So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, “Get up, get out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city!” But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking. (Gen 19,14)

We have said that Lot believed in the right God, but he had no living contact with Him and therefore lacked spiritual sensitivity. He had no idea how God felt about what was going on around him, what the state of the world was like; he knew, of course, that it was very bad, he sensed the growing violence in the streets of the city, but all because it was affecting him personally, not because of any sensitivity to what God was thinking. Abraham, on the other hand, knew this without being personally involved. Because of his living contact with God and through revelation from God, he knew things that remained hidden from Lot.

The reaction of Lot's family to the arrival of the messengers is an apt illustration of how man perceives God. At the very least, the believing Lot was aware of the moral ruin of Sodom and, humanly speaking, was not comfortable in it (cf. 2 Pet. 2:7-8). It did not move him to action, but he at least honored God's messengers and was inclined to do what they said. That, after all, was his problem. He was permanently inclined to do something without doing it: inclined to reconcile with Abraham, inclined to obey God wholeheartedly, inclined to break definitively with Sodom. He was not able to do something about it himself, and was unable even to make up his mind to leave. But at least he listened to what the messengers were telling him and, as the classic would say, he seriously considered it.

But his sons-in-law, apparently native Sodomites with no faith in his God, took seriously nothing; when Lot recounted to them his appalling situation and the words of the messengers, they were unaware of any danger. They were completely deaf to their warning and laughed at it.

It sometimes happens to a man that he does not understand his situation and the times. He commits various mistakes, arising from a wrong estimate of things; all our lives we learn a certain caution about our own judgment. But as far as the ability to perceive heavenly things is concerned, this obviously corresponds to the deep communion one cultivates with God. If he lacks it, he will also be deaf and blind to the message from above. And he will often find it quite ridiculous.