I hope you are all familiar with the story of Sodom. The story is literally a warning about the punishment and judgment of God upon a city full of unchecked vice and sin. Allegorically, the Fathers of the Church bring us to the deeper spiritual lessons this tale imparts. Names, St. Ambrose reminds us, are often a clue in Sacred Scripture of where to dig to uncover the hidden pearls of wisdom. You see, Lot’s name means “deviation.” Lot separates from Abram, deviates to a land that seemed better, more fertile, more pleasing. Lot associates himself with a people whom he found agreeable, despite their dissolute way of life. Lot only narrowly escapes death – he only narrowly escapes perdition. Origen remarks that the only good deed, the singular virtuous act performed by Lot was his hospitality to strangers. “Angels entered the hospitable house; fire entered the houses closed to strangers.”
To his credit, Lot was more afraid of the crime that the inhabitants of Sodom wished to commit against his guests, than the punishment the crime deserved. We too ought to grow in holy fear of sin itself – more so than the punishment sin deserves. Lot is far from perfect, but because he feared for his guests, because he feared offending them even more than his own family, because of his genuine hospitality, he was saved. We hear so much today about how important it is to be welcoming. If being welcoming were a virtue – which it isn’t – it would lead us to become hospitable. Literally, hospitality is about providing food and shelter for the stranger. Allegorically – as we see with Lot – hospitality is about protecting the stranger from the even stranger ways of wicked society. Hospitality is about providing not just a physically safe space, but a morally safe space: an environment of innocence.
Lot is saved by his hospitality, and scripture shows us that this path of holiness is suited to the imperfect. Lot humbly admits, after he is saved from fire and brimstone, that he is not able to ascend the mountain to where Abraham dwells with God. Rather, he requests that he be saved in a smaller city. Unable to ascend the mountain and entirely leave behind the ways of men, he again deviates into the city. But still he flees without looking back, as Saint Ambrose says, “When he fled, he did not look back on them, for he did not desire to associate with them. The one who renounces the vices and rejects the way of life of his fellow citizens is in flight like Lot. Such a person does not look behind himself but enters that city which is above by the passageway of his thoughts.”
Sometimes, however, flight is impossible. The disciples in the boat, recognizing their peril, cry out, “Lord, save us!” This is to their credit, because they hope rightly that the Lord – this man who is not like other men – can save them. Yet they falter in their smallness of faith – believing that He must be awake to still the storm. As St. Cyril of Alexandria said, “The exclamation “save us” is commendable, since it shows faith. But to say “we are perishing” brings a charge of littleness of faith against those who were in deep distress. They indeed put their hope in Christ who was sailing with them. They were not totally faithless but were at that point “of little faith,” since in their danger they did not take courage from the fact of Christ’s being with them.” And St. John Chrysostom, “Their awakening him was a sign of their lack of a right understanding of who he was. They knew his power to rebuke when he was awake, but his power to rebuke when asleep they had not yet grasped. Even after so many other miracles their impressions of him were still confused.”
May we be filled with faith, knowing that our Lord is present even in the most distressing and fearsome of circumstances.
ORIGEN:
Hear these words, you who close your houses to strangers; hear these words, you who avoid a guest as an enemy. Lot was living in Sodom. We do not read of other good deeds of his. The hospitality alone occurring at that time is mentioned. He escapes the flames, he escapes the conflagration for this reason alone: because he opened his house to strangers. Angels entered the hospitable house; fire entered the houses closed to strangers.
But he was not so perfect that immediately on departing from Sodom, he could ascend the mountain; for it belongs to the perfect to say, “I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, whence help shall come to me.” He therefore was neither such that he should perish among the inhabitants of Sodom, nor was he so great that he could dwell with Abraham in the heights. For if he had been such, Abraham would never have said to him, “If you go to the right, I will go to the left, or if you go to the left I will go to the right,” nor would the dwellings of Sodom have pleased him. He was therefore somewhere in the middle between the perfect and the doomed. And knowing that it is not appropriate with his strength to ascend the mountain, he piously and humbly excuses himself saying, “I cannot be saved on the mountain, but, behold, this city is small. Here I shall be saved; and it is not small?” To be sure, when he entered the small city of Zoar he is saved in it. And after this he went up into the mountain with his daughters.
HOMILIES ON Genesis 5.1. (FC 71:112–14.) Sheridan, M., ed. (2002). Genesis 12–50 (p. 77). InterVarsity Press.
AMBROSE:
Let us flee like Lot, who feared the crimes of the people of Sodom more than their punishments. A holy man surely, he chose to shut his house to the men of Sodom and flee the contagion of their offenses. When he dwelt with them, he did not come to know them, for he did not know their outrages and turned away from their disgraces. When he fled, he did not look back on them, for he did not desire to associate with them. The one who renounces the vices and rejects the way of life of his fellow citizens is in flight like Lot. Such a person does not look behind himself but enters that city which is above by the passageway of his thoughts, […]
Your flight is a good one if your heart does not act out the counsels of sinners and their designs. Your flight is a good one if your eye flees the sight of cups and drinking vessels, so that it may not become envious as it lingers over the wine. Your flight is good if your eye turns away from the woman stranger, so that your tongue may keep the truth. Your flight is a good one if you do not answer the fool according to his folly. Your flight is good if you direct your footsteps away from the countenance of fools. Indeed, one swiftly goes astray with bad guides; but if you wish your flight to be a good one, remove your ways far from their words.
FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD 9.55–56. FC 65:321–22.
Sheridan, M., ed. (2002). Genesis 12–50 (p. 78). InterVarsity Press.
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA:
Great is the loving kindness of God. He who is all-powerful says, “I can do nothing until you arrive there.” He accommodates even the weakness of his servant and tolerates his delay.
CATENA ON GENESIS 3.1144. TEG 3:156.
Sheridan, M., ed. (2002). Genesis 12–50 (p. 78). InterVarsity Press.
CHRYSOSTOM:
It is not in the presence of the multitudes that he corrects their “little faith.” He calls them apart to correct them. Before the tempest of the waters he stills the tempests in their souls. He admonishes them, “Why are you so fearful, O you who have little faith?” He instructs them concerning how human fear emerges out of weakness of mind, not out of the actual approach of threatening trials. Their awakening him was a sign of their lack of a right understanding of who he was. They knew his power to rebuke when he was awake, but his power to rebuke when asleep they had not yet grasped. Even after so many other miracles their impressions of him were still confused. This is why he remarked that they were still without understanding.
THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 28.1.6 PG 57:351; NPNF 1 10:190.
Simonetti, M., ed. (2001). Matthew 1–13 (p. 169). InterVarsity Press.
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA:
The exclamation “save us” is commendable, since it shows faith. But to say “we are perishing” brings a charge of littleness of faith against those who were in deep distress. They indeed put their hope in Christ who was sailing with them. They were not totally faithless but were at that point “of little faith,” since in their danger they did not take courage from the fact of Christ’s being with them.
FRAGMENT 99. 7 MKGK 184.
Simonetti, M., ed. (2001). Matthew 1–13 (p. 169). InterVarsity Press.