By Mary Johnson
Toronto, Bond Street Books, 2011
526 pages
Spiritual Memoir
Times change, people change, the response to religious faith
changes. If a person does not change, they are not growing; they are not, in
fact, living. This idea is brought forcefully home in the magnificent spiritual
memoir, An Unquenchable Thirst by Mary Johnson. At age 19, Mary, who was a part
of a large, Texas, Catholic family, joined the Missionaries of Charity, the
order of nuns founded by Mother Teresa. Twenty years later, her heart told her
to take another path, and she left the order.
Her memoir recounts her journey from obedient follower to
religious scholar, to questioning leader and finally to independent thinker.
She says, “Through years of wresting with my own dark nights, I’d replaced
marriage to God with a different sort of integrity.” The reader becomes totally
caught up in her story, which she relates in a chronological order. The order
in which she tells the story is important because the reader is able to relate
distinctly to her journey from youthful innocence to exhausted middle age.
An
Unquenchable Thirst is an intimate look at a lifestyle that has been shrouded
in mystery for centuries. We who know little about this topic—especially those
of us raised in a different form of Christianity—wonder how the life works, who
chooses to become a nun, and what the daily life of a nun is like. What one
sees is that this is a profoundly austere life. The theology of sacrifice as
practiced by Mother Teresa is one of rules and schedules and a total lack of
independent thinking and response. One reviewer said that the nuns’ "sacrifices would convert sinners, save
souls from hell, make reparations for sin, and speed world peace." These are
the very things that Johnson chafes at over the years. However, she never
rejects the concept of the religious life, only her life as an obedient nun.
She finally realizes that in order to have a life as a nun, you must have a “stubborn
faith, not an ecstatic vision.” Her honest portrayal of the order and Mother
Teresa should be required reading for anyone seeking a life as a religious.
Johnson’s training includes years of dish washing, cooking,
and piles of laundry. When she is finally able to get to the work for which she
had joined the order, she experiences some happiness. She works with disadvantaged
children, studies in Rome, and then becomes a guide for those entering the
order. Many of her years are spent in Italy. She yearns for Mother Teresa to
acknowledge her good works by calling her by her name, Sister Donata, but
Mother never does—only “Sister.”
The most poignant section of the book for me was about a
young nun under Johnson’s care who came to be seriously depressed, so seriously
in fact that she reverted to child-like behavior. At first Johnson is impressed
by the natural child-like faith the woman has: “faith that we’d been encouraged
to cultivate but which had always eluded me.” When she realizes that the woman’s
mental health is in danger, she instinctively reacts by hugging her and
touching her as a way of comforting her. Touching in any way is not allowed in
the Missionaries of Charity and Johnson is reprimanded for her actions. It
takes weeks of tenacity on Johnson’s part to get the woman the mental health
care that she needs.
An Unquenchable Thirst is aptly titled for Johnson speaks of
the thirst to know God and to help others in Jesus’ name. But she also speaks to
the thirsts that she, in the end, could not deny: the thirst to be touched; the
sexual thirst that she speaks candidly about; the thirst to be acknowledged;
and the thirst to understand her place in the world.
I was able to get an inside view of an abbey when my mother
was in a nursing home run by the Benedictine Sisters in Duluth Minnesota. One
dear sister had befriended my mother, loved her, massaged her, sang to her and
prayed with her. When she realized that my sisters and I were spending hundreds
of dollars on hotel rooms, she offered us a room in the abbey with kitchen
privileges. It was a kind and generous gesture—one that we appreciated in immeasurable
ways. Sister Susan’s ministry was to the dying at the nursing home and I will
be eternally grateful for ways in which she ministered to my mother, including
speeding my mother’s soul to heaven.
As Johnson talked about the austerity of the life of the
Missionaries of Charity and the silence of mealtime, I was reminded of the
happy chatter that emanated from the dining room at the abbey in Duluth, the camaraderie
of the nuns, and the way in which they interpreted the gospel.
With that experience in mind, I was interested in an article
written by Mary Johnson and published by the Religious News Service on June 4. It
is about American nuns. https://www.religionnews.com/faith/leaders-and-institutions/Guest-Commentary-The-nuns-who-once-taught-the-bishops-arent-done-yet
You may also be interested in reading my thoughts on The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris who has spent a great deal of time at an abbey
in Minnesota. I actually met Kathleen Norris in the elevator at the abbey in
Duluth shortly after I read her book.
I can highly recommend An Unquenchable Thirst. It is very
long, but it was so intriguing that I was able to stick with it for the long
haul to the benefit of my soul.
Reviews about An Unquenchable Thirst: http://www.nj.com/entertainment/arts/index.ssf/2011/08/an_unquenchable_thirst_a_book.html
No comments:
Post a Comment