12 August 2018 - Reflection for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time - John 6: 41-51

       On August 9, we mark the anniversary of the bombing of the city of Nagasaki that brought about the surrender of Japan and an end to WWII.  On that same day, we commemorate a saint who was martyred in WWII.  Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was born to a Jewish family in Germany – her original name was Edith Stein.  As a teenager, she renounced her Jewish faith; she eventually became a professor of philosophy.  Reading the autobiography of St Teresa of Avila inspired her conversion to Catholicism and her vocation as a Carmelite nun in a Carmelite monastery in Cologne, Germany.  Because of her Jewish heritage, her order feared for her safety in Germany under the Nazi regime, so she was transferred to a monastery in the Netherlands.  When in the priests in the Netherlands read a statement in church condemning atrocities by the Nazis in July 1942, in retaliation, Jewish converts to Catholicism in the Netherlands were arrested and sent to concentration camps.  Edith Stein was put to death at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland on August 9, 1942, only two days after her arrival there.   She was one of the more than one million prisoners to die that camp.  As we hear Jesus tell us in the Gospel today that he is the true bread that came down from heaven to nourish us, we think of the courage and the strength that the Eucharist gave Edith Stein to convert to Catholic Catholicism and to live out her faith as a Carmelite nun in the midst of all the danger around her.  In America, where so many Catholics do not attend weekly mass, where so many are turning their backs on the values of our faith, the testimony of Edith Stein speaks out to us.  

Her faith speaks to us in the words of this prayer that she wrote:

Let me, Lord, blindly walk the way that you present. 

I understand not, but obey, your child, content!

Father of wisdom, and my Father too. 

Even by night, you lead me to you. 

Lord let it be just as you will, I am ready to go. 

Though my longing you may never fill, in this world’s woe. 

The WHEN is for you - O Lord of all time. 

Your Eternal NOW will one day be mine. 

May all that you plan come to pass as you will, and wisely decree. 

When you call me to sacrifice, silent and still, then give courage to me. 

AMEN.