When St. Teresa Benedicta was a little girl named Edith Stein, she was raised in the Jewish faith. She was an adolescent when she turned away from God, and that doesn’t seem too different than a lot of young people, still today. It is true that her return to faith was in Christianity, but she also maintained a real spirit of respect for her Jewish background.
According to writers at Franciscan Media, “After becoming a Catholic, Edith continued to honor her mother’s Jewish faith.” (cited here, para 5) This is how Edith described her conversion to Christianity. “I had given up practicing my Jewish religion when I was a 14-year-old girl and did not begin to feel Jewish again until I had returned to God” (cited here, para 14) It seems reasonable to believe that her education in the Jewish faith impacted and enhanced her life as a Christian.
She also delayed her request to become a Carmelite out of respect for her mother, who was disappointed that she chose Christianity over Judaism. However, because of growing Nazi pressure, it became necessary for her to go ahead with her vows, for her own safety. Unfortunately, that safety was short-lived since the Nazis did eventually take her to Auschwitz, where she perished along with so many fellow Jewish people in the gas chambers.
Life in a Jewish Family is her unfinished autobiography. While a great deal of the book is focused on her academic pursuits in the study of philosophy, specifically phenomenology, this is also a first-person account of what it was like to live in a Jewish family in Germany at the turn of the 20th century.
I think we, as Christians, share Edith’s spirit of respect for the Jewish people. After all, Jesus was also raised in a Jewish family. So much of what we believe grew out of Jewish tradition. Although our Old Testament is not identical to the Jewish scriptures, they share the same major themes.
For example, both start with the same first five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These books lay out the foundation for God’s relationship with humankind. Throughout the Old Testament, we learn about God’s covenants with Adam, with Noah, with Abraham, with Moses, with David, and with the prophets. Jesus came to fulfill God’s covenants, not to abolish them, so we still share that significant bond with our Jewish brothers and sisters.
Unfortunately, there were Jewish people who were upset when the Catholic Church recognized Edith Stein as Saint Teresa Benedicta. They felt that honoring a Jew-turned-Catholic was offensive to Judaism. I hate to hear when anything we do as a faith community hurts someone else. Certainly, no offense was intended. She wasn’t canonized because she left Judaism.
The Church wasn’t trying to use her to prove some kind of debate with the Jewish people. In fact, as I’ve mentioned, we try to be respectful of all people, regardless of their faith, or lack of faith. We are taught to love our neighbors, not to love only the Christian neighbors. I believe St. Teresa Benedicta was a beautiful example of the best of both faiths coming together, albeit with ultimate devotion to Jesus Christ. But we need to appreciate and respect the foundation of faith that she learned in her Jewish family.
Dear God, thank You for Your revelations to Your people starting in Old Testament times and continuing even today. Help us to appreciate the gift of faith, as St. Teresa Benedicta did. Please guide us to live the faith as You desire.