That human beings are created “imago dei” is a central theme in Christianity (and Judaism). The belief conveys the fact that God’s love is written intentionally into human beings: in our ability to think, to make moral and other decisions and in our ability to form loving relationships with others.
One of the problems we face in believing and living with this reality- is the “post-modern” understanding of “image” which is like a self-constructed poster- created out of “bits” of my imagination without either form or depth. It tends to feed a somewhat narcissistic idea of the person.
The Christian notion of being made in the “image of God” has much more depth and more drama than this- it captures the deeper reality of being human- and of being human in relationship to reality.
On the Feast of the Transfiguration, 30 years ago, Pope Saint John Paul II issued his great Encyclical Veritatis Splendour- the Splendour of the Truth. In the opening paragraph the Pope writes evocatively of the truth that is the key to understanding the artwork of God’s creation:
The splendour of the truth shines forth in all the works of the Creator and in a special way in man (the human person) (VS No. 1)
The splendid light of truth had a compelling gravitational force for one of the great saints of August, Saint Edith Stein – Sister Teresa Benedict of the Cross (October 12th, 1891-August 9th, 1942). Edith was drawn from a life of authentic but non-believing scholarship to the everlasting Truth. She realised that behind all the wonder of things- was the eternal personal Love of the Blessed Trinity. She learned too that it was through her loving relationships with many friends that she and her own brilliance of mind and heart grew to a life of heroic and sacrificial love.
Edith was born into a large Jewish family and retained a rich and lively appreciation of the entire corpus of the Scriptures and Jewish prayer. She was a brilliant and hardworking philosopher, teacher and educational thinker who for a time (at the precocious age of 14) declared herself an atheist. Through her contact with Christian friends and her spiritual hunger for The Truth- she discovered the life of St Teresa of Avila and converted both to the Catholic faith and at the same time, to a deep and lasting desire for the Crucified Lord in the contemplative and hidden life of a Carmelite nun. As Carmelite nuns, she and her sister Rosa were deported to Auschwitz- where they were exterminated in the hellish gas chambers of Birkenau.
Edith’s entire life is a rich drama which illustrates her conviction about God’s loving ‘intentionality’ in her life. Her friends were both living and those in heaven. Her biographical writings are full of the word “friend.”
We see her circle of friends studying philosophy- many of whom were devout Christians- Catholic and Lutheran. There was the kindness and pure intentions of her teachers – such as Adolf Reinach and there were priests and spiritual directors- who guided her entry and discernment into the Catholic Church. There were the students who were awed and touched by her quiet but strong friendship. There were the Dominican sisters with whom she lived, studied and prayed before coming to Carmel. There is the mighty – Saint Teresa of Avila who seems to have taken her by the hand and drawn her to Carmel even though she loved and revered St Thomas Aquinas and the Benedictine communities who befriended her.
Above all – was her intense friendship with Christ on the Cross- and her prophetic realisation that she would represent her Jewish people in her dying with them in the gas chambers of the Third Reich.
She wrote later in her life “… from God’s point of view – nothing is accidental, my entire life, even in the most minute details, was pre-designed in the plans of of divine providence…” Everything in God “has a perfect coherence of meaning.”
Genuine and loving friendship was a vital avenue for Edith’s realisation of her life.
It was through the example and experience of friendship, that she was able to understand the importance of the well-wishing (bene-volente) affirmation, empathy, communion and convivio – (sharing good times at the table with our friends) as the way to God and to Truth.
Saint Edith lived each of these five dimensions of friendship with a brilliant and inspiring “splendour.”
St Teresa Benedict of the Cross- pray for us to find true and inspiring friends- and the gift to become ourself a sign of truth as a friend to others.
~ Anna Krohn
