Father Denny Dempsey

Mother Theresa's Doubt and Faith

"Jesus has a very special love for you," Mother Theresa of Calcutta wrote to her spiritual advisor Fr. Michael Van der Peet in 1979. "As for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear…I want you to pray for me that I let Him have a free hand."

"What do I labor for?" she questioned in another letter. "If there be no God, there can be no soul. If there be no soul then, Jesus, You also are not true."

These and many other quotes compiled from private letters of Mother Theresa are presented in the recent book Come, Be My Light by Fr. Brian Kolodiejchuk who knew Mother Teresa for twenty years and is the postulator for her cause for sainthood. The letters reveal that for nearly the last 50 years of her life, Mother Theresa did not feel the presence of God, as Fr. Kolodiejchuk, writes, "either in her heart or in the eucharist."

Mother Theresa had her critics during her lifetime…critics to whom these statements of her spiritual doubt and dryness were voraciously consumed like raw meat thrown to hungry lions. The leader of the pack, Christopher Hitchens, had a rather scathing article on the topic published in the Sept. 10 issue of Newsweek.

Preview of readings for Sunday September 30, 2007

Reading 1, Amos 6:1a,4-7  “The collapse of Joseph” refers to the territories of the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim, named for the two sons of Joseph. Together their territory made up the major portion of the northern kingdom of Israel of whose destruction Amos was the first prophet to predict. The Assyrians conquered Israel in 722 B.C. Those who didn’t die or escape were taken into exile in Assyria. The people about whom Amos speaks had gotten focused on their own comfort and enjoyment, and they weren’t about to change or compromise their lifestyle even though the country was falling apart around them.  Are we Americans in a similar situation regarding the environment or the rest of the world around us...as long as we are comfortable things are okay?

Preview of readings for Sunday September 23, 2007

Reading 1, Amos 8:4-7 Amos was from Tekoa about 15 miles southwest of Jerusalem. He was a shepherd and tender of fig trees when he received his call c. 750 B.C. He prophesied at Bethel, a Jewish religious site 14 miles north of Jerusalem, announcing that the northern kingdom of Israel would be destroyed (Assyria did so in 722 B.C.). The ephah was a dry measure equal to about half a bushel. Amos speaks of Jewish merchants in a hurry for religious feasts to be over so they can get back to their business, at which they were very conniving. What is your take on the application of ethical standards and application of Christian principles on the part of businessmen and women today?

Stewardship

“Here, take care of this for me,” God said, handing me a plastic bag from Target.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Look inside,” he replied.

I opened the bag. There was a bible, a credit card, and a collection of photos…lots of photos of people, most of whom I didn’t recognize. “You want me to take care of these…like, put them in a safe place? Sure, I have a good place I can put them for you.”

“No,” God corrected, “I want you to take care of them."

I thought that’s what I said I would do, but apparently God had something else in mind. “Look at the bible,” God said. “What do you see?”

Preview of readings for Sunday September 16, 2007

Reading 1, Exodus 32:7-11,13-14  While Moses is delayed several days on Mt. Sinai, the people down below build the golden calf. God is very upset. Moses calms him down…one of the many times Moses does so. The Old Testament portrayals of how God reacts to human sinfulness are quite different from those presented in the New Testament. In the OT, God reacts to situations much like people do. What differences do you see between OT and NT images of God? How/why do you think the image of God changed from OT times to Gospel times? Are OT images valid for our understanding of God?

Politically correct DJJD

The first celebration of “Jesse James Days” took place in 1948. At some point, perhaps known to those who have called Northfield home for many years, the words “defeat of” were added so visitors wouldn’t get the impression that the celebration was glorifying a bank robber and encouraging young people to undertake a life of crime.

This is an example of politically correct language, the use of words which neutralize or minimize language which might otherwise give offense to certain racial, cultural, or identity groups. Trying to be politically correct is not without its problems.

For example, I read that some deaf or hearing-impaired people consider hearing-impaired as derogatory and deaf as an affirming statement of group membership. For others it might be the reverse.

Among Spanish-speaking some think the word Hispanic elicits a negative connection to Spanish conquest of their ancestors. They prefer the word Latino. Those I have asked here in Northfield seem to prefer the more common Hispanic.

Preview of readings for Sunday, September 9, 2007

Reading 1, Wisdom 9:13-18b  This is one of the O.T. deuterocanonical books (not included in Protestant bibles) written in Greek by a teacher in the Jewish community at Alexandria, Egypt, about 100 years before Jesus. We have a hard enough time figuring out how to live day to day in this world. How can we ever understand things of heaven except through the gift of divine wisdom? And with that wisdom, we can see earthly things in context and better understand things of this world better as well.  How does your understanding of spiritual truths help you better understand and deal with daily living?