Sermon
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Spiritual Struggle/Mother Teresa
I
was standing in line at the grocery store the other day when a headline article
on one of the check-stand magazines caught my eye. It read in bold letters, “The Dark Side of
Mother Teresa.” Wow, I thought, has
another one of the people we looked up to been tainted by scandal? Or was this another attempt by secular
It
seems that a collection of the late-Mother Teresa’s letters has been published
and that her writings reveal that in her life, she suffered through crises of
faith, which are referred to as “dark nights of the soul.” As I read the heading to the article, I
immediately questioned its objectivity, as the author of the article is a self
confessed leading critic of the late Catholic nun. In his opening paragraph, he poses the
question: “Which is more striking: that
the faithful should bravely confront the fact that one of their heroines all
but lost her own faith, or that the Church should have gone on deploying, as an
icon of favorable publicity, a confused old lady whom it knew had for all
practical purposes ceased to believe?”
And as I finished the article, and finding myself in total disagreement
with its thesis, I pose a question:
“Which is more striking: that a man who wrote a book entitled ‘God is
not great’ finds himself qualified to comment on the life of Mother Teresa, or
that a popular news magazine would print such a piece taking obvious swipes at
a major religious figure in its religion section? (Newsweek magazine, September 10, 2007).
This
morning, in the Gospel lesson, we hear one of the briefest of Gospel passages
read as part of the scriptural lectionary we hear every year in the Orthodox
Church. One of its verses, John 3:16,
summarizes the entire message of the New Testament in just a few words: “For God so loved the world that He gave His
only-begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
eternal life.” This is the essence of
what it means to be an Orthodox Christian.
We see this sign displayed at sporting events: Is it evangelism or just a rallying cry to
believe in the team? I’m not sure on
that one. But in trying to convert
people to Christianity, the rallying cry is often “Just believe in John 3:16
and accept Jesus into your heart.” The recently
released writings of Mother Teresa, in addition to nearly 2,000 years of
Orthodox theological writings, offer evidence that a true belief in Jesus
Christ is a lot more than a mere confession of faith. It is a life dedicated to the pursuit of
spiritual things, and it is a life where one is engaged in spiritual warfare,
sometimes to the point of utter spiritual despair. Because in a war, even the side that wins the
war doesn’t necessarily win every battle.
What
causes spiritual despair? First,
relentless attacks from the devil. The
devil attacks the one struggling to grow in Christ. The devil doesn’t bother with the casual
Christian or the habitually immoral person—they do not need the devil to attack
and destroy them, they are self-destructive.
The devil attacks the committed Christian. I heard a story recently, from another
priest, that I would like to share with you.
It seems that a certain monk in a monastery had an ability to see demons
attacking people. And so one day, the
abbot of his monastery sent him to the nearby city to see how many demons were
there. So, the monk ventured down the
road from the monastery towards the city.
It was a large city, filled with all kinds of people doing all kinds of
things. And as he journeyed through the
city, he looked and he looked and he saw no demons. He was very puzzled by this. All these people, and yet no demons attacking
them. Finally, he saw one demon laying
under the shade of a tree, and the demon was sleeping. The monk headed back towards the monastery. And as he approached the monastery, he saw
legions and legions of demons, climbing up the monastery walls, tearing at the
gates, sitting in the bell tower of the church, and going in and out of the
windows of the cells where the monks lived.
The monk reported to the Abbot, “I went to the city where there are many
people and I saw only one demon and he was sleeping. Why at this monastery, where we are but a few
monks, why are there so many demons all around us?” The Abbot answered, “My son, you see in the
city, people are so busy, there lives are filled with things, they succumb to
temptations constantly, they have squeezed God out of their lives, there is no
work for the demons to do. So they leave
the people alone. But here in the
monastery, where we try to pray constantly, where we try to rejoice in the
things of God constantly, this is where they are at work constantly!”
The
devil tempted Christ Himself, we read in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of
Matthew. And Christ was hungry and in
His own agony—He wasn’t surrounded by throngs of people, or by a circle of His
disciples and close friends. He was
alone in the desert, praying and fasting for forty days, and this is where the
devil made his attack. So, if the devil
can attack the Lord Himself, then it is no surprise that the devil can attack
someone like Mother Teresa, or you and me.
That’s
why when we strive to pray, sometimes it is a struggle—it doesn’t bring great
serenity each time we bow our head in prayer, or even each time we come to the
Liturgy. Sometimes there are weeks and even
months of spiritual struggle, spiritual despair, even spiritual sadness and
despondency, when God feels like He is absent.
This is not so much a test from God, as it is a temptation from the
devil, to attack our spiritual joy and turn it into despondency and doubt.
So,
it is not a surprise when we hear that Mother Teresa struggled in her faith, at
times wondering even at the existence of God in the face of what seemed like
prolonged absence of God, because she was in the throes of spiritual
warfare. Rather than showing insincerity
or cynicism, as the author of the article would suggest, I find this kind of
honesty refreshing. If Mother Teresa
struggled with her faith, then I need not become despondent when I struggle in
mine. If she could be honest and write
about her spiritual struggles, I can be honest about mine.
At
summer camp, one of the exercises we use in staff training and also with the
campers is called a trust walk. It
involves people walking in pairs where one person is blindfolded. The person who can see leads the person who
cannot on a walk through various obstacles and after a period of time, the two
switch roles. In the camp setting, this
facilitates building trust between two staff people who will work together
during the week. It demonstrates also
the role that the camp counselor plays in guiding the activities of the
week. But from a theological
perspective, is illustrates the journey of the Orthodox Christian. In debriefing this activity, there are many
participants who feel a little unnerved when they can’t see, especially people
who have never been to the camp who walk a considerable distance having no idea
where they are going. I ask people, did
anyone become frustrated in this activity?
The answer is always yes, especially from people who have a hard time
trusting others, who always want to be the leader, and who aren’t patient. I ask, if we did this activity for an hour,
instead of for twenty minutes, who would have begun to lose patience? And nearly everyone said they would
have. And I ask, was there anyone who
was worried that they wouldn’t eventually reach our destination safely, even
though you didn’t know where it was? And
on careful examination, it seems that everyone, even those who had their
reservations and frustrations, agreed that they knew they would eventually
reach the end point of the journey, so long as they put one foot in front of
the other and put faith in their leader.
Now,
in our lives, as in this activity, we will each be in the role of the
follower. The journey to salvation is
long, at times it will be frustrating, and at times that path will not be
clearly visible. We will have to trust
the leader. And who is the leader in
this journey? Obviously, God, and the
church, the scriptures, the clergy, even our fellow Christians. And believe it or not, we will all take a
turn not only as a follower, but as a leader.
We will each have an opportunity to lead someone else in their journey
of faith—perhaps as a parent, as a teacher, as a friend, as a camp counselor,
or even as someone just setting a good example.
And in the role of leader, we need to encourage, set a good example,
guide, help and pray for our followers.
And in the role of the follower, which we will all play throughout our
lives, we need to trust and most importantly, we need to put one foot in front
of the other.
There
are a few ways that the trust walk is not done successfully—careless
leadership, and unwillingness of the follower to follow. The leadership of our faith—God, the
scriptures, Orthodoxy theology, is rock solid.
It is not careless. The
leadership of the church, mine included, is not always as rock solid as it
could be. That’s because while in the
role of leader, I am also in the role of follower, and sometimes in my own
spiritual journey, I become lost or discouraged, just as Mother Teresa reveals
that she did in hers. And the church
itself, is an institution that is led by human beings, each of us in a sinful
state. Realizing that, the occasional
scandal or cynicism or disappointment doesn’t shake my faith. It makes me realize just how much more we
need to pray for our church, especially its priests and hierarchs.
The
followers of the faith are each different.
Some are enthusiastic and trust easily.
Some are cynical and question everything. Some are impatient and sit down and
stop. And others are disobedient—they
hear the instruction and decide to take another path. Obviously, these are the ones that get lost,
and never find their way to God. The
essence of life’s journey of faith mirrors the essence of the trust walk I
described—placing our trust in the leader and then following by putting one
foot in front of the other, even when the journey gets long, even when we
become discouraged.
I
find Mother Teresa’s struggles encouraging.
They don’t make me cynical, rather they are inspiring. Here is someone who struggled in her faith,
as everyone does who is sincere in their journey to Christ. But here is someone who continued to put one
foot in front of the other in her journey.
Here is someone who could be honest with herself that the journey to
salvation isn’t all that easy. If Mother
Teresa were indeed insincere about her faith, why continue living in the slums
of
The
Spiritual life is a struggle. Indeed, if
a person has no struggle in their spiritual life, then there might be a
question of how sincere that struggle is.
For just as in the busy city where only one demon was found sleeping, no
demon will attack you if you aren’t sincere or trying to grow in your
faith. Here is the great irony,
however—the more one tries to pray and to follow Christ, the harder the journey
gets. That’s why Mother Teresa wrote
about such profound struggle in her life.
That’s why Christ Himself, when He was about to go forth to His Holy
Passion, was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane and His sweat became as drops
of blood, that’s the kind of spiritual agony He was in. And this is where the hope comes in—Christ
didn’t abandon the Cross and Mother Teresa didn’t abandon the poor, even in the
darkest of hours. And so, when God seems
absent because life’s circumstances are cruel, or because we find ourselves
surrounded by temptation rather than encouragement, take a message of hope that
if we continue to follow the leader and put one foot in front of the other,
eventually, we will come out of the darkness because just being able to
continue and not quitting, with God’s help, will provide the joy and the
inspiration to carry on. In a war, one
doesn’t win every battle. In the
spiritual war, not every day will bring us a victory. The victory in battle often goes to the side
with the strongest will, with the greatest endurance. And so the spiritual war is won by the
Christian who has patience, endurance, and never stops putting one foot in
front of the other, never stops praying or worshipping, even when it gets hard,
even when God seems like He is far away, because he realizes that God holds the
hand of every one of His children, even when we sometimes think He isn’t. Amen.