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Angels protecting Lot struck the men who would attack him blind, so that they could not find their way into his house. This, says St. Gregory the Great, is a good metaphor for the good deeds of the righteous, which strike their enemies blind so that they cannot find an opening of wickedness anywhere.
“They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope at noonday as in the night” ( Job 5:14).
The day of good deeds shines outwardly in a neighbor, but they “grope as in the night,” because inwardly they are under the darkness of their jealous feeling. They busy themselves to find some points that they may reprimand—they seek out an opening for detraction. But since they cannot find one, they search around in blindness outside.
This is well set forth in that occasion, when because the angels were protect- ing Lot, the inhabitants of Sodom could not find the doorway in his house—as it is written, “Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door. But the men put forth their hands and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door. And they struck with blindness the men who were at the door of the house, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves groping for the door” (Gen. 19:9-11).
What does it mean that, when the wicked are up in arms against him, Lot is brought back into the house, and defended? It means that every righteous man, while he encounters the assaults of evil ones, is brought back into his interior, and stays there undismayed. But the men of Sodom cannot find the door in Lot’s house, because the corrupters of souls detect no opening of accusation against the life of the righteous man. For, stricken with blindness, they go round and round the house, so to speak, under the influence of envy scrutinizing words and deeds. But because in the life of the just, strong and praiseworthy conduct confronts them from every direction, groping at random they feel nothing but the wall. –St. Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job, 6.38
IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
Am I so well surrounded by good deeds, like the angels that surrounded Lot, that the envious can find nothing to accuse me of ?
CLOSING PRAYER
Guardian Angel, be with me throughout the day, and lead me to surround myself every– where with good deeds as armor against the assaults of evil.
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