Tell Jesus to stop


Jesus kiss

“Mother Teresa – ‘The Kiss of Jesus’
This is not a fringe position in the Catholic Church, which has long extolled the spiritual virtues of suffering. Mother Teresa’s attraction to pain shaped her ministry to the dying, and one of the most serious criticisms of her Calcutta homes was that patients were denied modern medical care to relieve pain even when the Missionaries of Charity had the funding to do so. By her own report, Mother Teresa once told a woman to imagine that her suffering was kisses from Jesus. “Suffering, pain, sorrow, humiliation, feelings of loneliness, are nothing but the kiss of Jesus, a sign that you have come so close that he can kiss you.”
‘Tell Jesus to stop,’ the woman responded. (By Valerie Tarico)”

http://www.salon.com/2015/09/26/why_right_wing_christian_leaders_are_often_indifferent_to_needless_suffering_partner/

Mrs. Tarico challenges me very much and that is why I like her. I like to be challenged intellectually. However, I am not sure how much I like to be challenged emotionally, but this is something different. I will have to think more about it. Going back to the intellectual challenge, I just had a funeral of my grandmother. She suffered a lot during the last few years of her life. She could not walk and she was in constant pain. We did try to explain her pain and make it more meaningful.  We told her that she suffered like Jesus. We told her that everyone suffered. We told her that suffering was redemptive. We told her that she could offer that suffering for others. We just wanted her suffering to be more meaningful and that she would have a different positive view on her suffering and life. We wanted her to not be so depressed and pessimistic. The only desire that she had was to stop the pain. There is something unhealthy in Christianity that it has a positive view of suffering and sometimes it glorifies suffering.      

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