Today, as we hear St. Paul’s letter to the Romans (Romans 9:1-5), we are reminded of the everlasting covenant that God made with the Jewish people – a covenant never to be broken, and one that assures faithful Jews eternal life with God. Paul’s words remind us that all of us – Jews and Christians alike – are blessed children of God who benefit from the guidance of God’s Spirit and by the saving work of Jesus Christ.
Just yesterday we celebrated the saintly life of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (a.k.a. Edith Stein).
Edith Stein was a Jew who converted to Christianity shortly before the Nazi regime took hold in Germany. She spoke out against the hatred, oppression, and killing that the Nazi’s brought about, and eventually lost her life in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Her life was one that was fixed on Jesus’ gospel message – a life that she gave up in order to help bring attention to the Nazi atrocities, and the killing of her Jewish brothers and sisters.
Edith Stein once said “the deeper someone is drawn to God, the more he/she has to get beyond him/herself and go into the world and carry divine life into it”. I’m pretty sure that Edith Stein intended this message for both Christians and Jews, since she, more than most, must have held a deep appreciation for those ties that bind all of us who make up these two great faith traditions.
Thank you for remembering Saint Theresa Benedicta/Edith Stein, a wonderful example for those who are called to witness in a time of great tribulation. Even as we attended mass today, our Christian brothers and sisters were being murdered throughout the Mideast by haters and fanatics. To those of us in this part of the world, dying for our faith seems very improbable, indeed; however, a third of the world away our co-religionists are dying for the very same faith. May we keep them in our constant prayers.