Decapolis: Ten "Sin Cities"

Today in the Gospel, we saw the Lord sail across the Lake of Gennesaret to the side called Decapolis, because of the ten cities that dominated that region. These ten cities were mostly Gentile settlements. They were larger than the other towns situated around the lake, and so they merited the title "polis" or "city." They were known through the period from the first century B.C. to the second century A.D. as very sinful places. This was not only the case because they were mostly Gentile cities. This attitude also prevailed because of the marked lack of virtue that was present in the population.

We note throughout history that this is a recurring theme. Urbanization is, in fact, the enemy of virtue. Urbanization destroys virtue. Most often, the extent of the moral decadence of a city is proportional to its population. The famous example from the ancient world were the five Cities of the Plain, which are now submerged permanently under the much shallower, southern end of the Dead Sea. These five cities, Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, were all destroyed by God in a single day, on account of the enormity of their sins. To this day, homosexual acts between men are often referred to as "sodomy" or "the sin of Sodom," because of the role of homosexual sex in the destruction of the cities.

But why should urbanization lead inexorably to greater sin and a loss of virtue? This is the case, because human beings in rural areas have a necessary connection to nature. Their life depends on them living in harmony with nature. Their life isn't easy, because they are surrounded by nature, and they must make room for themselves within nature. Urbanization, on the other hand, breaks this essential connection between the human being and the natural world. For example, especially in the modern age, but not exclusively, cities have always been able, to a certain extent, to turn day into night and night into day. In other words, urbanization leads to leisure, and leisure ultimately leads to the manipulation of nature. It leads on further to the manipulation of other human beings and finally to the manipulation of God. God's essential connection, as the Lawgiver, with being the guarantor and preserver of the morality of the community becomes lost, and it is replaced by the idea that the spiritual world can be bargained with to provide us with what we desire.

The relative leisure of the urban setting leads to such progressive alienation from the natural world that human beings begin to embrace things that are unnatural. These unnatural behaviors would be self-defeating in the non-urban setting, but in a city the leisure and ease of life makes them possible. This is the reason why cities throughout history have been centers of sexual sin, particularly unnatural sexual sin as in the case of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim. The subtext that is always present is that nature is not absolute. It is ours to manipulate. It is ours to use as a toy for our amusement.

Traditionally, cities are seen as centers for other kinds of sin as well. Many of those sins spring from the idle amusements that city life offers us.

Greed as well traditionally thrives in the city, where work is definitively separated from the issue of survival, and, as a result, large of amounts of things can be amassed, which are superfluous to our existence.

There is no such thing as a virtuous city. There can, however, be virtuous people within cities, but that is because they decide to eschew the amusements that the city offers them. They decide to distance themselves from the pleasure-loving pull of the city and to concentrate instead on their relationship with God. We have great saints who give us examples of this. Saint Sampson the Hospitaller live in the midst of the mega-city of Constantinople, and quietly prayed and fasted and collected money to build a free hospital for the poor. Saint Theodore the Studite was the abbot of the Stoudion Monastery in the same city. That monastery was carefully insulated by high walls from the noise and din of city life.

All of us are city-dwellers and we must make the same decision as these great saints. In the midst of the noise, confusion and sin that is everywhere in urban life, we need to spend our time deepening our relationship with God. We should reflect on the life of the Holy Family. Everywhere they went, their house, their dwelling place, was filled with great joy. How can we know this? Well, how is it possible for a heart that seeks God not to have joy in the presence of God. The Most Holy Mother of God and Saint Joseph had the Incarnate God there with them, always. In the midst of even the deepest of suffering, as during the flight in Egypt, there was great joy from the presence of the God, Who had made them and loved them. In just the same way, we need to find the joy that always comes with the presence of God. That joy is incomparably greater than the empty amusements of the city, which lead so many astray.