The giveaway is the lie in the first paragraph about Mother Teresa saying that suffering "gives you leverage over God."
She would never have said such a blasphemous thing.
She taught, of course, that suffering unites us more closely to Christ because he suffered for us.
With respect, I'd like to ask a question. It has been many years since I studied the Catechism and I left the Church long ago. But I remember things like, "Offer it up for the souls in purgatory" - that suffering had its purposes. I don't recall that I was to endure suffering to be closer to Christ, but that may just be my memory.
Perhaps post-Vatican II Catholics don't 'offer up' their suffering anymore? I think suffering can give you character, can make you more aware of the plight of others, and if you believe in the purgatory thing, it can help there. But I just don't recall that suffering is supposed to get me closer to Christ. For those who believe, Christ's sacrifice was so overwhelming, how do you possibly get close to that? And if He died for our sins, why do I have to recreate that suffering in myself? I thought the idea was to contemplate Christ's sacrifice and to be sorry for one's imperfections, trying not to repeat them.
I'm just trying to learn the Church's current stand on suffering. It may be worthwhile to learn to suffer gracefully that which is unavoidable, but it can't be that Christians are supposed to go looking for it or impose it on others in order to get closer to Christ.
"Though He were a son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered."