The Voice of God Inside My Head

COMMENTARY: The voice of God inside my head
700 words
By PHYLLIS ZAGANO
c. 2008 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) Are all saints crazy? Or, do you have to be crazy to be a
saint?
Joy Behar, a panelist on ABC's "The View," said potential saints are
medicated out of a job. "I have a theory," she said, "that you can't
find any saints any more because of psychotropic medication.
"I think that in the old days the saints were hearing voices, and
they didn't have any Thorazine to calm them down." Behar continued. "Now
that we have all this medication available to us, you can't find a saint
anymore."
Bill Donohue's New York-based Catholic League responded in a flash.
Behar needs "a shrink," the Catholic League blog said. "Her musings
about all things Catholic suggests a pathological condition so severe as
to make those who hear voices positively sane by comparison."
Wait a minute. Who's on what team? Donohue agrees that people who
hear voices are deranged? So, saints are nuts, but Behar is nuttier?
Donohue has gone after "The View" before. Last June, he took out an
ad in the New York Times that counted 15 slams against Catholicism by
"The View" in the prior nine months.
Donohue said on CNN the ad worked, and "The View" panelists behaved
themselves until the latest fracas. If you watch the YouTube clip
closely, you'll notice Behar began: "I'm going to get in trouble for
this, but, you know what ... "
Seems they've been warned.
Behar even goes after Mother Teresa: "Teresa had `issues' let's not
forget; she didn't really believe 100 percent like these saints who were
hearing voices. She didn't hear voices, so the church said, `OK, she
does good deeds, let's make her a saint.' In the old days, you used to
hear voices. They can't do that anymore."
Not good, Joy. Mother Teresa said she lived for years without
feeling the presence of God. She may not have heard "voices," but Mother
Teresa knew what needed to be done. And she believed God's voice sent
her from a comfortable convent as a young nun to minister to the dying
poor of Calcutta. You see, the second step in saint-making is the doing
part.
Despite her tacky wording, Behar might have a point. Popular
"saints," with or without voices, are not that common. Of course,
"voices" alone don't determine sanctity; it's what the saint-in-training
hears and then chooses to do.
Aside from sad folks who genuinely need help with the "voices" that
tell them to engage in objectively strange behaviors, there are lots of
people today who hear God's voice in prayer and then act for the good.
Most folks still think real saints are strange. Mother Teresa
suffers a modern-day burning at the stake from Behar and others, like
Christopher Hitchens. On "The View," co-host Whoopie Goldberg said,
"Don't forget what they did to Joan of Arc. They set her on fire. That's
why people stopped saying anything."
Could be true. But the church eventually canonized Joan of Arc.
Hitchens, Behar and Goldberg notwithstanding, there are lots of other
holy people, known and unknown, who suffer real or metaphorical
martyrdom because they hear the voice of God.
The Nazis executed Franz Jagerstatter, an Austrian citizen who
refused to join in Hitler's war. The married church sexton is now
beatified, just one step short of Catholic sainthood.
Two years ago, rich ranchers paid killers to silence Sister Dorothy
Stang, an American missionary in Brazil who defended the land rights of
the poor.
Today, Son Jong Yam is tortured and awaits execution in Pyongyang,
North Korea, for spreading the Gospel.
Yes, maybe "medication" would have kept these future saints from
opening their mouths. Maybe they would have stayed at home and lived
comfortable lives. But they heard the voice of God in some way, and
acted as they did.
Whether they suffer at the hands of official or unofficial
executioners, or even mocking TV personalities, they witnessed to the
word of God, and the world is better for it.
(Phyllis Zagano is senior research associate-in-residence at Hofstra
University and author of several books in Catholic Studies.)