The Church today celebrates the liturgical memorial of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Edith Stein, a twentieth-century religious and martyr. Her journey of conversion was marked by an unceasing and passionate search for truth, concerned not only with her personal truth but with truth itself. A truth not in the abstract, but a truth incarnate in people.
The Inner Search and the Awakening of Faith
The question of the eternal, which stood out above all else, led her to lift the veil covering her mind and heart. Amid great torment, growing doubts, solitary struggles, and dialogues between reason and reality, rational prejudices gradually fell away and transformation occurred little by little. Although her understanding delayed her decision, she could no longer close herself off to the possibility of God’s existence.
The Discovery of God as Love
When the change came that ended her search for true faith, she concluded that God is not the God of science, but that God is love. Only total surrender can resolve all mysteries. It is from the depths of the soul that we are freed and led, through encounter with God, to our innermost selves. She thus emphasizes the practical importance of interior prayer.
An Experience That Resonates in Saint María Eugenia
Saint María Eugenia of Jesus, a century earlier, had traveled a path bearing similarities in this passionate search for truth. Both experienced instability within and without, doubts, constant dialogue between reason and reality, an understanding that seeks to know everything, to analyze everything.
Surrender as a Path to Perfection
María Eugenia yielded to the grace she received on the day of her conversion. Everything that disturbed her spirit disappeared, and she found calm and light. She understood that the greatest good is to possess the truth and that it must be made known. In her was born a new generosity and a living faith that nothing can take away.
To adore God, serve the Church, and teach the Truth define her vocation and the path she follows. Nothing attracts her more than love for God and the thought of the perfection demanded by this choice for Jesus. Therefore, it is a path of conforming to the truth, seeking perfect love, to aspire to and possess God.
A Shared Message for Our Lives
These two women from different contexts offer us a key for a path of inner freedom. The search for God’s truth within ourselves will always lead us to encounter the God of love and bring us to our own interior, where only God can reveal Himself and satisfy every thirst and longing. From this experience of humility, of conforming to the God of love, will spring the deep desire for service and total surrender.
May the testimony of these two women inspire us to live our own search for truth with confidence, depth, and inner freedom.What truth is your heart seeking today?
Sister Yania Soto de León
Province of Central America and Cuba