Jewish converts

At the Lunch at Boars Hill to celebrate the Feast Day of St John of the Cross that I blogged about last week, I met a convert from Judaism I had not seen for some years. When he became a Christian, his mother told him "You are dead to me from now on". Seeing him again reminds me of the huge price Jews often have to pay in becoming Christian. To be banished from our earthly family is indeed a harsh cross, although down the years it has been the fate of many converts to the Catholic Church. For there is something about the Catholic Church that upsets some people even when they have no particular creed of their own. To be perfectly honest, I had that 'something' in my own makeup for some years in my early life, years when - God forgive me - I looked down on Catholics. Talking to that convert at Boars Hill however, I could not help being reminded of St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross OCD (Edith Stein), and the anguish for her of telling her mother she had become a Catholic.