Mother Teresa spent most of her adult life in Calcutta
(Kolkata), India serving the poorest among the poor with the basics of life
including medical help, orphanages, leprosy outreach clinics, and hospice care.
Millions of the poor and impoverished, and the sick, feeble and dying have
benefited from her charitable services.
The pain she saw and even
suffered every day in her life had an understandable
effect on her personal testimony of God and the Savior. She said:
“Where is my faith? Even deep down
... there is nothing but emptiness and darkness ... If there be God—please
forgive me. When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven, there is such convicting
emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very
soul ... How painful is this unknown pain—I have no Faith. Repulsed, empty, no
faith, no love, no zeal, ... What do I labor for? If there be no God, there can be no soul. If there be no soul then, Jesus, You also are not true.” (bold
added)Teresa, Mother; Kolodiejchuk, Brian (2007). Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light. New York: Doubleday. Cited in “Mother Teresa” from Wikipaedia.com
Nevertheless, despite her
inner turmoil, she carried on with her mission. And she did also confess that
though she felt alienated from their favor, she did believe in God and Jesus.
Wikipedia quotes:
In one publicly released letter to a spiritual confidant, the Rev. Michael
van der Peet, she wrote, "Jesus has a very special love for you. [But] as
for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not
see,—Listen and do not hear—the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak ...
I want you to pray for me—that I let Him have [a] free hand." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa
But to learn if she will be
exalted, we need to look into some enlightening LDS doctrines.
First, we know that from the
pre-mortal existence* of all mortal beings on this earth from the days of Adam,
there are certain souls who are of the Elect of God. These have special
missions to perform in this life to effect God’s Plan of Salvation. Some are
born as (1) prophets, (2) others are pre-destinated to become members of
Christ’s Church. And still others (3) are fore-ordained to missions to “do
good” on the earth among God’s children, outside of direct membership in
Christ’s Church, which is in today’s dispensation – the dispensation of the
fullness of times – the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the
membership of which is commonly known as the Mormons.
If Mother Teresa had been a
Mormon, she might have gone on a two year Church mission, gotten married upon
her return, had some kids, gotten a calling in her Stake, Ward or Branch, been
a stabilizing and exemplary source in her locality, given donations to tithes
and offerings and that might have been her life. While that is fine and meaning
no disrespect to we whose lives are not further involved in the betterment
of the world’s societies, Mother Teresa obviously had a much bigger calling,
one that would not only try her faith to the core, but one which would
ultimately result in the betterment of millions of souls; and the setting of an
example for all of us to be more charitable, as well as setting up institutions
which today are still carrying out her mission after her return to the Spirit
World. She obviously completed that mission with honor.
But could not Mother Teresa
as a Mormon have carried out her calling in life as well? Perhaps, but as a
Catholic, she ultimately had a much larger organization come to her assist.
There are after all, about 1.2 billion Catholics in the world with an estimated
170 billion
dollars in annual
spending, but only a little over 15 million Mormons (1.2% the size of the
Catholic Church) collecting some 7 billion
dollars in tithes annually
plus additional profits from business holdings.
Consider:
(1)
Some pre-mortals were ordained in the
pre-existence to be prophets. Consider Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 1:4, 5 “Then the word of the Lord
came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before
thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee
a prophet unto the nations.
(2)
Some were fore-ordained to be members of
the Church.
Acts 23:47
Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the
church daily such as should be saved.
(bold added)Eph. 1:11, 12 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
(3)
All were fore-ordained or commissioned
to be doers of good in the world, some with special assignments.
Moroni
7:10-16 Wherefore, a man being evil cannot do that which is good; neither will
he give a good gift. For behold, a bitter
fountain cannot bring forth good water; neither can a good fountain bring forth
bitter water; wherefore, a man being a servant of the devil cannot follow
Christ; and if he follow Christ he cannot be a servant of the devil. Wherefore, all things which are good cometh of God;
and that which is evil cometh of the devil; for the devil is an enemy unto God,
and fighteth against him continually, and inviteth and enticeth to sin, and to
do that which is evil continually. But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually;
wherefore, every thing which inviteth
and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.
… For behold, the Spirit of Christ is
given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto
you the way to judge; for every thing
which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent
forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect
knowledge it is of God.
This Scripture informs us
that
·
ALL things which are good come from God.· All things which invite and entices to do good are inspired of God, and
· All things which invite to do good and believe in Christ are also of God.
Mother Teresa certainly
qualifies as one who has done good all her days and endured to the end. The
work she performed was therefore “of God.” Further, she was a beacon of
charitable giving: she invited and enticed all persons to do good – therefore,
per the Book of Mormon, she was “inspired of God.”
I believe we can therefore
safely assume that in her pre-mortal spirit life, she was fore-ordained to do
just what she did do in this life.
Because of her despair and
self-analysis of her faith, we can also realize that she was not a blind
follower of Catholicism, with a mind closed to further enlightenment. That
being the case, we can comfortably assume the missionaries from the Church in
the Spirit World have taught or will teach her the lessons; that she will or
has readily rejoiced at the prospect of being baptized and becoming a member of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Do
we know this for a fact? No, of course not.
Ether 15: 34 Now the last words which are written by Ether are
these: Whether the Lord will that I be translated, or that I suffer the will of
the Lord in the flesh, it mattereth not,
if it so be that I am saved in the kingdom of God. Amen. (bold added)
Note that even the prophet
Ether humbly allowed his final judgment to determined by the Savior, though I
am sure that he had faith he would be.
God through the Savior is
final judge of all mankind. He will also, with justice and mercy, leave no stone unturned to maximize
the reward of every soul who comes to earth.
D&C 137: 7-9 Thus
came the voice of the Lord unto me, saying: All who have died without a
knowledge of this gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted
to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God; Also all that shall
die henceforth without a knowledge of it, who would have received it with all
their hearts, shall be heirs of that kingdom; For I, the Lord, will judge all
men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts.
I believe that Mother
Teresa’s heart was in the right place and that she fulfilled her pre-mortal
ordination. And as she is taught the Gospel in the Spirit World, she will
come to understand why she lived the way she did, and why God responded to her
the way He did. Thus, I take the positive position and believe she will be an
heir of the Celestial kingdom of God.
___________________
* Pre-mortal existence (pre-earthly existence, or pre-existence). Scriptures show that we mortals
existed as spirits before coming to earth. There, in the pre-mortal realm, we
matured, and before coming to earth in the times appointed for each of us (see
Acts 17:26), we received an ordination or a blessing to accomplish good deeds
in this life. For many, that includes finding a way into the Church authorized
by God to function in His behalf. When we return to God after the earth life is
finished, we will be judged in part by how well we accomplished the
“pre-destinated” (see Eph. 1:9-12) ordination. Note: “pre-destination” is
derived from the Latin praedestinatio
(fore-ordination), and does not imply
a forced or coerced life absent of agency.
Please note: the opinions expressed herein are mine alone and not that of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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