Help
Sign In
community
January 2009 
Mother Theresa
Posted on Aug 31st, 2007
by 
L'el
L'el
I feel such empathy for Mother Theresa now in light of the vast pain and struggle recorded in journal entries that were recently released to the public. For decades, her writing reveals, she felt abandoned by God, and up until her death was deeply tormented by guilt for doubting God's existence.
It makes me want to have been there to embrace her. How difficult it must be to be catapulted to fame for one's faith, and to feel responsible for living up to an image of unwavering certainty. What extraordinary pressure.
Although I've usually found Christopher Hitchens' writing to be pompous and spiteful, and it
seems needlessly mean of him to go about testifying against someone's sainthood when he doesn't believe in such a thing anyway, he makes a few insightful observations in his recent article on the subject:
If Santayana was right to define fanaticism as “redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim,” then Mother Teresa’s international crusade against divorce, abortion and contraception was the tribute that doubt paid to certainty: a strenuous and almost hysterical effort to drown out the awful fear of “absence.” One strongly suspects that, like not a few overpromoted figures, she suffered from more self-hatred the more she was overpraised.
I wish someone had let her know that it was okay to love herself, and that indeed, loving oneself is the root of loving the world and the first step in changing it for the better.
It makes me want to have been there to embrace her. How difficult it must be to be catapulted to fame for one's faith, and to feel responsible for living up to an image of unwavering certainty. What extraordinary pressure.
Although I've usually found Christopher Hitchens' writing to be pompous and spiteful, and it
seems needlessly mean of him to go about testifying against someone's sainthood when he doesn't believe in such a thing anyway, he makes a few insightful observations in his recent article on the subject:
If Santayana was right to define fanaticism as “redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim,” then Mother Teresa’s international crusade against divorce, abortion and contraception was the tribute that doubt paid to certainty: a strenuous and almost hysterical effort to drown out the awful fear of “absence.” One strongly suspects that, like not a few overpromoted figures, she suffered from more self-hatred the more she was overpraised.
I wish someone had let her know that it was okay to love herself, and that indeed, loving oneself is the root of loving the world and the first step in changing it for the better.
Access: Public
