Flawed Saints

Some of my favorite books are autobiographies. I enjoy learning about people, their experiences and their cultures. Every person has a story. To have the courage to share that story, with all of its victories and its faults, is inspiring.

Mary Johnson surely put forth an extraordinary amount of courage in penning the book, An Unquenchable Thirst: Following Mother Teresa in Search of Love, Service, and an Authentic Life. I referred to the book in a previous post, and I have learned that I should not reference a book without having read it all the way though. The particular reference still holds true, but I think it's necessary to provide a few more details about the book.

The book is a memoir in which Johnson recounts her life as a Missionary of Charity, a nun, under the tutelage of Mother Teresa. At age seventeen, she felt a calling to become a nun, and she lived that calling for twenty years.  Johnson's description of her journey is utterly genuine, uniquely real. She struggles deeply with the union of her commitment to God and her commitment to be a Missionary of Charity. Johnson questions those in authority and the rules that they follow, yet she places no condemnation and emits no condescension (except for that she places on herself).

This book called into question the widely held impressions of Mother Teresa as faultless and beyond reproach. While this may be controversial ground, let me just say that we are all humans. We are all flawed, from Mother Teresa to me in my striped pj pants.  Despite admiration, position, or acts, God shows no favoritism.

Also, there is no doubt that Mother Teresa blessed and inspired so many with her commitment to care for the poor and orphaned. She did much good. But it would be easy to stop there and not consider that there could be another side, a distinctly human side. A side that ignored sexual assaults within the convents. A side that responds to sisters in Beirut who were under fire and in danger by saying, "Are you dead yet? Call me when you are dead." While the book is not primarily about Mother Teresa, the references to her stand out simply because of her stature, and because Mother's influence weighs heavily upon Johnson.  

Don't read this book if you hold saints to a super-human standard of virtue and righteousness. You will be disappointed.  Also, don't read this book if you have conquered human temptations and cannot relate to the pursuit of purity. Johnson's openness about her faults, even her sexual ones, will appall you.

Do read this book if you believe that we are all sinners in need of abundant grace. Not only will you gain insight into life in a convent, you will be inspired to seek God, striving to live a life that is pleasing to God and pushing against the forces that threaten your freedom in Christ.