Mother Teresa witnessed the power of God’s Light shining in darkness. Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the ‘Saint of Calcutta’ (Doubleday, 2007) exposes the inner life of Mother Teresa and gives fresh explanation for what motivated her. She recounts that on September 10, 1946, while traveling by train from Calcutta to Darjeeling, she encountered Christ. He simply said to her, “I thirst.” She took this to mean that Christ was the diseased and dying of India and that she was to give water to them, and thus to Him. And then she said that Christ invited her to join him as “a victim of India.” She was to take to herself the suffering and death of those abandoned, left to die. And then toward the end of this encounter, she heard the words, “Come be My Light.”
Her years of service in Calcutta were not a call to become a saint or a Noble Laureate. Her call was to suffer and to be light in and through that suffering. Her victimization led her to embrace the diseased and dying and to stand in solidarity with the poor. She did not stand at a distance to offer consolation and pity, but shone as light from within the prison house of death and darkness. Her letters and diary entries repeat over and over that the darkness is real, brutal, painful, lonely, difficult – it is dark! Her calling was to be God’s light in its midst.
Boldness and confidence in ministry and proclamation arise from weakness. While God uses our sharpened skills and trained minds, in the end it is by his grace and mercy that any of us are used, and it is through his power that our words have effect. The problem is that too often an acknowledgement of my honed skills and my mind turns into a triumphalism that lauds my abilities to accomplish much for God. Or I rely on my gadgets, technologies, and technique to bring in the kingdom of God. Or I elevate my national or cultural achievements above the ways of God. In the end, I turn the mission of God into my mission.
Worst of all, in this triumphalism, I fear the darkness. I am unable to confidently confess Christ because I am afraid of becoming victim to others who might inconvenience me, use me, or trample me. I have to fear the darkness because it might engulf me, and I become unknown and pass into obscurity. Triumphal mission and ministry cannot go to prison, will not embrace those dying, and must not suffer as a victim. Because the darkness scares us to death, we run from it and thus as well from the power and purpose of the Spirit.
The witness of Mother Teresa and many others is that we can trust the Spirit’s power and purposes. In fact, in this kind of trust there is great freedom to believe God and to witness God’s power. The good news is that the mission of God does not rise or fall on my skill or mind. The good news is that God meets us in the dark and difficult, uses our weakness, and thereby, shines his light.
I’m intrigued by the sentence “Boldness and confidence in ministry and proclamation arise from weakness.” Can you explain this thought a little more? Aren’t we supposed to be bold for Christ as believers? I understand that we are not to rely on ourselves, but I don’t see how that sentence necessarily follows.
Scripture is full of examples of those who out of and because of their submission, humility, and weakness gave bold witness to Christ. We tend to equate boldness with manliness or strength when it has to do more with the manner in which we lay down life, give ourselves in love. Of course, Christ is the example … who even “though He existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, … He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:6-8). Boldness and confidence is truly present when we love those who persecute us and give in an extravangant manner to those in need.
Christ’s boldness led him to allow himself to be pushed to the margins of his society. Christ’s boldness did not consist of strength as the word is usually defined. Christ’s boldness looked like silence before a confused Pilate. Christ’s boldness appeared as he allowed himself to be pushed from the center of Jerusalem, onto a hill, with those who time has forgotten. May we all find the weak, boldness of Jesus Christ.
Thank you. For your leading, teaching, loving, and being my friend.
Chris, as always, you state the matter in a clear and succinct manner. Good to see you at the table last week.
So challenging. I feel the fear too…of becoming a victim and passing into obscurity. In fact, I feel a horrible anger-even sinful rage. I honestly struggle with wondering how to challenge injustice and become its victim. When are we enabling instead of empowering? What does it look like? How can we do this without being overpowered by the just anger of the powerless?
I don’t know … . I do know that we must ask the enabling questions and deal with the anger, but living with their realities is an entirely different matter. For all my affirmation of the ideal, I still fear greatly loss of place in society and forfeiting my gender, race, and citizenship benefits.