The Letters

My wife drug me out of the house today to do some shopping…which is as enjoyable as my mom making me eat a plate of lima beans when I was a kid.  Trying to salvage the day, I trolled what was playing at the local cinemas.   I was actually looking for Hindi movie; always fun and they have subtitles!  Nothing looked that great but one movie that came out today caught my eye – THE LETTERS.

Anyone who is remotely familiar with the life of Mother Teresa cannot help but be impressed.  A nun from Albania, she worked in India for 50 years, serving the poorest of the poor and the dying in the slums of Calcutta. 

Her letters to her bishop revealed that her life, while rewarding, was also one of loneliness and feelings of abandonment.  The loneliness that comes with a missionary leaving ones homeland, possibilities of marriage and family and spending countless hours in solitary prayer; the feeling of abandonment from God at her lowest moments.   Ironically, she felt that these two burdens of her soul were also that which motivated her to serve others.  “The greatest suffering is to fill alone, unwanted, unloved.”

The movie is a bit slow and I didn’t find the acting particularly good, though Juliet Stevenson portrayed Mother Teresa well.  Perhaps because of my association with India for over twenty years and having visited the grave of Mother Teresa, my attention remained just by the sheer familiarity of what was on the screen.  If I had directed the film I would have included clips from her life, her death (she died the same day as Princess Diana) and State Funeral (unheard of except for heads of state).  

What I gleaned from THE LETTERS, was a woman who lived by faith, prayer and selflessness.  In one scene, Mother Teresa refuses to move on a decision until God reveals His will and she would pray until the answer came.  Coincidently, it was the same thing I read about this morning in J. Hudson Taylor’s, A Retrospect: The Story Behind My Zeal for Missions.

The life of Mother Teresa has many critics, and for some her theology is enough to keep them from watching this film.  For me, I am captivated by anyone’s dedication to Christ and the discipline they are willing to embrace to serve Him.  Especially in the day we live in, i.e. the feelings of entitlement as well as the refusal of inconvenience (Suffering? Forget about it!).  I am guessing that I came out of the theater more enriched spiritually that if I plumped down eight bucks to watch Creed or Love the Coopers.  I’d give THE LETTERS 2 1/2 stars as a movie,  3 1/2 stars for my soul.