When I first saw this on the morning news, my response was, “So what?” As a person who struggles and wrestles and grapples with faith every single day, that someone else has done so is not news to me. At times my lack of faith opens before me like a yawning abyss, and I am compelled toward the edge.
What faithful, sincere Christian hasn’t struggled with faith? It does not come naturally to us: to submit to God’s reign over us is what we fight against in our pride to know both good and evil. We “kick against the goads,” and then ask for help again when we are barely hanging on to the edge of the abyss. A typical week for the serious Christian. In knowing Mother Teresa wrestled with God, she become even more of a saint in my eyes than before.
Genesis 1:14-27
“And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 16 God made two great lights--the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning--the fourth day. 20 And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." 23 And there was evening, and there was morning--the fifth day. 24 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
God gave us humans a precious gift: a free will and time to decide for ourselves. In this we are unique. The angels seem to have some sort of limited free will, otherwise Satan and the demons could not have fallen, but they dwell only in eternity, not in time. On the other hand, the other creatures of this world do not have free will, and so do not get to choose their destiny.
This gift comes with a tremendous cost, however. Because of the rebellion of those first humans, we now live in a world that is gangrenously corrupt. We still have the gift of free will and the time to use it, but the decision to do the right thing and obey our Creator becomes much more difficult. And our own rebellion contributes exponentially to the worldwide sinful state of this existence, to the point that we despair of ever seeing anything truly pure and beautiful again. Because of this, faith means struggle. I think, at this point in the history of the world, if you aren’t struggling with submission to God, something is not quite right with your soul.
When I step out of time at long last, Teresa, let’s do lunch; I think we’ll have a lot to talk about.
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