Brothers and sisters in Christ, to follow Christ is to suffer and to endure rejection the way the world had rejected Him first, and we have to carry our own crosses in our faith journey with our Lord. That is what the Lord Himself told us we should do, to follow Him and love Him through the journey of the cross.

Our Lord is a loving God, and He loves all of His children, regardless of their backgrounds. We are all equal before the Lord. But as much as the Lord loves all of us, He is also a just God and a good God, who rejects the filth of sin and the corruption of evil. That was why He wanted to end the wickedness of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, whose sins had become so bad that they ended up angering the Lord greatly so that He would want to punish them.

Lot, the relative of Abraham settled in the valley of Sodom after his separation from Abraham, which occurred because of conflict between their shepherds over the matter of land. He then settled in the city of Sodom and Gomorrah, and therefore would have been subjected to the destruction of the city by God’s wrath for its sins.

But God is a loving God and is not heartless, and that was why He would not let those who are just and good to suffer from the suffering and punishment intended for those who had rebelled against the Lord. Therefore, even without the interventions of Abraham, God certainly would still go and send His angels to help rescue Lot and his family, the only righteous ones that can be found in all of Sodom and Gomorrah, so that they would not suffer the same fate as the sinful ones.

The questions of Abraham to the Lord, his interventions to save the righteous merely serve to highlight even more clearly that our Lord and God is both a vengeful and angry God, but also a just and loving God. A God who detests sin and all of its evil fruits, and yet also forgiving and merciful to those who are repentant and those who love Him. He wants us all to return to Him, and He does not want us to be lost just because of our faults and those of our forefathers’.

Yet, it is indeed difficult to find good and repentance in our world, and that was why, despite Abraham’s repeated pleas to the Lord to spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, if as little as ten righteous people could be found, the two cities were not spared simply because of the wickedness of those who stayed in them, not even ten righteous ones could be found. Only Lot and his family were considered righteous, and therefore, the Lord sent His angels to rescue them from the catastrophe of God’s judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah.

God loves us, but He also wants all of us to understand the need to be pure and good, as our Lord is good, and nothing evil can stand before Him and survive. The Lord is merciful, and if only we approach His throne with a contrite heart full of regret and grief for our sins, He will embrace us and reunite us with Himself.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, God gives us a chance at repentance and redemption in this life, one made possible by none other than the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord on the cross at Calvary. This sacrifice bridged the unbridgeable chasm between us and God. God will welcome us back if we are truly sincere in our repentance and our love for Him who also loves us with all of His heart.

May God be with us, as He had been with Abraham and may we all also remain faithful to God’s covenant with us, keeping His commandments and teachings passed down to us from the Apostles through the Church. Amen.