"Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani"

Blessed Mother Teresa, and in fact any other Saint you could probably name, at one point in time or another doubted their faith, I would wager.

Why?

Because that's what humans do.

Although I agree that the cry from the cross is seminal in Mother Teresa's case, I'm unconvinced (indeed I doubt) it has to do with losing or even mislaying one's faith (His, hers, or ours). Rather, it exemplifies it.

In one of his books, the British Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, tells the tale of Mother Teresa's interview with a journalist who wanted to know what she said to God when she prayed.

"I never say anything," she confessed. "I just listen."

"And what does God say to you?" persisted the cocksure. worldly-wise cynic.

"He never says anything to me," explained the nun. "He just listens."

An interesting speculation, that. Many Christians believe that Jesus was the second person of the triune God, and I have yet to hear a good explanation from a believer about how a God could lose faith in himself. But if Jesus was mortal, and only mortal, then his exclamation on the cross probably reflected a genuine sense of despair...which means he had come to believe that he was spiritually special and that God should have saved him from the suffering of his crucifixion.

Catholics, I know, believe that Jesus was both human and divine...or at least that is what Catholic theology says. But such a belief stretches the imagination. The divinity, by definition, would be immortal, while humans definitely are not. So how could Jesus believe he was mortal and immortal at the same time?

About Mother Teresa: I always thought of her as a bit of a religious fanatic, but finding out she doubted God's existence in at least the last decade of her life, well, that makes her acts of compassion even more heroic, in my opinion, but it is something I can understand. If you lose your faith in a good and just God, then the suffering you see around you seems rather pointless and a person of good heart might be heroically compassionate toward others because they feel that if they don't show compassion, there is nothing else that will. Without a God, it is within each person's power to make of life a bit of Heaven or Hell. Doing good for the hope of reward after death no longer is seen as a virtue, but behavior motivated by selfish interests. But doing good simply because you care, well, I see that as a path of true virtue open to every doubter and non-believer.