Newsweek magazine has a feature article in its current issue written by Mother Teresa hater, Christopher Hitchens. The impetus for his latest diatribe against what most people consider the one person certain to be welcomed into heaven with open arms is a book written by the person in charge of her case for sainthood.

Mother Teresa joined an order of nuns whose primary focus was education. And so, she began her religious life as a teacher. However, she felt a deeper calling in the face of the abject poverty and the lack of care for the lowest castes in Indian society. Through her persistent perseverance, Mother Teresa was given authorization to start her own order to provide care for the lowest of the low, the dying unclean, disease-ridden poor. Her care for these people recognized their human dignity, their humanity expressed best in Genesis, “and they were created in the image and likeness of God.”

Mr. Hitchens, in a multi-page spread complete with photos, jumped at the opportunity to use this book as proof of Mother Teresa’s hypocrisy, the Catholic Church’s use of promoting guilt and unworthiness in the individual as a means of enslaving them, and a disavowal of the existence of God and the Church’s use of such an idea as an opium for the masses. Especially for such a simple, non-intellectual as Mother Teresa.

The book in question has letters written by Mother Teresa to her spiritual director, in which she questions her faith, the existence of God in the face of such suffering, and an inability to feel a connection with God in her prayer life. Mr. Hitchens berates and ridicules those who promote Mother Teresa’s cause for canonization and Mother Teresa herself for living the life she chose in the face of her doubts.

Why did Newsweek chose an obvious secular humanist atheist with an axe to grind to write the main article of an issue about a Nobel prize winner, a truly holy person who unselfishly devoted her life in service to the poorest of the poor? Mr. Hitchens truly disapproves of Mother Teresa’s life, especially her public statements on the dignity of all human life and her strong, consistent anti-abortion stance. In doing so, he only shows his condescending depth of ignorance and bigotry towards people of faith. Minimal research into Mother Teresa’s problems with her faith and spiritual life would have revealed a commonality among all of the church’s greatest saints.

Mr. Hitchens mentioned minimally about spiritual dryness or the dark night of the soul. Most saints were afflicted with these same doubts and questions during their lives. Examples include St John of the Cross, St Teresa of Avila, and Blessed Padre Pio. The critical element that the “uber”-intellectual Mr. Hitchens missed is the word faith. St. Paul in his Letter to the Hebrews said that “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” He also explains in 2 Corinthians that as Christians, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

The true message of the publication of Mother Teresa’s letters of doubt and questioning to her spiritual advisor is one of faith. The egg-head, pseudo-intellectual represented by Mr. Hitchens does not have faith but walks by sight, his own personal myopic view of the world. Relativism reigns with no moral certitudes. and truth is determined by convenience. In Mr. Hitchens’ ego-centric, self-important world, one’s worth varies with one’s ability to “contribute” to society, to have an acceptable quality of life. Faith, as exhibited by Mother Teresa, recognizes universal, absolute truths. Despite questioning and doubts, Mother Teresa always walked by faith for if she had walked by the things she saw, the human misery and suffering would have sent her running in avoidance.

Faith is belief in that which we cannot see, a hope for the future and in God’s steadfastness. No doubt Mr. Hitchens has questions, doubts, and fear of the unknown future. Maybe as he walks past homeless bums and dirty, smelly street people to get his morning double latte at the local Starbucks, he will ask himself the right questions and then seek out the Truth. Good sources include any of C.S. Lewis’s books (Mere Christianity is a good starting point), G.K. Chesterton (The Life of St. Francis of Assisi), prolific author Father Benedict Groeschel, Thomas Merton’s books on meditation and contemplative prayer, and finally the seminal work on the work of the Holy Spirit, the stages of a fully developed prayer life, and a comparative study of the struggles of selected saints called The Fire Within by Father Thomas Dubay.

Mr. Hitchens, there is absolute truth, and it is not the stinking garbage you proselytize in your Newsweek article. The truth came to us over 2000 years ago. He came in the person of a man creating a singularity in human history. Although He was a man, He is also God. As Mother Teresa did, you may question the reality of this but in the end with an open mind and heart, you too cannot help but see the truth that there is a God who created us, cares about us, and lives outside of time and space with a home there for each of us. I believe this because I have faith in Him and what he said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. He who believes in me will have everlasting Life.” I am also convinced that Mother Teresa, through her walk by faith, is enjoying the beatific vision of eternal life. What life are you choosing?