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| Source: Ignatius Insight |
It is fitting that today the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross because in today's Gospel reading Jesus says, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." What better way to demonstrate this than to lay down your life as a martyr for the faith?
St. Teresa Benedicta was born born on October 12, 1891 as Edith Stein. She grew up Jewish, but as she entered her teens, she stopped believing in God. Stein was extremely intelligent and studied philosophy, specifically phenomenology, at the University of Göttingen. During her studies she encountered some Catholic classmates and was moved by the "strength of their faith". These encounters sparked Stein's interest and she began to study a catechism on Catholicism. Stein went on to earn a doctorate in philosophy with highest honors from the University of Freiburg. Her study of philosophy – the study or search for truth – fueled her intellectual curiosity. Edith would read the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila. Studying the life of this great Carmelite ignited a renewed awareness of God and Stein entered the Catholic Church in 1922. After her conversion, Stein spent her time as an academic - writing, researching and teaching. She became a Carmelite nun in 1934 and began teaching at the Educational Institute of Munich. She was forced to give this up during the reign of the Nazi's and moved to a Carmelite Monastery in the Netherlands. In 1940, along with other Dutch Jews, including her sister Rose, Stein was sent to Auschwitz where she would die in a gas chamber on August 9, 1942.
Lessons:
1. Intelligent people can believe in God.
2. Faith and reason go hand in hand.
3. God often uses the lives of other Christians to reflect His own love for us.
4. Catechesis and study of the saints can lead to sanctity.
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