Today is the feast of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), a Jewish Catholic martyr of the 2oth century. I am currently reading a book called Edith Stein and Companions on the Way to Auschwitz. I have hardly gotten past the first few pages, actually the first few paragraphs of the Foreward by Fr. Ralph McInerny who died this past January. I will simply quote them for you to ponder:
Once, in monasteries, religious houses, and seminaries, the Roman Martyrology was read in the refectory before meals. Each day some of those who had given their lives in witness to the faith were commemorated by name, and often the tortures they underwent were described. Each day’s entry ended with a sentence beginning “et alibi aliorum plurimorum sanctorum . . . .” And elsewhere many other saints . . . . This tradition continues in some monasteries.
We may feel sad for all the anonymous martyrs gathered into that commodious final sentence, but that would be a mistake. They are all entered into the Book of Life, and the names of each are known to God. For all that, it is important for us, not them, that the names and sufferings of some be explicitly known by us. The saints are put before us as models of the Christian life, and martyrs are the ultimate models. We need to know more about some of them.
“For all that, it is important for us, not them, that the names and sufferings of some be explicitly known by us.” A good friend of mine recently came over to our house to borrow some books on martyrs, so that she and her husband could read aloud from them once a week to their children. She perceives–as did Fr. McInerny–the importance of familiarizing ourselves with those, not much different from us, who have gone before us, braving death for the sake of Christ. Reading their lives can give us courage as well. One finds that they are pretty much ordinary folks like the rest of us who were simply willing to rely on Christ for what is humanly impossible. One of my favorite stories is of one of the Ugandan martyrs,I believe. He was too afraid to face death, but another held out his hand to him and said something to the effect that he would hold his hand and help him. That scene is, for me, such a visible playing out of the desire of the Holy Spirit, our Helper, who holds out His hand to each of us. “Be not afraid.”
