Sin City
One
Christ’s condemnation of the towns
At the end of the eleventh chapter of Matthew, Jesus turns to the towns where He did 90% of his teaching and worked most of his miracles, Corazim, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, and predicts their downfall.
“Then he began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon,* they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And as for you, Capernaum: ‘Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld. For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
The fact is, all three of these towns lost their inhabitants and disappeared and it was not until the 20th century that they found Capernaum completely covered over, buried in mud. The inhabitants of Chorazin had to flee because of the unrelenting earthquakes. And Bethsaid, well, it has never been found.
Two
Love of Country – Love of Place
The first thing to note is that Jesus isn’t just talking to individuals. He’s talking to towns. He’s talking to places. Why? Because there is in every human being a God-given love of the place where you belong, the place you are from, the place you live.
Crowds cheer whenever a talk-show host names the place they’re from. Sports teams enjoy so much popularity because they represent the places people identify with. We are meant to have a love and a loyalty to our place, our nation, our culture.
As the Catechism says, “The love and service of one’s country follow from the duty of gratitude and belong to the order of charity” (2239).
So we’re supposed to celebrate who we are and where we’re from. And we’re supposed to pledge ourselves to support and serve the common good of our place. But as Christians, we need to remember that our people, our place, our culture can only thrive if it remains in right relationship with God. And if it doesn’t, then the places we love are doomed to corruption, decay, and eventual death.
Three
Whether it thrives or not depends on whether it accepts Christ
Everyone wants to believe that if we just tweak the system enough, we can guarantee the health and prosperity of our society. If we just get the right officials elected, if we just get the power balance of the different branches right, if we just work the kinks out of the electoral process, if we just keep the economy strong.
Those things are all important in their own way but none of them are what makes or breaks a people or a culture or a nation. What determines whether a culture is saved or lost is whether they accept or reject Christ.
If the people of a place are godly, that place will be blessed. They may go through hard times, they may struggle materially, but they’ll be okay because they’ll be right with God everything else will be okay.
If the people of a place reject God, if they reject Christ, if they vote for anti-Christian laws, indulge in anti-Christian entertainment, if they let the love of Christ die in their hearts and in their homes, then WOE to that people. As Christ says, they will not be brought up to Heaven, they will be cast down to Hell.
Four
Cultures can be lost
If the root of the word culture is derived from cult, which implies what a community worships, then losing faith or what is worshipped will consequently lead to the decline or loss of that communities culture.
Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Chorazin rejected Christ, lost their faith, and then they lost their towns.
In the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, John is told to write to the Churches of eleven cities, to warn them of the spiritual threats they were facing. But they lost their faith and the Churches in those cities are now gone. Those cities are no longer Christian.
We in the West come from a Christian nation, a Christian culture. If we care about it at all, we should care that our Culture is losing its faith, that we indulge in demonic entertainment, that we live godless lives, and that our Children have walked away from their faith.
Christ has been with us. The Church has been with us. We have known the Lord. And we have not believed and repented, we have not become virtuous.
If we love where we are, where we come from, we have to commit to saving our land by saving and spreading our faith.
Five
Cultures and Peoples can be Saved
It’s interesting that when Jesus is condemning the towns of Korazim and Bethsaida and Capernaum, He brings up the cities of Tyre and Sidon. He says, “If the wonders done for you had been done for them, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes.” In other words, He’s saying, “Those godless cities? Those forsaken cities? They could have believed in the Gospel!”
And, in fact, those places, the land of Tyre and Sidon, did accept the Gospel when the Apostles came to evangelize there. Those cities are in Lebanon, one of the most ancient Catholic countries in the world. Even when they were overrun by Islam the Christians of Lebanon held firm to their faith.
What does that mean? It means no matter how godless, no matter how spiritually destitute, there is still the chance for any people, any place, any culture, to accept the Gospel and be restored to sanity and holiness. But it’s up to the people in it.
So, if we would save our culture, save our country, and our people, then we must do what Mary has told us to do every day. We must meditate on the Word of God in the Rosary and then put what we meditate on into practice, we must live it.