2 Maccabees 4:7-29. Hellenization took hold in Jerusalem after Jason took the high priesthood from his brother, Onias, by corruption. Onias had been a good and holy high priest, and so Jerusalem had been peaceful under him, but disagreement and backstabbing among certain men eventually led to Jason bribing the new foreign king, Antiochus, to obtain the high priesthood from his brother. Jason immediately adopted Greek ways, which led to the whole priesthood doing the same very quickly. They neglected their duties, they went to wrestling arenas rather than offer sacrifices, etc. Jason is eventually driven out of the high priesthood by Menelaus, a man he trusted to take the tax money to the king, but who did the same thing Jason did - bribed the king to make him the high priest.

The whole passage is all about the backstabbing, corrupt behavior of leaders who are not seeking a higher good. They all are out for only themselves, the priests, the kings, the governors. There is no difference between the religious leaders and the secular ones, they are all looking only to their own comfort, power, and position. They abandoned God's laws, and "it is not no light thing to show irreverence to the divine laws." (2 Maccabees 4:17).

Jerusalem in the Old Testament is a stand-in for the Church in the modern world - the Church is the New Jerusalem. So when we see Jerusalem and her people suffering because of the failures of their leaders, it is a warning of what will happen to the Church when secularization or the prevailing thought of the time sets in. Onias as high priest had it right, he knew they were living under occupation (and we all are living under occupation - this world is occupied territory, as C.S. Lewis says), but he paid the foreign leaders their taxes and obeyed their laws, while still pursuing and preserving the Jewish way of life and keeping God's laws. It is when God's laws were abandoned for an idolization of other ways that trouble set in. Jason had none of his brother's respect for the Jewish way of life, he was all about wanting to be more like the Greeks. He wanted to fit in with their culture, which in many ways was opposed to the Jewish way of life and worship.

Our current political leaders are doing the same, they are trying to force all people into their value system, and are infringing on people's religious freedom in order to pursue universal acceptance of modern secular values. Many of these values are antithetical to God's laws, so they will not last, they are not truth. Faithful people are left looking to our religious leaders for truth, for how to act in this secular, modernist society while still being true to our values. This is a hard position for our religious leaders. Many of our bishops and priests have gone to the secular side (just look at the Church in Germany). There is a spiritual battle raging throughout the world. We have to pray for the Pope, our priests, and the Church to see us through.