Monday, July 1, 2013


Monday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 18:16-33; Matthew 8:18-22)

C.S. Lewis published a series of essays entitled God in the Dock.  The book presents evidence for what the title suggests: that modern humanity has placed God on trial.  Rather than trusting God, many today prefer to blame at least the concept of God for the world’s wars.  It is not an entirely new concept as today’s first reading shows.

Sodom and Gomorrah are known for corruption, but not all of their inhabitants are sinful.  God could not be considered just if He, as Abraham probes, destroyed the cities with as few as fifty good people.  But what if there were not quite fifty good people?  He equally could not be considered just if there were forty or thirty or even ten.  Beyond that God could destroy the cities and save any of the just through special acts of mercy.  In the end this is what God does sending fire and brimstone and Sodom and Gomorrah while sparing Lot and his family.

For us God has shown himself more than any human concept of justice would have Him.  He not only refuses to destroy humanity for its outrages but has sent His Son to save us from our folly.  But we have to trust in Him by following Jesus’ ways.