Mother Teresa: My New Hero

Well, I have a new hero. I always admired Mother Teresa, who doesn’t? However, the article in Time Magazine about her faith struggle floored me. The book that will be coming out about her 40+ year “dark night of the soul” casts her life in an entirely different light.

I like saints. Not because they are so holy, just the opposite. Yeah, they live lives of holiness but their attraction to me is they live human lives. These folks are flawed. They are neurotic, at times insensitive, erratic, and unpredictable. But they get the job done, they do what most of us only think about in passing, they actually live a life centered around their faith.

I love Francis because he was willing to be a Fool for God. He took the Gospels literally and he gave up everything to gain everything. I am awed by authentic lives courageously engaged in the world. Gandhi standing up to the British Empire or Martin Luther King Jr. standing up to the nightstick, hoses and attack dogs, I can admire all of their lives from the safety of distance. Then when I read of a personal imperfection in each of them I rejoice, not because they fell, that is a given. I rejoice because perhaps, maybe, just maybe I can someday harness such faith in my own life.

So I read about the enormous discrepancy between Mother Teresa’s public life and her agonizing private faith life. She does not seem less saintly to me, she seems far more impressive. It is so easy to believe without questioning, but what is that. We are creatures of intelligence, while not the Creator, yet we create. Such a mind was meant to question. And so she did.

She lived a life based on a faith she did not feel. She had moments of divine communication. She reports hearing Christ and of seeing Him. But they were the brief exceptions in a life-long journey. The Rev. James Martin who is a Jesuit and wrote My Life with Saints states he has never read of a saint whose life is marked with such extensive spiritual darkness. And yet, she grabbed the attention of the world. She knew the difference between feeling and doing. She knew that faith did not require an emotional counter-point, it was just wonderful when both were present.

And so she served. Because she served the hungry were fed, the dying were not alone and Christians and other people of faith were reminded of what a life dedicated to being Christ-centered looked like.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta is not diminished in my eyes by these new revelations. This is a saint who is real.

We are called upon to believe what can only be believed through faith. That faith does not require Instant Messaging from God to sustain us. Mark 9:24, ..."Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"

Thank you Mother Teresa.

Carter Interview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uj4xUKqEHM

Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter never fails to amaze me. Nixon reinvented his image after Watergate. Carter reinvented what can be expected of a former President. From election reform and peacemaking around the world to a champion of civil and human rights, Carter has been a tireless fighter for justice.

This week he fought a different kind of fight. He fought for reality. While President Bush states the United States does not participate in torture Carter strongly disputed this claim.

Carter stated, “But you can make your own definition of human rights and say we don’t violate them, and you can make your own definition of torture and say we don’t violate them,” Carter said. “Our country for the first time in my life time has abandoned the basic principle of human rights,” Carter told CNN. “We’ve said that the Geneva conventions do not apply to those people in Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo, and we’ve said we can torture prisoners and deprive them of an accusation of a crime.”

Carter did not shy away from the hard questions nor was he partisan. He described Vice President Cheney as “as disaster” and he attacked Senators Clinton and Obama for refusing to advocate for a speedy withdrawal of U.S. forces for Iraq.

It is no wonder why this man won the Noble Peace prize in 1992. It is no wonder why he infuriates so many Americans. And it is no wonder why I admire him so much. He cannot be described as “speaking truth to power” since he was once “the power”. Never the less, he does have the persona of a prophet crying in the wilderness.

Keep up the good work Jimmy!

Cougar Football: One in a Row

Nationally ranked 6th USF, defeated fledgling Marian College 57-7 on Saturday afternoon at Bishop D'Arcy Stadium in the Cougars' return home after three consecutive road games.This was USF's first game after Ohio Dominican snapped USF's 54 game winning streak. Not a bad reaction at all.

To emphasize the breadth of the team Quarterback Jeff Wedding rested an injured leg while the game was dominated by two, two, (did I mention two?) USF freshman quarterbacks. Only 53 more to go!

Still, University of Sioux Falls, Carroll College (Montana), St. Xavier College (Illinois) and good ole Ohio Dominican all look hungry, real hungry.

For now though, the focus is one game at a time and next week, Homecoming.

2007 NAIA Football Top 25 Poll - Oct. 1 (Rating #4)

Sioux Falls (S.D.)
St. Xavier (Ill.)
Carroll (Mont.)
Ohio Dominican
Bethel (Tenn.)
St. Francis (Ind.)
Jamestown (N.D.)
Lindenwood (Mo.)
Northwestern (Iowa)
MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.)

Feast of St. Francis

Today is the Feast of St. Francis. So, what is there to celebrate? Far too much for one little post. Here was a man who had been the life of the party who chose to become a Fool for God. A man who gave up wealth, comfort and position to live an authentic gospel life. A man who embraced Lady Poverty and the leper. A man who was suspicious of book learning and yet whose movement lead to not only a spiritual tradition but an intellectual tradition.

What is important to Franciscans?
Love
The Incarnation and the Passion (see “Love”)
Gratitude
Peace and peace-making
All creatures and Creation

Have a great Feast Day

Transitus

Francis was a complicated person. He could think big, real big. He saw the connections between all of us. He saw his imperfections. In a world populated with lepers, violence, unimaginable poverty and a very corrupt church he saw good, he saw, The Good, Bonem.

He understood how much we could love God, how much the Father/Mother loved us but he also understood the enormous difference there was between the Creator and creatures. That is what made him so focused, so impressed with the humility, the helplessness of a single baby in a manger.

And so today I am being concrete. I walked where he walked, touched his baptismal font, the walls of his home, stood in the caves he prayed in. However, today is Transitus. We remember not his sad passing from this existence but rather we celebrate his passing, the transition, to his new life. Last year I was in Saint Mary of the Angels in a valley just outside of Assisi. There I stood next to the Cappella del Transito, the site where Francis died. Days later I was at San Damiano. This is where Clare and her sisters lived. This is where Francis body was carried to so she could view the body of her beloved friend, the Father of her religious movement.

Today I am concrete. I am remembering those places and that man. I am not sad. Everybody dies, but oh how he lived!

Peace and all good,
Carl

Saint Francis Sculpture Garden

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2Sfj-gPs_k