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.
