Mother Teresa and St. John of the Cross

In my Theo 450 class, we discussed the newly released letters of Mother Teresa, which indicate she went through some very dark times in which she was face to face with loneliness and spiritual doubt. This is what St. John of the Cross, in the 1500's, called "The Dark Night of the Soul."

Well, St. John has much to teach us. Below is a reflection by a priest of our own day, Fr. Richard Rohr. He is a challenging voice in our culture, one which echoes the early desert monks and mystics like St. John of the Cross.

Read this reflection and see if it helps understand why Mother Teresa would have experienced the Dark Night of the Soul.


True spirituality is utterly countercultural because it's non-merchandisable, non-measurable, non-provable. It is precisely nothing. Who wants to be nothing in this world? This culture's goal is for us to be something, to be everything, "to win friends and influence people."

St. John of the Cross puts it this way: "In order to come to pleasure you have not, you must go by a way that you will enjoy not. To come to the knowledge that you have not, you must go by a way that you know not. To come to the possession that you have not, you must go by a way in which you possess not. To come to be what you are not, you must go by a way that you are not" (Ascent of Mount Carmel, I, 13, #10).

We fear nothingness, of course. That's why we fear death, too. I suspect that death is the shocking realization that everything I thought was me, everything I held onto so despera tely, was precisely nothing. The nothingness we fear so much is, in fact, the treasure that we long for. We long for the space where there is nothing to prove and nothing to protect; where I am who I am, and its enough. Spirituality teaches us how to get naked ahead of time, so God can make love to us as we really are.

--Fr. Richard Rohr, from Letting Go: A Spirituality of Subtraction

If you are interested in receiving Rohr's short daily meditations, it is easy. Just click here and sign up!

Thought from Service Class

Basically, the points I made yesterday about "Modernity" are this:

Descartes comes long in the 1600's and says THE DEEPEST CORE OF "SELF," of "I" is my reason, my mind.

Then comes Nietzche in the 1700's saying God is dead and religion is foolish because THE DEEPEST CORE OF "I" is this need for self-assertion, what he called the "will to power."

Then Freud enters the picture, saying, "no no, its not our mind nor our will, but rather THE DEEPEST CORE OF "SELF" is the libido, sexual drive."

So then, where does that leave us? Well, it has left "Modernity" (1600's - present) being skeptical of the ancient claim of Christian theology, which says this in response:

"INDEED, THE MIND WANTING TO 'FIGURE LIFE OUT' IS DEEP WITHIN US; INDEED THE NEED FOR SELF-ASSERTION AND POWER SEEM SO MUCH PART OF "I"; AND NO DOUBT OUR SEXUAL APPETITE IS CENTRAL TO THE SELF; YET NO MATTER HOW DEEPLY IMBEDDED THESE DESCRIPTIONS OF "SELF" ARE, THE "I" GOES EVEN DEEPER. There is an "I" that seeks to love for the sake of loving, an "I" that is not controlled by thought (Descartes), power (Nietzche_ or even sex (Freud). This "I" can only be moved by God.

This claim was articulated most clearly by St. Augustine in the 400's: "God is more inner to me than I am to myself," and because of this "our hearts are restless until they rest in God."

How do we find this "I"? Well, the Christian tradition offers 2 practices, 2 "training programs".....

SILENCE AND SERVICE. Both of these, best done together, can get us (to put it crudely), "out of our head," "out of our egos" and "out of, well, you figure this one out."

MONKS and POLITICS

In the Asian country of Nyanmar (formerly knownas Burma) something amazing is happening right now. Enormous amounts of people, being led by Buddhist Monks who have come from monasteries into the streets, are protesting an oppressive military government. The government is threatening military violence on the protesters. Yet the monks are saying that threats will not cause them to back down. Read the full story by clicking here,

THE ENERGY CHALLENGE

As we saw in class, there is so much to learn about energy: its sources, its uses, its dangers and its promises for our world. So, this weekend let us begin.

I am technologically unable to convert today's Power Point to a webpage for linkage here. Perhaps Felipe will help figure that out. Until then, though, here are two things. First, a video on energy. I watched it; it is of a student using media clips to present on the topic of "peak oil," which is related to what we are studying. I found it interesting and provocative. We will talk about other points of view on Monday.


Also, I ask that you look through the following series of articles on energy at the globalissues.org site. When you have looked at these materials relating to our presentation today, post your comments below. I want everyone to post something insightful on what we learned today or what you read. Questions are okay, too.

The Luckiest Nut in the World

Okay, here is the video I wanted to show in class. It is not long, and does not explain all facets of anti-globalization views, but it does show 2 points in detail:

1) it tells an actual story of how one African nation came to be in serious debt to the World Bank

2) it does show how the World Bank encourages "liberalization" (which = removal of trade barriers to ensure a free-market) while some parts of American agriculture do not practice the same liberalization here.

Also, I want to mention here the site where I found this. The site was recommended to me by our very own class member Elliot Majers. The site has material on almost every issue we will address this year; it should not be the only site you turn to, but it is a respected and well-researched site. It is called globalissues.org

So enjoy the video, notice a reference to Ghana, its flag and the product that it also is a big exporter of: ground nuts.

Know Your Bank

As members of the world, we should know our World Bank. AND SO, Monday in class I will begin by asking you to explain the powers, and controversies, of this institution. As I have said, so much of what we will study depends on knowing the assumptions guiding one's view of the world. It also depends on knowing how globalization is happening. And no institution is more a part of globalization--for better or worse--than the World Bank.

Here are two links below, one positive toward the World Bank (and IMF, be sure to understand the difference) and the other quite negative. Read them both. Use other sites as well to really get a handle on what the World Bank is. On Monday, each of you should be ready to explain what the World Bank is, how it works, and why it has been so controversial.
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/exrp/differ/differ.htm
http://www.50years.org/pdf/GG-Sample.pdf

GLOBALIZATION and poverty

One of the most talk-about proposals for using globalization and capitalism to help developing countries is the. This project is led by economist Jeffrey Sachs and supported by institutions such as The World Bank. The Millennium Project has goals to achieve by 2015 (here is an interacive map of goals) and also has named 12 "Millennium Villages" in Africa that will demonstrate how technology and investment can reduce poverty.

Here is a short video of Sachs. Note that he says "Agricultural Revolution," by which he means an end to subsistence farming an the introduction of commercial farming, is essential to development. This reduction of subsistence farming is at the heart of the debate over globalization. Listen in...

The World Bank

To see how the World Bank explains its own mission and responds to criticisms, click here. For a critical look at the how the World Bank was formed, check out this lecture excerpt: