Flora Cantábrica

Edith Stein. English.3.6.1.22

Tweet

Vision of Judaism [edit]

Edith Stein’s vision of Judaism evolved throughout her entire life. Born into a Jewish family, she abandoned her faith and became an atheist and, in any case, non-practicing and agnostic since adolescence. This atheism was abandoned because of her encounter with Christ. This conversion of hers led Edith Stein to a deepening of her faith, to feed back on her Jewish roots gradually, and to express her Christian faith in an original way.122

Edith Stein never denied her Jewish origin and always considered herself as belonging to the Jewish people. She considered Christ to be a practicing Jew, like her early disciples. He is the same Church with the group of his disciples. The Church must be fully aware of this roots and of the duty to show solidarity with the persecuted Jewish people.123 It was this reflection and this affiliation that led Edith Stein to write to Pope Pius XI about anti-Semitism124 and to act against it throughout his life.125 He also claimed his Jewish heritage, for example in 1932. During a stay in Paris, he would say «with us» or «us» when talking about his Jewish philosopher friends and would do so continuously throughout his life.126

In her work Life of a Jewish Family, which is presented as autobiographical, Edith Stein wants, according to the prologue, to achieve a refutation of Nazi anti-Semitism through the presentation of the life of her family and her Jewish friends, where she is totally supportive , looking for a way to make anti-Semitic prejudices disappear. This heritage is experienced by Stein in a very personal way; Edith wrote in 1932: “I had heard of severe measures taken against the Jews, but at that moment the idea suddenly came to me that God had once again placed his hand strongly on my people and the destiny of the people was also the mine «.127 She wrote The Church’s Prayer, where she reaffirms the deep, vital link between Catholicism and the Jews, and affirmed that» Christ prayed in the manner of a pious Jew, faithful to the Law. «128 Edith He says, with the same logic, that there is a rich past and present of the Jewish liturgy, a richness that prefigures the richness of the Catholic liturgy.129
Finally, in her death, which she wanted to live as a holocaust for «her people,» she showed her deep attachment to the relationship between Christianity and Judaism.130 However, she never denied her Catholic faith and identified herself with Christ, who died. by his disciples. So Ella Stein did the same, entering the fields as a Jew.

Pope John Paul II, in his homily for her beatification, affirmed that there is no contradiction in Edith Stein’s faith: “For Edith Stein, Christian baptism was not a way to break with her Jewish legacy. On the contrary, she said, «I had renounced the practice of the Jewish religion since the age of fourteen. My return to God allowed me to feel Jewish again.» She was always aware that she was bound to Christ not only by spirituality, but also by her own blood. In the extermination camps she died as a daughter of Israel «for the glory of the Most Holy Name and, at the same time, like Sister Teresa Benedicta de la Cruz, who comes to say:» blessed by the Cross «.1

Finally, in her death, which she wanted to live as a holocaust for «her people,» she showed her deep attachment to the relationship between Christianity and Judaism.130 However, she never denied her Catholic faith and identified herself with Christ, who died. by his disciples. So Ella Stein did the same, entering the fields as a Jew. Pope John Paul II, in his homily for her beatification, affirmed that there is no contradiction in Edith Stein’s faith: “For Edith Stein, Christian baptism was not a way to break with her Jewish legacy. On the contrary, she said, «I had renounced the practice of the Jewish religion since the age of fourteen. My return to God allowed me to feel Jewish again.» She was always aware that she was bound to Christ not only by spirituality, but also by her own blood. In the extermination camps she died as a daughter of Israel «for the glory of the Most Holy Name and, at the same time, like Sister Teresa Benedicta de la Cruz, who comes to say:» blessed by the Cross «.1

Stein developed a particular spirituality around the Passion of Christ. From the beginning of her conversion she was struck by the mystery of suffering through the death of her friend Adolf Reinach. She discovered how her young widow took the test through Christian hope. Once entered Carmel, she took the name of Sister Teresa Benedicta de la Cruz, which demonstrated her importance in her theology of the cross. The writing of The Science of the Cross on the spirituality of Saint John of the Cross allowed Edith Stein to develop a theology of the cross. The Cross is, according to Edith Stein, «… the truth buried in the soul like a grain of wheat that pushes its roots and grows. It marks the soul with a special imprint that determines its behavior, to such an extent that the soul radiates around it and makes it known through its behavior. For Edith Stein, the science of the cross consists in the imitation of Christ, the Man of Sorrows. 132

he suffering described by Saint John of the Cross in The Dark Night of the Soul is a participation in the Passion of Christ and has «the deepest suffering, that of abandonment of God.» Juan de la Cruz says that to enter «the wealth of God’s wisdom, it is necessary to enter through the door: this door is the cross and it is narrow.»

For Edith Stein, the science of the cross is the possibility of joining God; the soul can only unite with it «if it was previously purified by a fire of internal and external sufferings and in accordance with the plans of divine wisdom. No one in this life can enter into this knowledge, always limited, of these mysteries, without having suffered much ”.133 These sufferings were considered by Edith as“ the fire of expiation ”. Jesus came to earth to carry the burden of man’s sins. The sufferings of Christ throughout his life and accentuated in the Garden of Olives are the sign of the pain he feels in this abandonment of God. The death of Christ, the peak of suffering, also marked the end of his suffering and the possibility of union with eternal Love, union with the Holy Trinity. 134

According to Edith Stein, after the dark night that is the purification of the heart, the human being agrees to union with God. 135. She also affirms that “the science of the cross can only be acquired if one begins to truly suffer the weight of the cross. At first, I had the inner conviction and I said from the bottom of my heart: Ave Crux, spes unica. ”136 137 This science of the cross led Edith Stein to desire to offer herself and suffer in union with Christ. In 1930 she wrote: «I feel how weak the direct influence is, which heightens in me the feeling of personal holocaustum.