of the sanctifying vocation her parentswere given. And while Agnes eventually chose to pursue the reli-gious life and serve as a missionary in the faraway land of India,she never forgot the transformative effect of a family that prayedtogether.

THE FAMILY’S LIFELINEIn later years, Mother Teresa would often meet young couples andimpress upon them the necessary linkage between family life andprayer. When my wife Mary and I were engaged, we waited untilMother Teresa visited Washington, D.C., in December 1991 to

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IT ALL BEGINSWITH

PRAYER

Mother Teresa strongly believed that prayer and family life are of

central importance

by Jim Towey

give her our first wedding invitation. As it turned out, she couldnot attend, but she did send dozens of sisters from her religiousorder. In the parlor of her home for AIDS victims she took ourhands and said, “Be one heart full of love in the heart of Jesusthrough Mary. Pray together and you will stay together.”

Mother knew that prayer was the family’s lifeline — that ap-pealing to God had to be a matter of first resort. Her initial visitto the United States — 50 years ago this October — was to LasVegas of all places, where she delivered a compelling message tothousands gathered for a convention of the National Council ofCatholic Women. Her talk focused on the role of the family andthe laity in the proclamation of the Gospel.

The order Mother Teresa founded, the Missionaries of Charity,does not simply preach this message — the sisters help people topractice it. This past May, I visited Calcutta and was impressed tosee an army of sisters fanning out across the city to help familiesand children, teaching them the importance of prayer in the home.Mother knew that supplying poor families with rice and medicinewas not enough. Rather, she worked to feed their spiritual hunger

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and to heal their souls. It was as if the lessons from her childhoodhome became a missionary mandate. As she said so often, “It allbegins with prayer.”

LEARNING TO PRAYFor married couples in North America facing the pressures of bal-ancing work and home life, praying can be difficult, if not elusive.I once asked Mother Teresa to teach me how to pray. We werewalking in a poor area in Tijuana, Mexico, and I luckily found my-self alone with her for a moment. When she heard my question,she stopped, as if to add emphasis to what she was about to say,and replied, “The only way to learn how to pray is to pray.” Shethen added, “If you are too busy to pray, you are too busy.”

Mother knew that families that were too busy to pray togetherwould eventually be too busy for each other or for their children,leading to inevitable breakdowns. She had an intense love for fam-ilies and desired their harmony and happiness. Thus, she urgedfamilies to pray the rosary together and was delighted when fam-ilies came to her chapels for Mass or eucharistic adoration. Looking

to the Holy Family as an example, she urged couples to make theirhomes “another Nazareth.”

Indeed, Mother Teresa’s early life experiences and her admirableparents taught her that the vocation to family life was a high calling.In an age that seeks to redefine the family and questions the institu-tion of marriage, it is fitting during this centennial celebration yearto recall Mother’s love of family life and her simple wisdom.♦

JIM TOWEY worked for 12 years as U.S. legal counsel to Mother Teresa ofCalcutta. A member of Father Hugon Council 3521 in Tallahassee, Fla., heserved as director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Commu-nity Initiatives from 2002-2006 and as president of St. Vincent College inLatrobe, Pa., from 2006-2010.

Missionaries of Charity sisters gather under a picture of Blessed Teresa inCalcutta. Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950.The order now has a worldwide presence serving those who suffer, includingAIDS victims and the homeless and dying.

PHOTO: CNS photo/Jayanta Shaw, Reuters