A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint John. Jesus crossed over the Sea Of Galilee to the shore of Tiberias. A vast crowd kept following him because they saw the signs that he was performing for the sick. Jesus then went up to the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. The Jewish feast of Passover was near, and then Jesus looked up and caught sight of a fast crowd coming toward him.
He said to Philip, where shall we buy bread for all of these people to eat? He knew well enough what he intended to do, but he asked this to test Philip's response. Philip replied, not even two hundred days wages could buy loaves enough to give each person here even a mouthful. One of Jesus' disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Jesus, there's a boy here who has five barley loaves and a couple of dried fish, but what good is that for so many? Jesus answered, get the people to sit down.
Even though the men numbered about 5,000, there was plenty of grass for them all to find a place on the ground. Jesus then took the loaves of bread, gave thanks, and passed them around to those seated. He did the same with the dried fish, as much of it as they wanted. When they all had had enough, he said to his disciples, gather up the crusts that are left over so that nothing shall go to waste. At this, they gathered 12 baskets full of pieces left over by those who had been fed with the five barley loaves.
When the people saw the sign that Jesus had performed, they cried out, this is undoubtedly the prophet who is to come into the world. At that, Jesus realized that they would come and carry him off and make him king. So he fled back to the mountain alone. And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen.
Today is May the first, May one, a great day in many, many parts of the world where communism, socialism has made a foothold. And if you ever take the time to to sketch on a globe the amount of the world that now is at least formally dedicated to socialism and to communism, you will be startled and astonished to see how much of the world today is, at least by name, communistic or socialistic. Those two are not the same things, of course. They're close, but not the same by a long shot. Now there's one thing I've always felt very, very happy about was the way the labor movement in The United States never joined in on this May the first business.
We have our own Labor Day, as you know, at the end of summer. At least our labor movement steered clear clear of that. Now there's a very special meaning to this day, at least for me, and that is that today well, it's now 07:00. It's probably well underway. That is the beatification of Edith Stein, sister Benedicta Alcrochet, Carmelite, none, convert from Judaism, who is this morning, probably by this time, been beatified in Germany, West Germany, in the sports stadium of Cologne.
Now you may have read a little bit about this in your papers. It has roused a good bit of criticism, rejection from the Jewish community, or at least from some Jewish members of the Jewish community who feel that this is an intrusion upon their rights or something. I don't know. Anyway, Edith Stein in as far as I'm concerned, she's not well known in this country, but she certainly made her mark in Europe, in the feminist movement, certainly in the philosophical world as a student of Husserl phenomenology, who that is Edith Stein, who Husserl also was a Jew incidentally, and suffered some persecution. Anyway, Edelstein, practically an agnostic, became his disciple and became a Catholic and became a Carmelite nun and became a victim of Nazism in Auschwitz and today is being beatified as a martyr.
Now to be a martyr, you have to get lay down your life for your faith. That's what the the some of the Jewish people are saying, that she laid down her life because she was a Jew. Well, the story is very brief. In order to save her, she was sent from the convent, the Carmelite convent in Cologne into Holland, which at that time was safe. The Nazis came in and proceeded to exercise their dictatorial powers and persecuting the Jews.
The archbishop spoke up very strongly and condemned them publicly. The result was that the German commandant, in retaliation for the archbishop's criticism of the Nazi attitude, their their persecution, in retaliation, the German commandant ordered all Jewish who had been converted to Catholicism to be included among those who would be deported. So without any warning, one Sunday morning, I think it was, she and her sister Rosa were told to leave, and in minutes, literally minutes, they had to pack and leave the convent and go on and on. And and within about a week or so, as far as we know, they were executed in Auschwitz. Now there's one little point here.
Some of the Jewish critics are saying that that this was an involuntary death. Now you can't be a martyr and be and have it involuntary, involuntary, obviously. Can't Now, I've I've within the last few months, I've read not only her life, but I've read other things about her. And this is perfect. I I I have already mentioned her sister, Rosa.
Now Rosa was not a nun, but she became a Catholic and was living in the convent. She was not a religious Carmelite. Now Edith was invited to a convent in Switzerland, and she could easily have gone. But the Carmelite convent in Switzerland would not take her sister who was not a nun. So Rosa explicitly and voluntarily stayed with her sister Rosa with full knowledge of what might happen.
She had seen this for years, really. So whether I I don't call that being involuntary at all. She made a very, very definite act of the will to stay with her sister rather than to flee into Switzerland where she would have been safe. However that may be, Edith Stein is a big name in Europe philosophically and in other ways. She was a very prominent person, one of the brightest lights in the in the philosophical and intellectual world.
I'm not exaggerating this at all. When she chose to become a Catholic and then of all things, a cloistered Carmelite nun. Of course, many of her family are still living. Some will some will have gone to Cologne this morning, others refused to go. There was a very, I thought, a very touching article.
I I'm speaking only in my own opinion. It I thought it very moving. In the New York Times for about two weeks ago, an article by her niece who was married and living out in California. Anyway, we are today at least I am celebrating very much the beatification of this very extraordinary woman. She was about 50 when she died.
She is another member of Christ's church, the visible church of Jesus Christ. She is another one of our companions. I like that. I keep saying, don't get tired of hearing me say that because this is what we are. You can tell people by the company they keep.
Edith Stein is our companion. In the name of the father, and the son, and the holy spirit. Amen.