WHAT’S WORSE THAN SODOM & GOMORRAH?
(Tuesday, June 20)
In today’s Gospel-reading, our Lord is instructing His disciples, how to conduct themselves throughout their apostolic travels: “And when you go into a household, greet it. If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!” (Mt 10:12-15)
Nowadays, many of us religious people tend to think of sexual sins as the “least tolerable” kinds of sins; particularly *homo-sexual* kinds of sins. In this vein, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow claimed in his sermon on March 6, 2022 that Russia’s war against Ukraine had “metaphysical meaning,” specifically because it was to resist the forcible introduction, by “those who claim to wield world power,” of “the gay parade” in the Donbas region. Note that the Patriarch did not mention billboards with erotic images of men and women, beauty pageants with women paraded in swimsuits, night-clubs with pole-dancers, – all of which thrive in the Russian World; against which, apparently, one need not fight by killing thousands of people. No, it is only “the gay parade” that is so intolerable that it justifies bloodshed.
But let us get back to the words of our Lord: “Assuredly, I say to you, it will be *more tolerable* for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!” Which city? The one that does not receive nor hear the Gospel of Peace, preached by the Holy Apostles; the one that defrocks its priests, when they dare to pray for peace, as the Russian Orthodox Church defrocked Fr. Ioann Koval several months ago; the one that blesses its people to kill and be killed, in the name of a *metaphysical* ideology, instead of speaking loud and clear the Gospel of Peace. Let us shake off the dust from our feet, as we reject this anti-Christian ideology, and pray for God’s good judgment and peace to prevail.
