The Practicing Progressive

September 1, 2007
Issue 29

Certainly the most exciting news item of the past week for me and I suspect for many, many others, was the revelations found in a new publication of Mother Teresa’s correspondence with a variety of confidants over many decades of her life. The letters reveal a deep disappointment with her spiritual life especially as it pertained to her perceived inability to experience the presence of God. Her confessions are being played out in the media as shocking disclosures that are shaking the walls of Christendom. Certain ardent atheists are having a field day with their claims (ala Bill Maher) that “She was on my side all along!”

The truth is something far more subtle and easily recognizable by millions of religious folk who have experienced similar doubts and anxieties along their own spiritual paths.

Many years ago, I authored a book entitled: “Confessions of a Christian Agnostic”. In it I tried to articulate some of the questions that are inherent in any religious faith but particularly to Christianity. In the intervening time I have received hundreds of letters from folk who enthusiastically identified with the idea of being both faithful and doubtful. This conundrum centered on the conviction that a good deal of Christianity was shaped by archaic understandings and ancient rites that had little to do with the personal quest to follow the teachings of Jesus. Many correspondents took great comfort in knowing there were others within Christianity with similar concerns. Unlike the caricatures of Christians employed by rabid anti-religionists on the one hand and fervent fundamentalists on the other, these spiritual sojourners found great meaning in their Christianity without abiding by outdated doctrines or primitive world views. Following in the path of Jesus…feeding the hungry, serving the poor, welcoming the stranger, working for peace and justice…unencumbered by arbitrary institutional mandates was a liberating and profoundly rewarding spiritual experience.

There are many Christian Agnostics who are distancing ourselves from archaic images of a anthropomorphic God “up there, out there” and aligning ourselves with the teachings of Jesus who often described the divine as being “in our midst”. In every act of compassion, in every gesture of charity and hospitality, in the search for peace, justice and mercy, there is, according to Jesus, “the kingdom of heaven”, the very presence of all that is holy.

In the current debate about the value of religion many fail to understand that faith isn’t always about doctrine and dogma. Many of us find great religious benefit in the way we live rather than what we are or are not supposed to believe. Ancient creeds matter less to us than current compassionate commitments. It is interesting to note that in three of the four gospels found in the Bible Jesus repeatedly requests that we follow him rather than insisting that we believe in him.

It is terribly presumptuous to be sure but I believe Mother Teresa was caught in this paradoxical struggle…discovering that the teachings of Jesus matter more than the teachings about Jesus. Her inability to blindly believe the doctrines about God, as painful as it was for her, did not prevent her from bringing unparalleled assistance to thousands of the poorest of the poor and in so doing accomplish the work of the very God she longed to meet.

These recently revealed confessions, provocative as they may be to some, only acknowledge what many of us have come to know and experience. Old ways of understanding God are giving way to new paradigms of faith that have little to do with bizarre rituals or antiquated ideas and everything to do with how we go about finding the divine in our midst. By her life and with her doubts, Mother Teresa pointed the way.