In previous
posts, we have discussed Scriptural and Papal teachings that frown on under
population, as well as practical effects of under population. In this post, we will discuss a little bit
the spiritual effects of under population.
The story of
Sodom and Gomorrah is a notorious one.
It tends to be shied away from a lot today because of the imagery it uses,
and its perceived anti-homosexual message.
We have to, though, as Catholics, not shy away from those parts of the
Bible that we find uncomfortable. While
we can pick and choose what our favorite parts of the Bible might be, we have
to embrace the whole of Scripture as the inspired Word of God, both our
favorite parts, and our not so favorite
parts, and see what the message may be that God is telling us, even in those
parts we find difficult to read.
Here is the story
as found in Genesis 19, and then we will discuss some points afterward as it
relates to our subject.
The two angels came to Sodom in the
evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he
rose to meet them, and bowed down with his face to the ground. He
said, “Please, my lords, turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the
night, and wash your feet; then you can rise early and go on your way.” They
said, “No; we will spend the night in the square.” But he urged them strongly; so they
turned aside to him and entered his house; and he made them a feast, and baked
unleavened bread, and they ate. But before they lay down, the men of the city,
the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man,
surrounded the house; and they called to Lot, “Where are the men who
came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may know them.” Lot went out of the door to the men, shut
the door after him, and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so
wickedly. Look, I have two
daughters who have not known a man; let me bring them out to you, and do to
them as you please; only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the
shelter of my roof.” But they
replied, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came here as an alien, and
he would play the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then
they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near the door to break it down.
But the men inside reached
out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. And they struck with blindness the men
who were at the door of the house, both small and great, so that they were
unable to find the door.
Then
the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters,
or anyone you have in the city—bring them out of the place. For we are about to destroy this place,
because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” So Lot went out and said to
his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up, get out of this place;
for the Lord is about to destroy
the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.
When morning dawned, the angels urged
Lot, saying, “Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or
else you will be consumed in the punishment of the city.” But
he lingered; so the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the
hand, the Lord being merciful to
him, and they brought him out and left him outside the city. When they had brought them outside, they
said, “Flee for your life; do not
look back or stop anywhere in the Plain; flee to the hills, or else you will be
consumed.” And Lot said to
them, “Oh, no, my lords; your
servant has found favor with you, and you have shown me great kindness in
saving my life; but I cannot flee to the hills, for fear the disaster will
overtake me and I die. Look, that city is near enough to flee to, and it is a
little one. Let me escape there—is it not a little one?—and my life will be
saved!” He said to him, “Very
well, I grant you this favor too, and will not overthrow the city of which you
have spoken. Hurry, escape
there, for I can do nothing until you arrive there.” Therefore the city was
called Zoar. The sun had risen on the earth when Lot
came to Zoar.
Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he
overthrew those cities, and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the
cities, and what grew on the ground. But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back,
and she became a pillar of salt.
Abraham went early in the morning to
the place where he had stood before the Lord;
and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land
of the Plain and saw the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of a
furnace.
So it was that, when God destroyed the
cities of the Plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of
the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had settled.
Clearly, the Lord
was displeased with the behavior of the men who were seeking to “know” (in
other words, to have sexual relations) with the male guests of Lot. (They turned out to be angels, of course,
but that had not been revealed at that point.)
Now, some commentators try to
work around this story by saying that what the Lord was truly displeased with was a
lack of social justice being practiced in those towns, or the wickedness of
those cities in general, and that,
and not the homosexual behavior specifically, is why they were destroyed. But I looked up the passages they referred to
in Isiah 1, Ezekiel 16, and Deuteronomy 23 and I unfortunately cannot support
their conclusions based on those passages.
However, one
could possibly theorize that maybe the straw that broke the camel’s back, so
to speak, were the men trying to force
themselves on their guests; in other words, it was more the non-consensual
aspect of it, more so than the homosexual act, that caused him to finally destroy
the town. This theory posits that if they kept their behavior
to themselves, this behavior, while it would not please him, would not
lead him to destroy the city because of it. This
argument, I admit, is a bit of stretch, but it is possible, and much more
plausible than the theories posited by those aforementioned commentators, in my
opinion. (I am guessing we cannot
consider Lot’s action of offering his daughters up immoral because I am
guessing that his daughters would have consented to prevent the guests from
being victims of sodomy, and to prevent the men of Sodom from committing that
act. This sounds egregious by our
standards today; offering up one’s daughter like that, and them consenting to be used like that, but back then, maybe
not.)
Also, we should
keep in mind that it was all the men
of the city who came to Lot’s house that night, not just some. Recall that Abraham had pleaded with the Lord
in the chapter before that if some innocents were found, he would not destroy the
city. The Lord consented. However, unfortunately, none were to be
found, and it was destroyed. So, in other words, any
individual practicing homosexual sex, or any other sin, should not see him or
herself as the cause of his or her entire city being ruined (although it does put his or her
individual salvation in jeopardy).
So what does all
this have to do with the topic at hand?
Well, I think we can take this lesson from it. If many people in a culture, as was the case in Sodom, use sex in
a way, which is designed by God to help us be fruitful
and multiply, and instead, use that gift in a way that at worst, negates that
possibility, or at best, where that possibility is not wished for, then we, in effect, cause
fire to reign down upon us, and we destroy ourselves. If we use sex simply for sensual enjoyment, or if we use sex as a means of controlling
someone, and therefore, do not use it,
at least in part, to be fruitful and multiply, then we risk death, either by
our own fate because we fail to populate, or perhaps, by the wrath of God.
A nation that under populates risks being
destroyed. We, especially in the Western
world (North America and Europe specifically) need to pay heed to this. We need, even if just a few of us, to be
those lone wolves in a wicked culture that will cause the Lord’s wrath to pass
over us. Let’s pray that we are among
those that Abraham spoke of in the previous chapter in Genesis that will hold
back the wrath of the Lord:
Then the Lord said,
“How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their
sin!1 I must go down and see whether they have done altogether
according to the outcry that has come to me; and if not, I will know.”
So the men turned from there, and went toward Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Then Abraham came near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.” Abraham answered, “Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” Again he spoke to him, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” Then he said, “Oh do not let the Lord be angry if I speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” He said, “Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” Then he said, “Oh do not let the Lord be angry if I speak just once more. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.
Unfortunately, no
just men were found in Sodom. It was
destroyed.
May we commit
ourselves to justice and righteousness, and commit ourselves to obey the just
God who commands us to turn from wickedness, do good, which includes, being
fruitful and multiplying, and in doing so, save our nation and culture.
Joseph most just,
pray for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment