The second excuse: The story of Sodom is blurred, and the
hospitality triptych is lost to us.
Here’s the second of the ten excuses for inhospitality. (List
of ten at bottom, in rough chronological order.)
Angels of Sodom, draw
near!
The story of Sodom is blurred, and we have lost track of its
integrity.
What do you hear if someone prays that the angels of Sodom
come now, and come quickly? I have never tried to measure it, but I suspect
that most people think they are hearing a plea that God will send angels of
destruction to kill off the LGBT folks. That’s a seriously weird distortion.
The angels of Sodom are the same as the angels of Mamre. The image of the
Trinity painted by the Russian iconographer Andrei Rublev six centuries ago –
three tranquil angels by an altar – is an image of the event at Mamre, where
Abraham provided hospitality to God. Three strangers showed up at his tent, and
he welcomed them, providing rest and refreshment, water for their feet, and a
feast. The First Feast in the Bible foreshadows the Eucharist: God and man at
table are sat down. The day after the feast, two of the visitors go on to
Sodom, and one – now identified as God – speaks with Abraham. The two enjoy
Lot’s hospitality, which follows Abraham’s model in a list of details. But the
men of Sodom want to rape Lot’s attractive guests, so the angels destroy the
city. Homosexual gang rape is the polar opposite of hospitality.
For a thousand years, everyone referring to the story of
Sodom used it to talk about luxury and injustice and flaunting your wealth. It
was seen as the third piece of a story about hospitality. But in the early
years of the Christian church, Peter and Jude (and Josephus) spoke about Sodom
referring to carnal evils. Okay, that’s there too; I’m not going to argue
against two epistles in the New Testament. But I note that three prophets and
two Gospels and Genesis 18 and Judges 20 all offer an interpretation of the
Sodom story that has nothing to do with same-sex carnality.
I would argue that the cramped interpretation of Sodom
causes two problems. It seems to justify a completely unbalanced attitude
toward people who identify themselves as gay. But also, it smudges a story that
is loaded with insights into hospitality.
If you pray with all your heart that the “angels of Sodom
draw near,” are you asking for the destruction of carnal sinners, or of arrogant
men who are content to enjoy luxury without offering a scrap of hospitality to
strangers – who, in fact, abuse widows and orphans and strangers? Are you
asking the God of justice and hospitality to come quickly to our aid? Is it a
Christmas prayer? Is it a Marian prayer, like her words in the Magnificat,
rejoicing in God who lifts up the poor and sends the rich away empty?
I am not afraid of the angels of Sodom. I’m not
disrespectful of them; I’m careful. But not afraid, or not much afraid, or not
just afraid. Their advent is good news for the poor.
Come, O Angels of Sodom!
The list of ten excuses
1. GER, NOKRI, ZUWR: guest, weirdo, enemy. The teaching about
strangers in Hebrew was clear; Greek and Latin and English do not have the same
clarity.
2. The story of Sodom has been mangled, and the hospitality
triptych has disappeared.
3. In the Patristic era, St. John Chrysostom and other Fathers
disagreed about who we are commanded to serve. Who is the least of the brothers:
people in need, or Christians in need?
4. The shamrock image of the Trinity (attributed to St. Patrick)
is a dead end for thought. We are not accustomed to exploring images of the
Trinity, including three found all over our teaching: Father/Son and Spirit, husband/wife
and sacramental unity, host/guest and unifying hospitality.
5. As St. Thomas Aquinas noted with concern, the corporal works
of mercy drifted away from their roots in Scripture. Over the centuries, this
became a serious source of confusion.
6. During the Reformation and the division of the Lord’s church,
Christians killed each other, instead of welcoming each other. When the killing
stopped, the inhospitality remained.
7. Before they were suppressed or weakened, the monasteries in
the name of the community – fulfilled the Lord’s command to welcome strangers.
When the monasteries closed, no new pattern of hospitality emerged to replace
the Patristic pattern.
8. Science fiction, shaped in large part by the eugenics
movement, routinely painted the universe as a place of constant warfare. In the
sci fi universe, Earth is surrounded by hostile forces. C.S. Lewis worked hard
to change this pattern. The universe of mainstream sci fi is inhospitable: a
detail of the stupendous damage wrought by the eugenics movement.
9. The Catholic Church was split in reaction to Vatican II.
There are still millions of Catholics who have no idea what the Church teaches
about social justice. The left-right split resembles the older split over the
lessons from Sodom, but it’s deeper and more comprehensive.
10. In the 1960s – a time of sex and drugs and peace, man – rapists
on the road changed the way Americans responded to strangers. In 1960, nearly
every child in the country was taught: “Be polite to strangers.” One single
decade later, nearly every child in the country was taught, “Don’t speak to
strangers.”