Jewish Flesh and Jewish Blood

Sixty-nine years ago today, Dr. Edith Stein -- in religion Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross -- and approximately one thousand other Hebrew Catholics were put to death in the gas chambers of Auschwitz (in Polish, Oswiecim).

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross is of the lineage of Miriam, of Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Leah, Judith and Esther, of the same people as the Blessed Virgin, Miriam of Nazareth, of whom was born Yeshouah who is called the Christ. The words of Our Lord in today’s gospel strike us with a particular resonance. “Salvation is from the Jews” (Jn 4:22) . . . Saint Paul reminds us that, “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (Rom 11:29). God’s choice of Israel remains; His love for Israel stands firm forever. How could God not cherish with a love of predilection the race that gave His only begotten Son flesh and blood? Gentile Christians are the wild olive shoot, grafted in place to share the richness of the olive tree. Lest we be tempted to boast, Saint Paul says: “Remember, it is not you that supports the root, but the root that supports you” (Rom 11:18). . . . How can we who were born in the century of the Holocaust, not be moved by this daughter of the Synagogue and of the Church? As we celebrate her martyrdom today, we are mindful that the Sacred Body and Precious Blood of Jesus offered and received in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass are Jewish flesh and Jewish blood. --Dom Mark Daniel Kirby, O.S.B.)

St. Edith Stein, virgin and martyr, pray for us!

Saint Edith Stein

a.k.a. Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, whom Pope John Paul II called "an outstanding daughter of Israel and at the same time a daughter of the Carmelite Order . . . a personality who united within her rich life a dramatic synthesis of our century. It was the synthesis of a history full of deep wounds that are still hurting ... and also the synthesis of the full truth about man. All this came together in a single heart that remained restless and unfulfilled until it finally found rest in God."

On August 7, 1942, Edith Stein and her sister Rosa, also a Catholic convert and a Carmelite nun, were rounded up from their convent and deported to Auschwitz, where they were killed two days later. When the two sisters were arrested, Edith said to Rosa, "Come, we are going for our people."

May Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross intercede for us on her feast day.

UPDATE: Elena Maria Vidal has a comprehensive post about Saint Teresa Benedicta's life at Tea at Trianon. I did not know before reading it that Edith Stein was born on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, surely a very auspicious day for the birth of a great saint.