Live Chatting w/ Fr. James Martin

Well, Fr. Martin hit a nice solid line-drive with his first answer. For those of you just coming in, today we’re talking books, prayer, faith, saints and more with Fr. James Martin, S.J., award winning author of My Life With the Saints and of A Jesuit Off-Broadway, which just won First Place: Popular Presentation of the Catholic Faith by the Catholic Press Association. More on all that later – we have lots of questions and comments lined up, so keep checking back and scrolling down.

While you’re waiting for updates, check out Michael Gerson’s excellent piece on Tony Blair and the launch of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. But then come back! :-)

Question from Joe: In Cahill’s book, “The Gift of the Jews” he says that the 10 originally were very short in themselves, just 2 words some of them. “No Murder.” “No Steal.”

From Fr. Jim: Dear Joe,
It makes sense that God would be brief and get to the point. God knows that those dicta are easier to remember for a people on the go! Father Jim

Question from ES: Fr. Jim, in “My Life With the Saints”, you reveal yourself in all of your hesitancy – the spirit was willing but the flesh was repulsed – at least initially, by some of the work you did while helping out the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa’s sisters) in Kingston, Jamaica. Can you talk a little bit about the speed or slowness of spiritual growth under those circumstances; was every day a revelation or did some of the lessons take a long time to sink in? Do you – all these years later – glean insights from the experience that are new?

Fr. Jim:

Ah well, when I was in Kingston, Jamaica, working with the Missionaries of Charity, I was mostly dealing with the physical repulsion of caring for people who were very, very sick. (It was the smells of the hospice there in Jamaica that affected me the most, I think). Ultimately, what helped me the most was an insight from my spiritual director, who said that, on the one hand, I didn’t have to feel that we’re all not made to be hospital chaplains (that is, we all have different gifts) but that it was important nonetheless to look for signs of God’s presence, and, most of all, to try as much as we could to enter into real relationships with the “guests” there. The greatest insight for me, which I used when I was working at Ground Zero after 9/11 was this idea that our vocations as different–because our desires and our skills are different.

Years later, when I walked into Ground Zero, I thought of Jamaica. I thought, “Well, I don’t think I can stand seeing the dead, but I think I can help the rescue workers by speaking with them.” That insight came from Jamaica. It’s very freeing.

Question from ES: I had the good fortune to run into some Missionaries of Charity in Washington DC – they were visiting the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and they struck me as “absurdly, ridiculously cheerful” – they radiated such happiness that even though I could understand it on one level, on another I found it so unnatural as to seem almost supernatural. Do you attribute that to Mother Teresa’s rather strenuous and disciplined approach to prayer and service?

The MCs really are completely cheerful, and initially to me, in Jamaica, it also seemed false. But as I got to know them I saw how real it was. Why are they happy? Well, they are happy being MCs, that is, they are happy in their individual vocations. They are happy to serve the “poorest of the poor,” in whom they see God. And they are happy being with one another. The more time I spent around them, the happier I got, too! They reminded me of the Little Sisters of Jesus, from my time in Nairobi, Kenya, which I also discuss in my book. I’ve never spent time around a religious congregation who laughed as much as they do. Again, joy is a sign of the Spirit!

Question: One more on Mother Teresa: When “Come Be My Light”, the book of Mother Teresa’s letters was released last year, there were raised eyebrows, and some jeering, on the revelation of her decades-long dark night. Could you share some insights into what the “dark” times mean for a Christian and what they can yield?

Well, I’ve written quite a bit about that, including in The New York Times, and, even more extensively, at America magazine, in an article called “Shadows in Prayer,”. But in short, I think those dark times tell Christians a few things. First, that spiritual “darkness,” that is, feelings of God’s absence, are common in everyone’s life. Second, the saints are human: Mother Teresa’s sanctity did not prevent her from experiencing human feelings of loss, of sadness, of loneliness. Third, and perhaps most important, the insight that she is human reminds us that all of us are called to holiness, to heroic sanctity. It is no longer possible to say, “Well, I can’t do all those amazing heroic things like the saints. Obviously it was easier for them, since they always had the gift of feeling in God’s presence.” But it was often harder for them than it is for us! In other words, all of us–no matter who we are–are called to holiness. It is, as Mother Teresa said, “everyone’s duty–yours and mine.” This makes the saints “closer” to us, and makes it easier for us to see how we can strive to be saints ourselves.