A SUNDERED PEOPLE

A reflection paper in Modern Church History

“I am broken by the ruin of the daughter of my people.

I am disconsolate; horror has seized me” (Jer 8:21).

These words of Jeremiah perfectly describe what is inside my heart and mind after
viewing two movies on the mass killings of the Jews during the Second World War: (a) The
Cross and the Star, and (b) Nazis: the Occult Conspiracy. Such a heart-rending scenario indeed
as I muse upon some of the World War Two evils, but mainly on the most despicable genocide
in mankind’s history—the ‘Holocaust’, also dubbed as the ‘Final Solution.’
Certainly, movies that portray this systematic attempt of wiping out the Jewish race
during the evil reign of Adolf Hitler can only do as much. But personally, some of these movies
have evoked in me the feeling of compassion and pity towards the victims, at the same time great
disgust for anti-Semitism or Nazism. But what is my own feeling compared to those of the
victims of the horrendous crime? Nothing! The best that I can do is to sympathize and
empathize. Watching the film has given me an added look into the real score: from actual
holocaust survivors to the antagonists or the anti-Semitic Nazis themselves. The film has made
me imagine the horrors of the holocaust. And it makes me ask, “Why? Why did it happen?” As
this question looms in the fore, it also makes me reflect that life is truly unfair. Sometimes there
are ups and downs; there are moments of peace and, possibly, of revenge. But could vengeance
be truly possible, especially in the realm of an all-knowing God? I am asking this because I don’t
buy the idea that God the Father is avenging the death of His only-begotten Son’s earthly life;
that the Jews deserved such a rueful fate under Hitler and his Third Reich. In fact, there are many
unguided minds, even among some Christians, who adhere to this twisted idea of God hook, line
and sinker. There are those who think that God can really be harsh when he wants to. This, in
fact, can be read in the bible: “I will take vengeance, I will yield to no entreaty, says our
redeemer” (Isa 47:3). But in my own reckoning, vengeance in this particular context of Isaiah is
totally out of sync with what happened to the Jews in the 1940’s.
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I feel sorry for those who think that God might be giving his own people a hard beating
due to its sinful past. It is because I always maintain that a vengeful God contradicts what the
Bible teaches of a "merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity”
(Ex 34:6). The God who appeared to Moses in Sinai of Old is still the same God whom we now
worship and put our faith, hope and love. To me there is never a God who wreaks havoc and
tears his own people apart. God can be firm and just, but he is always a God who also weeps for
us as we suffer. He sympathizes with us. And definitely God also wept profusely for the Jewish
people at that particular point in time.
It might be better to formulate the question like this: “What is the meaning of this?” It
could be that this infamy is the beginning of God’s purifying the Jewish people. I see this as a
process of cleansing that makes them undergo what Christ himself experienced. And what a
privilege this is! Just like what some of the most famous saints longed for: to suffer like the way
Christ did. I have a reason to believe that this very experience of the Jews under the hands of the
Nazis was already alluded to in the Gospels when, after Christ’s death, the veil of the sanctuary
inside the Temple of Jerusalem was torn in two from top to bottom (Mt 27:51; Mk 15:38; and Lk
23:45). This time, it is a sight of a sundered people; that is, broken into two: (a) those who
remained faithful and (b) those who yielded and eventually lost their faith in Yahweh.
While I was listening to those survivors being interviewed in the film, I admire their
firmness in God. What great and lasting faith they had! So real was the evil before their eyes
during their struggle but still they looked beyond that. Apparently, the evil that tormented them
was utterly devastating. But they just did not allow themselves to be broken by it; to simply
surrender without a fight. They fought against a great crisis of faith and identity as a people.
They groaned, wept and writhed. In the end, they remained faithful till they were rescued and
were given back their lives. I could just imagine David’s prodigious joy after slaying goliath—a
sweet victory for those who really fought!
It is my firm belief that God gave a helping hand to the Jews in the person of the Catholic
Church. That’s why I say it is absurd to think of a God who was vengefully punishing the very
race who killed Jesus because God never left them. The twisted minds behind anti-Jewish
sentiments were absolutely taken over by the evil spirit. And since God is someone who lets His
creation run its natural course, he allowed such an atrocity to happen so that the brilliance of
charity and compassion might outshine it. The Jews who were helped by the Catholics under the
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time of Pope Pius XII were saved because of their firm faith. They found a safe haven in the
Catholic Church. And for those who died nonetheless while keeping their Jewish faith intact,
they have done enough to merit his loving embrace in His heavenly abode. But what of those
who did not have firm foundation? Whatever happened to those who might have been
disillusioned by the evil that was the Holocaust? We can never know for sure. But we can only
surmise; only God knows! Those who might have lost their Jewish faith in the process, only the
Lord almighty sees and knows where they are right now. It’s not even necessary to think of their
whereabouts now because of the overwhelming anguish they experienced as they were at the
point of death.
Now, how about the perpetrators? I say it was the Nazis themselves who sentenced their
own condemnation. Because of what they did, God can justly tell them: “Leave the sanctuary, for
you have broken faith and no longer have a part in the glory that comes from the Lord God”
(2Ch 26:18). They themselves ended the Third Reich abruptly because “the triumph of the
wicked has always been brief, and the sinner's gladness has never lasted long” (Job 20:5).

What lesson do I gain from this? Well, I want to delve on the aspect of purification. In
my own little experiences of trials and difficulties, I need to learn from those who, even in the
jaws of death, remained faithful to God. There is a long list of virtues that I can learn from them.
But the kernel is a deeply-rooted faith in an ever-present God. This moves to me to cultivate this
faith of mine, make it grow and become mature. It inspires me to journey deeper into the core of
my very self and check my foundation: “Am I firmly rooted in Christ? How about my prayer life
—am I prayerful enough that I can say I have done everything I can to nourish my fledgling
faith? Will I be able to say YES to God at gunpoint?”

I am but compelled to aspire for a solid foundation:

“Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and hurled

themselves against that house, and it did not fall: it was
founded on rock” (Mat 7:25).

~~~
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by

BRO. GINO GODINEZ, SDB

March 16, 2011