Lecture 6

^4:6^ Vau. And the iniquity of the daughter of my people is made greater than the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, and hands took nothing in her.

72. Here he magnifies the punishment by comparing it to the punishment of Sodom; is made greater: its greatness is shown in the punishment. And the fault was greater because of their ingratitude and because of the desecration of holy things; and the punishment was greater because more long-lasting. Your sister Sodom herself, and her daughters, have not done as you have done, and your daughters (Ezek 16:48). It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you (Matt 11:24). If he scourge, let him kill at once, and not laugh at the pains of the innocent (Job 9:23). In the Gloss: morally, it concerns the sin of simulation, which is a greater sin than the sin of the men of Sodom. (Paschasius Radberchus, Expositio in lamentationes (Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis 85), 4.864.)

This is contrary to what is said in Isaiah: they have proclaimed abroad their sin as Sodom (Isa 3:9), upon which the Gloss comments: the second plank after shipwreck is to hide the sin. (Jerome, Commentarii in Isaiam (PL 24:17). Cf. In IV Sent. d. 14, q. 1, a. 2, qa. 4, ad 3. The first plank in the metaphor is the ship itself, but the second plank can still bring one to safety; thus, metaphorically, after the shipwreck of sin, one can still reach safety by means of the shame of the sin that leads to penance.)

To which it is said that to sin secretly is a mitigating circumstance. But the sin of simulation is more vicious when we seek, by this means, deception and glory from others. And certainly this sin is said to be greater not in itself but as regards the effect of the deception, or it is greater as regards the matter of the sin, because this sin concerns spiritual things, in which whoever makes a falsehood is guiltier than one who makes counterfeit money, as says the Philosopher. (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 7.7, 1150a27.)