By Elise Harris
Vatican City, Nov 22, 2017 / 11:22 am
On Tuesday, Pope Francis blasted what he has often referred to as "ideological colonization," which he said is a sin against God that leads to persecution.
This persecution can have both spiritual and cultural elements, and can have both religious and political motives, he said. Cultural persecution occurs when a new culture comes in and wants "to make everything new and to make a clean break with everything" that was there prior, wiping away "the cultures, the laws and the religions of a people."
In the past, Francis has often used the term "ideological colonization" in describing what he views as the oppression of developing nations by more powerful ones, particularly in the West, who seek to impose their values on poorer countries by making the adoption of these values a condition for humanitarian aid or development money.
Two examples of this "ideological colonization" Francis has spoken of frequently are the distribution of condoms in developing nations and the promotion of gender theory.
Speaking from the chapel of the Vatican's Saint Martha guesthouse during his daily homily Nov. 21, the Pope centered his reflection on the martyrdom of Eleazar in the day's first reading from the Second Book of Maccabees.
Eleazar, a wise elderly man who was well respected by his peers, was forced by the king, Antiochus Ephiphanes, to eat pork, which the Jews considered unclean and forbidden for consumption. Under penalty of death, Eleazar refused to eat it, even when friends urged him to substitute the pork with another meat, pretending to eat it while really consuming something acceptable.
To do this, Eleazar argued, would not only be dishonest and go against his own life's convictions, but could also cause scandal for the youth, who would think that he had violated the law and may be tempted to do so as well.
He was then tortured and killed for choosing to remain faithful to God's law, which Pope Francis said was the result of a cultural persecution.
Francis said the persecution that eventually led to Eleazar's martyrdom began in the previous day's reading, also from Maccabees, when some of the people, after seeing the Antiochus Ephiphanes' power and beauty, asked the king to give them the faculty to "introduce the pagan institutions of other nations."
Yet while many people left tradition behind and accepted the pagan way of doing things, there were some, like Eleazar and other martyrs spoken of in the Book of Maccabees, who sought to defend the "true traditions" of the people.
Francis called King Antiochus Epifanes the "perverse root" that gave birth to this persecution through a desire to cling to power.
"And this is the path of cultural colonization that ends up persecuting believers too," he said, adding that "we do not have to go too far to see some examples: we think of the genocides of the past century, which were a new, cultural thing: 'Everyone equal, and those who don't have pure blood, out.'"
With this mentality, "there is no place for differences, there is no place for others, there is no place for God," he said.
Pointing to how Eleazar died saying he wanted to leave the youth with a good example to follow, the Pope said Eleazar gave his life for love of God and of the Law, and so became "a root for the future."
Faced with the perverse root that leads to this ideological and cultural colonization, "there is this other root that gives (his) life for the future to grow."
Not everything new is bad, Francis clarified, pointing to the novelty of Jesus' message in the Gospel. Because of this, he stressed the importance of knowing how to discern, asking, "Is this new thing from the Lord, does it come from the Holy Spirit, is it rooted in God? Or does this newness come from a perverse root?"
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In an apparent reference to abortion, the Pope noted how in the past "it was a sin to kill children," but now "it is not a problem, it is a perverse novelty."
God's novelty, he said, never "negotiates," but rather, grows and looks toward the future, whereas ideological and cultural colonizations "only look to the present; they deny the past, and do not look to the future. They live in the moment, not in time, and so they can't promise us anything."
This attitude of trying to make everyone equal and eradicate differences, he said, is "a blasphemy against God the Creator," because each time an ideological or cultural colonization comes along, "it wants to change Creation as it was made by (God)."
In the face of this, Pope Francis said there is only one remedy: "bearing witness; that is, martyrdom" of people such as Eleazar.
"Yes, I dialogue with those who think otherwise, but my testimony is thus, according to the law of God," he said, noting that Eleazar doesn't think about money or power, but looks to the future and "the legacy of his testimony" for the youth.
Eleazar's witness, then, becomes a root that gives life to others, Francis said, and voiced his hope that this testimony "will help us in moments of confusion in the face of the cultural and spiritual colonization that is being proposed to us."
