Romans 8:35-37Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)
35 Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? or distress? or famine? or nakedness? or danger? or persecution? or the sword?
36 (As it is written: For thy sake we are put to death all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.)
37 But in all these things we overcome, because of him that hath loved us.
From today's Divine Office...
The life of Lot could be summarized as one of prosperity followed by pain. When he came into the Promised Land with Abraham, his uncle, their hired men began to fight with each other. Abraham prayed and decided to offer Lot a different "estate" for people and flocks. In other words, the tribe would be split. Lot chose an area which led to his life of success. Five cities grew up around this same area, to the south, the Five Cities which God set out to destroy because of the sin of sodomy, one "which cries out to God for vengeance". Ultimately, despite some begging and haggling in prayer by Abraham with God., God mysteriously went to Sodom and Gomorrah. We know the story of the visit when poor Lot had to protect either two angels, in the guise of handsome men, or even, as some commentators state, Two Members of the Trinity, as God the Father was with Abraham, who was still pleading.
The phrase "Angel of the Lord" in the Old Testament does not necessarily mean an angel, such as Gabriel, who the commentators of the Talmud claim is the destroying angel, who brought punishment on the Egyptians, but God Himself revealing Himself to a chosen few in some aspect. We know the Trinity visited Abraham, and after this visit, God punished four of the five cities.
Lot had to flee with his daughters, wife, and sons-in law, who laughed at Lot's prediction of destruction, and stayed, thereby dying with the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot, his wife, and two daughters fled, but we also know, that Lot's wife disobeyed the Angels, (who I believe were Christ and the Holy Spirit), looked back in longing for her old way of life, witnessed the destruction, and was turned into a pillar of salt.
Lot and his daughters have other adventures, but we shall leave the scene of destruction in order to reflect upon the pericope above from today's Divine Office.
Some of us are living in Sodom and Gomorrah. Some of us have heard God say, "leave" years ago, and some have. I have tried to leave, without success, as here I am back in the land where same-sex marriage is "legal".
Remembering that God sees sodomy as one of the four sins which cries out to God for vengeance, still a teaching of the Catholic Church, and noted in the CCC, (1867 The catechetical tradition also recalls that there are "sins that cry to heaven": the blood of Abel,139 the sin of the Sodomites,140 the cry of the people oppressed in Egypt,141 the cry of the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan,142 injustice to the wage earner), one must take into consideration that God will punish again those areas in which people have decided to live in vice rather than virtue. Part of the time of tribulation, which is fast coming upon us, as noted here for four years, will be purification of the Elect, and punishment for the Damned.
Make no mistake about this fact, those who live in Sodom and Gomorrah and refuse to leave, either leaving figuratively, by not supporting evil, or physically leaving in order to live among those who are the Faithful, will experience grave punishment.
God does not create a bubble of protection around those in trial. When Jeremiah warned the Israelites not to make treaties with the enemies of God, the Chosen People refused to listen, a fact leading to the complete destruction of Jerusalem, and the long years of exile for the Jews who survived death.
Jeremiah 34 Douay-Rheims
34 The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, (when Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth, that were under the power of his hand, and all the people fought against Jerusalem and against all the cities thereof,) saying:
2 Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Go, and speak to Sedecias king of Juda, and say to him: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will deliver this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.
3 And thou shalt not escape out of his hand: but thou shalt surely be taken, and thou shalt be delivered into his hand: and thy eyes shall see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and his mouth shall speak with thy mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon.
4 Yet hear the word of the Lord, O Sedecias king of Juda: Thus saith the Lord to thee: Thou shalt not die by the sword.
5 But thou shalt die in peace, and according to the burnings of thy fathers, the former kings that were before thee, so shall they burn thee: and they shall mourn for thee, saying: Alas, Lord: for I have spoken the word, saith the Lord.
6 And Jeremias the prophet spoke all these words to Sedecias the king of Juda in Jerusalem.
7 And the army of the king of Babylon fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Juda that were left, against Lachis, and against Azecha: for these remained of the cities of Juda, fenced cities.
8 The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, after that king Sedecias had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem making a proclamation:
9 That every man should let his manservant, and every man his maidservant, being a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, go free: and that they should not lord it over them, to wit, over the Jews their brethren.
10 And all the princes, and all the people who entered into the covenant, heard that every man should let his manservant, and every man his maidservant go free, and should no more have dominion over them: and they obeyed, and let them go free.
11 But afterwards they turned: and brought back again their servants and their handmaids, whom they had let go free, and brought them into subjection as menservants and maidservants.
12 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:
13 Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying:
14 At the end of seven years, let ye go every man his brother being a Hebrew, who hath been sold to thee, so he shall serve thee six years: and thou shalt let him go free from thee: and your fathers did not hearken to me, nor did they incline their ear.
15 And you turned to day, and did that which was right in my eyes, in proclaiming liberty every one to his brother: and you made a covenant in my sight, in the house upon which my name is invocated.
16 And you are fallen back, and have defiled my name: and you have brought back again every man his manservant, and every man his maidservant, whom you had let go free, and set at liberty: and you have brought them into subjection to be your servants and handmaids.
17 Therefore thus saith the Lord: You have not hearkened to me, in proclaiming liberty every man to his brother and every man to his friend: behold I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine: and I will cause you to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth.
18 And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, and have not performed the words of the covenant which they agreed to in my presence, when they cut the calf in two and passed between the parts thereof:
19 The princes of Juda, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land that passed between the parts of the calf:
20 And I will give them into the hands of their enemies, and into the hands of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies shall be for meat to the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the earth.
21 And Sedecias the king of Juda, and his princes, I will give into the hands of their enemies, and into the hands of them that seek their lives, and into the hands of the armies of the king of Babylon, which are gone from you.
22 Behold I will command, saith the Lord, and I will bring them again to this city, and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire: and I will make the cities of Juda a desolation, without an inhabitant.
Do you honestly think that God will stand by and watch America, as well as other countries of the West, which have heard the teaching of the Bible, and which have been given natural law when we begin to live in legal Sodom and Gomorrah?
Do you think that God will ignore gross sins, such as abortion and greed, which cause people to live in poverty?
Do you think that you and I will not experiencing purification, either willingly or unwillingly?
The days can be numbered until the decision of the SCOTUS. Pray, fast, beg God like Abraham for a turning of the hearts of the judges.
Otherwise, you and I will be living in Sodom and Gomorrah and we shall have to all suffer the consequences of God's Justice.