Do you ever think about Sodom and Gomorrah?

At adoration last night I was reading about Abraham and the angels who visited him on their way to annhilate Sodom and Gomorrah. It got me thinking about the cities on the plain and their sinful lifestyles. It's pretty significant that God couldn't even find ten good people to redeem the others. Those two cities represent in my mind the epitome of the culture of death.

What do you think that means? Well, I doubt there were many children in the cities. With sodomy being a significant sin, many people were engaging in depraved and sterile sex. On top of that, what gods were these folks worshipping? Baal and Molech probably who demanded human sacrifice. So the poor little ones who managed to be born were likely butchered and thrown into the fire along with the sick and elderly to assuage the bloodthirsty pagan gods.

Not a pretty picture, eh? But don't be too smug. It looks amazingly like our own . The pagan altars at Planned Parenthood make the Old Testament atrocities look tame. The bloody pagan sacrifices were downright moderate compared to our day-in, day-out love affair with child-killing and euthanasia of the weak. As for their depraved sex, we have our own poster children like the "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" and the S & M crowd, the gay pride champs, and the transvestite beauty queens. What's more, our sexual indulgence isn't limited to same sex perversion. The porn industry is double edged. Whatever your sick fantasy, heterosexual or homosexual, wallow in it in the privacy of your home. As in the first century, you can still know Christians by the way they love one another beginning with life-long fidelity in marriage that is open to life, welcomes children, and cares for the sick and aged. How many families fit that category?

The big question remains. If Abraham asked God today for the equivalent of "ten good people" to save our "city," would he find them? I hope so and I'm confident that, with the growing focus on Eucharistic Adoration and the young faithful religious congregations like the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist and the Wyoming Carmelite monks, that God's fiery judgment would be, if not aborted, at least delayed. We need more time to convert this cold culture of death. May God grant it to us. And may our prayer, sacrifice, and witness touch the hard hearts of those enslaved in deadly sin. The repentant sinner has the capacity to be the greatest saint.

P.S. Have you been to Confession lately?