OUTCRY OF THE MARGINS - C: 17th Sun in OrdTime

First Reading: Gen 18:20-32 (24 July 2022)

“How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin” (Gen 18:20).

This statement represents the main reason for the ensuing destruction of the lands of Sodom and Gomorrah: their inhabitants had become sinful that there was a public outcry for these evil deeds to stop for good. It should be recalled that this region was chosen by Lot when he separated from his uncle, noticing that this “whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, toward Zoar” (Gen 13:10). The only problem is that “the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning against the Lord” (v. 13).

This reality caught God’s attention through Abraham’s visitors (cf. Gen 18:16), confirming the validity of the great “outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah” (v. 20).

The term used in the Hebrew Bible is ze‘aqah, which literally means a “plaintive cry” or a “cry for help.” The provenance of this crying may be from fugitives (e.g., Isa 15:5, Neh 9:9), victims of destruction (e.g., Jer 48:4), or those desolated after a war (e.g., Jer 48:34). Normally, this exclamation is a vehement lamentation, which is a “sound of weeping … or the cry of distress” (Isa 65:19), often uttered by those in the margins. In the book of Esther, it is illustrated best by the action of Mordechai after learning of the state-sponsored annihilation of all Jews (Est 3:13). In response to this pogrom, he “tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went through the city, wailing with a load and bitter cry [ze‘aqah]” (Est 4:1). The book of Proverbs denounces those who perpetuate this suffering: “If you close your ear to the cry [ze‘aqah] of the poor, you will cry out and not be heard” (Prov 21:13).

In general, hence, the Hebrew Bible features the term ze‘aqah as a desperate move of the marginalized. Because of the gravity of their situation and their helplessness despite all efforts, they would frantically resort to wailing, weeping, and dreadful pleading. In the context of Sodom and Gomorrah, the sinfulness of their inhabitants severely affected many people in such a way that the latter moaned and implored on God’s immediate action away from their destitute situation.

It is, then, a cry of the persecuted poor. God was not deaf to it that he decided to destroy these lands for the sake of the miserable population.

While those in the margins were beseeching God to destroy this evil habitation, Abraham was doing the same but in view of saving it. Abraham haggled with God (in the person of three men) by arguing: “Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the place not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it?” (Gen 18: 24). In response, the Lord ensured that he would indeed save the city for the sake of the fifty (v. 26), yet, the problem is that there were no fifty righteous people therein. Abraham continued to negotiate until he reached his last bargaining chip of ten righteous persons (v. 32). But his efforts were in vain since there were only less than ten virtuous inhabitants in the city. The Lord soon proceeded with his resolve to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah (cf. Genesis 19).

This reading presents two sides of the coin. On the one hand, there was the loud outcry of the persecuted and marginalized against the evil of Sodom and Gomorrah, albeit socially voiceless because of their dire situation and helplessness. On the other hand, there was Abraham’s plea of saving this twin-city. God is definitely torn between these two requests since a heeding of one is tantamount to the rejection of the other. Listening to one is rendering a deaf ear to another. It is God’s Wisdom that will prevail in this kind of situation.

However, his Wisdom is beyond our human comprehension. We simply have to keep our faith in God’s Providence and do our best to cooperate in the realization of his Divine Will.

- Rex Fortes, CM