Mother of Phenomenology

Being faithful to daily duties and persistent prayers

08/09/2017

Matthew 15: 21-28 At that time Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, "Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon." But he did not say a word in answer to her. His disciples came and asked him, "Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us." He said in reply, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But the woman came and did him homage, saying, "Lord, help me." He said in reply, "It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters." Then Jesus said to her in reply, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed from that hour.

           Let me tell you the story of an extraordinary woman named Edith Stein. She is a shining example of being tested and tried by family and friends, by the Church and the state, and finally being killed for her faith, but never flinching. Sounds a lot like Jesus, doesn’t she? Edith was born in Poland on October 12, 1891 to devout Jewish parents, but she had become an atheist by the time she was a teenager. During World War I, she worked in an infectious disease hospital and developed a deep compassion for the sick and dying. That’s why when she studied philosophy at the University of Freiburg and her doctoral dissertation was titled, “On the Problem of Empathy.” Her thesis director was Edmund Husserl, who founded a whole new kind of philosophy called “phenomenology.” But because Edith was a woman, Husserl did not promote her to an academic chair, but advanced Martin Heidegger instead. Obviously, Husserl needed to study the phenomena of “sexism” a little more carefully. But Edith remained friends with both Husserl and Heidegger.

            In 1922 at the age of 31, Edith read the life of the Carmelite mystic, St. Teresa of Avila, and she converted to Catholicism. She wanted to be a Carmelite nun right away, but her friends dissuaded her – I feel her pain! Instead she began a career in teaching philosophy at Catholic institutions. As the Nazis rose to power in Germany and oppressed both Jews and Catholics, Edith wrote a letter to Pope Pius XI asking him to denounce the regime, he had been conspicuously quiet. She didn’t mince words when she wrote: “As a child of the Jewish people who, by the grace of God for the past eleven years has also been a child of the Catholic Church, I dare to speak to the Father of Christianity about that which oppresses millions of Germans.” She continued: “For weeks we have seen deeds perpetrated in Germany that mock any sense of justice and humanity, not to mention love of neighbor. For years the leaders of National Socialism have been preaching hatred of the Jews… But the responsibility must fall, after all, on those who brought them to this point and it also falls on those who keep silent in the face of such happenings.”  Wow, what a woman.  Eventually, in 1937 the pope publicly decried the evils of Nazism.

            In 1933, Edith entered the Carmelite order and took the name of Sr. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Even though she took refuge in a convent in the Netherlands, the Nazis finally found the Jewish refugees – including Carmelite nuns – and deported them to Auschwitz, where Sr. Teresa Benedicta was killed in a mass gas chamber on August 7, 1942. Even her death and canonization as a saint were controversial. Did Edith die for being a Jew or did she die for being a Christian? Whatever others thought, Edith wrote this to her prioress about her feelings: she asked permission to “allow her to offer herself to the heart of Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement for true peace.” Obviously, her faith fueled both her life and death. On October 11, 1998, Pope John Paul II canonized Edith as a saint. I admire Edith because she was tenacious in testing; every time she was knocked down, she got back up.  What a woman.

           In the gospel today we see another woman who is tested and still remains tenacious. She is a Canaanite woman who asks Jesus three times to cure her daughter and three times Jesus ignores her or rejects her outright. But she refuses to give up, and finally wins over our Lord’s love. What a strange episode, how unlike our Lord, and the only meaning I can make of it is Jesus was teaching her to be tenacious in testing; don’t give up fighting the good fight like Edith Stein, even to the death. God will eventually vindicate you.

           My friends, learn the lesson of tenacious testing from Edith Stein today. What do you do when things do not go your way, when your plans are frustrated, when your hopes and dreams are dashed, when your marriage fails, or illness assaults, or you’re persecuted for being a woman, or a Christian or a Carmelite nun (I mean, who persecutes poor Carmelite nuns??)? Instead of grumbling or groaning, rather than shaking a defiant fist against heaven, simply keep doing what you should be: your daily duties, your persistent prayers, be cheerful, courageous and courteous, like the Canaanite woman and the Carmelite nun. In the end God will vindicate you, if not in this life, then certainly in the next.

           By the way, Edmund Husserl is commonly referred to as the “father of phenomenology.” He might be surprised to learn that his assistant, whom he refused to promote to professor because she was a woman, is today seen as the “mother of phenomenology.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!