Tuesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lot fled from Sodom and Gomorrah with his wife and his two children, right before God rained down sulfurous fire and “overthrew those cities and the whole Plain, together with the inhabitants of the cities and the produce of the soil” (Gen 19:25). It must have been an impressive sight, but, nevertheless, it was not a sight meant to be seen. The angels had warned Lot “don't look back or stop anywhere on the Plain,” but Lot’s wife, tempted by curiosity, looked back, and so she was turned into a pillar of salt. There are some things that are not meant to be seen. Recall how the angel of the Lord slew seventy men because they had looked into the ark of the Lord (1 Samuel 6:19).
In this information age, a greater degree of asceticism is required to restrain one’s gaze and curb one’s curiosity, in other words, to give other people their privacy, and to give God his privacy, too. It is hard for us because we are deluged by click-bait from industries that profit from airing dirty laundry, exhibiting intimate activities, and otherwise showing things that really should not be seen. Furthermore, we must respect God’s privacy, too. Recall Christ’s warning: “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority” (Acts 1:7).