Homily for Memorial of St. Edith Stein

Homily for the Memorial of
St. Edith Stein
(St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross)

Aug. 9, 2022
Collect
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, New Rochelle

“God of our Fathers, you brought the martyr St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross to know your crucified Son and to imitate him even until death” (Collect).

When she was 15, Edith Stein, daughter of a devout Jewish mother, professed atheism and vowed never to pray again.  But she did become an ardent devotee of truth, which she pursued in philosophical studies under phenomenologist Edmund Husserl.  At the beginning of the 20th century, it was quite unusual to find a woman, much less a Jewish woman, in a German university.  But her brilliance was widely recognized as she sought truth.  Another philosopher, Max Scheler, introduced Edith to Catholic thought.  She thought and discussed all this with her university students as well as her colleagues.

One day someone gave her a copy of St. Teresa of Avila’s autobiography.  She read it in one sitting overnite and exclaimed, “This is the truth.”  She became a pray-er, and at age 30 was baptized.

She began to feel a call to the Carmelite life but was encouraged to continue her teaching and writing.  She did, until Hitler came to power in 1933 and the Nazis expelled Jews, including converts, from the universities.  Then she entered the Cologne Carmel and took the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.

The cross became the center of her spirituality, her ultimate truth, as she linked suffering and sacrifice to knowledge and love.  She embraced the cross as she saw her people suffering so unjustly as the Nazi persecution intensified.

For her own safety and the safety of her Carmelite sisters, in 1938 Sr. Teresa and her sister Rosa, also a convert, moved to a monastery in Holland.  That safety was fleeting.  In 1940 the Germans violated Dutch neutrality and overran the kingdom.  When the occupiers applied their anti-Jewish laws, the Dutch hierarchy did what no other hierarchy did and denounced the persecution.

The Nazis retaliated by arresting Jewish converts, hitherto exempt.  On Aug. 2, 1942, Edith Stein and her sister were arrested and dispatched shortly to Auschwitz.  Edith told Rosa, “We go for our people.”  They were both gassed on their arrival, on Aug. 9.

The Dutch bishops were bold, but they saved not one Jewish life unless their public letter, perhaps, encouraged their flock to take measures to hide Jews.  Their experience proves the prudence of scandalously slandered Pius XII, who acted silently to protect Jews in Rome and thruout occupied Europe rather than talk about it.

Edith Stein-Sr. Teresa Benedicta is venerated as a martyr, a witness to the human dignity of every person.  She willingly sacrificed herself, took up Christ’s cross in solidarity with her people and with all victims of cruelty and injustice.  She bore witness to Christ’s universal love, that he is Savior of the whole human race (Collect).