In today’s Gospel (Matthew 18:1-14), Jesus asks us to be humble and trusting like a child – to humble ourselves before our God and to trust in his goodness and faithfulness. A few days ago (Matthew 16:24-28) we hear Jesus teaching us that to follow him means bearing our cross – faithfully dealing with all the tough things that life throws at us.

Today we celebrate the saintly life of Edith Stein, (aka Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) who faithfully lived out the humility and trust that Jesus speaks of, to the point of patiently bearing her own cross for the sake of God’s kingdom.

Edith Stein was a Jew who converted to Christianity shortly before the 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”.  Edith Stein faithfully bore her cross in trust and humility, and gave up her life for God and his people.  In bearing her cross, and with her selfless sacrifice, she carried divine life into our world.  And as Jesus would have us remember – with a humble and trusting disposition towards her God, even as she lost her life, Edith Stein found her life.