I know that you did not participate in the Terresa Pile-On.
I think you may ‘misunderestimate’ the meaning of the false assault.
This really is taking it to a new (and lower) level. Somebody, either with malice or with negligence to the point of demonic imbecility, thoroughly misrepresented her. Others, reading those misrepresentations, took them to be true and casually sentenced her to hell and damnation.
At this point, a post describing Catholics as liars is ludicrous, and verging on self-condemning.
In man's eyes, many people have done wonderful things, among the worlds religions. These things are well and good and are to be encourgaged with the BIG caveat that good works do not achieve salvation.
Certainly Mother T. should be commended for her work. Did her work earn her a place in heaven? Not according to the scriptures. Was she a true believer? I don't know. Can someone believe that Faith and Works merits salvation? Not according to the scripture.
Thanks.
I can understand your perspective and your feelings.
PLEASE KEEP IN MIND.
1. RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY are partly so intensely emotional because they entail eternal life issues. That’s reasonable.
2. Few biases, if any, are as intensely held as RELIGIOUS biases.
3. We all see through the glass darkly—even when we think we are 100% right. None of us sees the whole from God’s perspective.
4. Hastey responses will likely be grossly flawed—particularly by shallow thinkers and arrogant responders.
5. Even deep thinkers and humble folks can get many things wrong—some seriously—particularly without much prayerful pondering . . . ON BOTH SIDES.
6. Even the most wild-haired irrational responses tend to have, for the posters in their tunnel vision, quasi-logical-to-them progressions that led to such pontifications. . . . ON BOTH SIDES.
7. MOST wild-haired conclusions and convictions have had a grain of truth in their beginnings or somewhere along the way. Usually the grain is quite small but biases inflate many things.
8. Mother T’s assertions late in her life about 40 years of doubts are horrific for someone with her dedication. They are at least sad, regardless of the context. There’s no moderating the starkness of those assertions regardless of the paragraphs or pages they appeared in. I’d love to see the whole context. However, appeals to ‘out of context’ will only go so far toward moderating them. Mostly, they are SO stark that no context will moderate them significantly without getting into double mindedness or double-speak.
9. I think extrapolating even from those stark and alarming confessions regarding her eternal destination are extremely hazardous. We do NOT have GOD’S PERSPECTIVE.
10. I believe even some pagans who SOUGHT THE SUPREME GOD EARNESTLY FROM THEIR HEARTS . . . MAY BE GIVEN A CHANCE BY CHRIST HIMSELF, AT THEIR MOMENT OF DEATH, TO ACCEPT CHRIST’S SALVATION. Scripture says rather broadly that THOSE WHO SEEK GOD *SHALL* FIND HIM. That’s NOT something I’d try and build a doctrine on. It’s just a personal conviction I have.
11. There are some annecdotal LIFE-AFTER-DEATH experiences which affirm that but those are certainly not substantive enough to build any doctrine on.
12. I don’t know why, and I don’t know anyone who does know why, God allows some incredibly dedicated people serving him to their more or less utmost—to go through such horrific desert experiences—with SEEMINGLY little to no relief. I know from personal experience it can happen and be extremely traumatizing, bewildering etc.
13. Certainly most of the time, we don’t hear God’s voice because we have failed to do the last thing He told us to do. But I don’t think that’s a hard fast rule we can project onto others’ situations. God does HIS OWN THING with each of us.
14. IF Mother T began to worship her ministry instead of her God, that would have been a hazard. Works in and of themselves don’t save.
15. I expect to see her in Heaven. I don’t think it’s guaranteed because we do not know her heart. FROM (virtually) ALL THE EVIDENCE, it APPEARS that her heart was toward God. Yet, if she felt abandoned by God for decades, after all she’d sacrificed, who knows what bitterness and unforgiveness may have crept in toward God Himself.
16. I do believe our God who has decreed that HIS MERCY will triumph over His judgment has been most merciful and gracious toward Mother T regardless of her human failings etc.
17. NEVERTHELESS, IT IS QUITE PLAUSIBLE, as some evidently have pontificated, to logically build a case built on her expressed doubts . . . that her eternal life was at risk. I don’t buy it from what little cursory bit I’ve considered—but it’s PLAUSIBLE. Asserting such is part of what our freedoms are about.
18. Proddys don’t have to be malicious, demonized, liars to assert such things. We can derive them in logical steps out of good hearts and goals. This should not be such a shock to RC’s. Many make much FAR MORE outrageous claims derived from much less evidence.
19. Your faith ought not be in man. Not only is the flesh weak, it is polluted until our own Resurrections. That’s true for all of us. And to some degree, the more intensely we are committed to God, the more apt we are to be quick on the draw to shoot down those who are perceived to be less so and in opposition to all we hold dear in such matters.
20. Christ was never disillusioned by man. He did not trust His heart nor Himself to man. Yet, He also did not wall Himself off in coldness, resentment, bitterness, self-protective hardness etc. He remained touched with the feelings of our infirmaties. He forgave His crucifiers in the midst of the worst of His pain and suffering.
21. Mother T may have become an icon to RC’s and even the world. That does NOT make her a Jr god in God’s eyes AT ALL. My perception of her is that she didn’t think much of those who idolized her. She wanted to see them emptying bedpans and washing the lepers.
22. There’s nothing to defend re Mother T. She either crashed and burned miserably regarding her faith the last 40 years . . . or she didn’t. IF SHE DID OR DIDN’T, GOD MAY STILL HAVE GIVEN HER A REDEMPTIVE OUT, REGARDLESS, IN HIS MEETING HER AT HER POINT OF DEATH. It’s not per se ours to know, at this point.
23. It is ours to do what we can to avoid a similar crisis of faith; flood of numbing doubts.
24. I’ve read a number of troubling things about her over the years. God alone knows the truth.
25. LIFE IS EXCEEDINGLY COMPLEX—JUST THE LIFE BETWEEN OUR OWN EARS, BEHIND OUR OWN EYES, WHAT WE SEE, TOUCH, TASTE, HEAR. Making rational sense out of it is increasingly a hazardous and challenging task in this era . . . regardless of whether we are RC’s, Proddys or pagans. Humility for the challenges others—maybe with less skills, mental horspowers or objectivity than we have . . . humility is in order.
26. Sure, we can rant and pontificate about the things we see as eternally important, if not crucial . . . ascribing demonized motives when each of us sees so little about even ourselves—much less about others—is hazardous.
27. If there’s great persistent evidence, and it’s redemptive to assert so—OK. But do it tentatively. We really do see such a small percentage of the whole internal and external realities. Making emphatic all inclusive GOD-LIKE pronouncements about another’s state of demonization is just a sizable risk. Ditto about their intent to lie etc.
28. Sure, out of the abundance of the heart the fingers fly. Still, extrapolations are only extrapolations.
BESIDES ALL THAT, I LOVE YOU DEARLY.
MD, I assume that you can present us with the proper context . Otherwise this accusation is unfounded and borders on slander