The Martyr for Love

Dear brothers and sisters! The love of Christ was the fire that inflamed the life of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Long before she realized it, she was caught by this fire. At the beginning she devoted herself to freedom. For a long time Edith Stein was a seeker. Her mind never tired of searching and her heart always yearned for hope. She traveled the arduous path of philosophy with passionate enthusiasm. Eventually she was rewarded: she seized the truth. Or better: she was seized by it. Then she discovered that truth had a name: Jesus Christ. From that moment on, the incarnate Word was her One and All. Looking back as a Carmelite on this period of her life, she wrote to a Benedictine nun: “Whoever seeks the truth is seeking God, whether consciously or unconsciously.”

Although Edith Stein had been brought up religiously by her Jewish mother, at the age of 14 she “had consciously and deliberately stopped praying.” She wanted to rely exclusively on herself and was concerned to assert her freedom in making decisions about her life. At the end of a long journey, she came to the surprising realization: only those who commit themselves to the love of Christ become truly free.

This woman had to face the challenges of such a radically changing century as our own. Her experience is an example to us. The modern world boasts of the enticing door which says: everything is permitted. It ignores the narrow gate of discernment and renunciation. I am speaking especially to you, young Christians, particularly to the many altar servers who have come to Rome these days on pilgrimage: Pay attention! Your life is not an endless series of open doors! Listen to your heart! Do not stay on the surface, but go to the heart of things! And when the time is right, have the courage to decide! The Lord is waiting for you to put your freedom in his good hands.

Loving Revelation

All that is said about God presupposes something said by God.

       -St. Edith Stein (1891-1942)

In our last reflection on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we affirmed the possibility of knowing God through natural reason. Movements in creation and in our souls can lead us to a certainty in the existence of God.  

Reason isn’t the only thing He leaves us with, though. Out of love for His creation, God revealed Himself to man by opening Himself and voluntarily speaking to the world. God freely showed Himself to man so that we may know Him: 

Just as in human love one can know something about the beloved person only if he opens his heart to us, so too we know something about God’s inmost thoughts only because the eternal and mysterious God has opened himself to us out of love (YouCat, 17).

God first made Himself known to Adam and Eve, when “he invited them to intimate communion with himself and clothed them with resplendent grace and justice” (CCC, 54).

God continued to reveal Himself after the Fall, when men were scattered and divided by sin. He first did this in the covenant with Noah and then when He selcted Abraham as patriarch of the chosen people, who were specially called “to prepare for that day when God would gather all his children into the unity of the Church” (60).

A Young Woman in Search of the Truth

Today the Church celebrates the feast of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, or Edith Stein, who was canonized by Blessed John Paul II in 1998. “A young woman in search of the truth,” Edith serves as a model for young thinkers seeking what is good and right, and what is truly free. Although she was brought up by a Jewish mother, Edith turned from prayer to philosophy and self-reliance as she grew. Her heart yearned for hope as she searched for truth, and this open-hearted seeking eventually led to a surprising answer: “only those who commit themselves to the love of Christ become truly free.”

And commit to Christ she did. Once St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross found the Truth, she gave herself to Him through entering the Carmelite Order and eventually, through her martyrdom. In his homily for her canonization Mass, Blessed John Paul II said:

Because she was Jewish, Edith Stein was taken with her sister Rosa and many other Catholic Jews from the Netherlands to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, where she died with them in the gas chambers. Today we remember them all with deep respect. A few days before her deportation, the woman religious had dismissed the question about a possible rescue: “Do not do it! Why should I be spared? Is it not right that I should gain no advantage from my Baptism? If I cannot share the lot of my brothers and sisters, my life, in a certain sense, is destroyed”.

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, the “martyr for love” who told us not to “accept anything as the truth if it lacks love” or “accept anything as love which lacks truth,” Pray for Us!