THE POGROM - C: 32nd Sun in OrdTime

First Reading: 2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14 (6 November 2022)

“Ours is the better choice, to meet death at men’s hands, yet relying on God’s promise that we shall be raised up by him; whereas for you there can be no resurrection, no new life” (2 Macc 7:14).

This is the cry of the fourth Maccabean brother when subjected to torture after refusing to partake of pig’s flesh that is forbidden by the Mosaic law (v. 1). The Seleucid Greeks led by King Antiochus harbored a hatred of the Jewish people for their alleged obnoxious gatherings, traditions, and eccentricities (cf. 6:1-11; 7:24). Most of all, they were unlike the rest of the Greek world that would advocate syncretic religious practices to the point of worshipping multiple deities. Contrariwise, the Jews believed solely in the God of Israel and refused to acknowledge the divinity of human authorities. Because of their stubbornness, the Seleucids ordered their execution should they continue to hold on to their convictions (7:3-5, 39-42).

Despite the threat to extinguish them completely, the Maccabean brothers stood their ground and never abandoned their Jewish beliefs. Inspired by their mother’s encouragement (v. 20), they bravely accepted every single torture given on them, viz., their tongues, hands, and feet were cut out (v. 4); their bodies were fried in fire (v. 5); their skins and hair of their heads teared off (v. 7); and they were brutally murdered (vv. 20, 41). The whole Maccabean book describes their collective resistance amid the state-sponsored purgation. It glorifies, too, the Hasmoneans who fought back, recovering their independence from the Seleucids in the process (2 Macc 8ff.).

By and large, the biblical author points out that the Jews, when faithful to their beliefs and traditions, could never be extinguished as a people, which has been proved as correct since the time of Abraham and Moses, and such would be true in all other generations.

In the course of history, this cleansing of the Jews has become recurrent. The technical word for this activity is pogrom—etymologically derived from the Russian word for “devastation”— which refers to an “organized massacre of helpless people” (cf. Merriam-Webster). Soon, this word evolved to mean other subsequent persecutions of non-Jewish people on account of their perceived detestable genealogical lineage. We have witnessed time and time again several attempts to banish an ethnic group. In fact, the last century features large-scale ethnic persecutions, such as the Jewish holocaust by the Nazis (1940s), the Indonesian genocide (1965-66), the Bangladesh mass killings (1971), the Rwandan cleansing (1994), the Bosnian massacre (1995), and, recently, the Russian annexation of Ukraine at all costs under the order of Vladimir Putin. All of these undertakings banner a purported noble cause. In the latter, for example, Putin is motivated by the ideology that all Russian descendants should be visibly united and never be subservient to the machination of the Western world that is blindly led by the European Union and the United States. While there is a tinge of truth to this claim, nobody has the right nor authority to kill any single person.

Genocides essentially eliminate human lives, and such should never be tolerated in today’s modern understanding of human rights, where topping this list is the inalienable right of every person to continue to exist on earth.

The Maccabeans directly opposed genocides. May we also be logical and civilized enough to shun all language and propaganda that oppress any community and ethnic group in our society.

- Rex Fortes, CM