Homily: August 9 - St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross - Where is God in suffering?

Today we celebrate Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.  She was born—Edith Stein— the 11th child of a large family of orthodox jews in Germany in 1891.  Her life came to an end 50 years later in a gas chamber at Auschwitz.  By then she was a Carmelite nun who had converted to Catholicism.  Though the Jews were the principle victims of the Nazi’s in World War II, millions of Catholics, including bishops, priests, and nuns were murdered in the concentration camps. 

While attending university, young the young jewish girl, Edith Stein began to develop a strong interest in Catholic belief and thinkers. After reading the autobiography of St. Theresa of Avila, she asked to be baptized.

10 years later she imitated Theresa of Avila by entering the Carmelite convent and took the name Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.  It was 1933, Adolf Hitler was Chancellor of Germany.

In 1942, the Nazi’s arrested Sister Teresa.  She and her sister Rosa, also a Catholic, were transported to Auschwitz in Poland by boxcar.  One week later, Sister Teresa died in a gas chamber.

And as she was sent to Auschwitz and saw those terrible scenes—the destruction of human life brought by man’s inhumanity to man—she must have often asked herself once again, where is God? 

But she answered that question by remaining strong in her faith, by embracing Jesus Christ who leads us through the suffering of life into everlasting life. 

Today, August 9th is the anniversary of her death in Auschwitz, but it is also the day of her birth into heaven.  

Many people leave the Church because they find it burdensome and restrictive.  Some even claim that God must not love them because of their suffering.  Suffering is not a burden that we bear alone. No matter what our circumstances, whether we die homeless on the streets, in a hospital bed, in a concentration camp, the Lord Jesus blesses us and walks with us, reminding us as we heard in the Gospel today: ““Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”

Through the prayerful intercession of St. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross and all the Saints, may we bear our crosses with faith and hope and love today and always for the glory of God and salvation of souls.