The Fates Of Cities

Tu, Capharnaum, inquit, nunquid in coelum exaltaberis? Usque ad infernum descendes... Sed in Graeco habet: Et tu, Capharnaum, quae usque in coelum exaltata es, usque in infernum descendes. Sed videtur duplex intelligentia. Vel ideo ad inferna descendes, quia contra praedicationem meam superbissime restitisti, vel quia exaltata usque ad coelum, meo hospitio et meis signis atque virtutibus, tantum habens privilegium majoribus plecteris suppliciis, quia his credere noluisti. Legitur namque quod Capharnaum juxta stagnum fuerit Genezareth in Galilaea gentium, et in finibus Zabulon et Nepthalim: villa quidem pulcherrima, sed quantum videtur in comminatione ejus Jerusalem culpatur quod rea sit, sicut et alibi ad eam dicitur, quia justificata est soror tua Sodoma ex te, ut appareat ejus turpitudo deliciarum, et nimiae elationis superbia, atque foeditas vitiorum. Unde ait: Quia si in Sodomis factae fuissent virtutes quae factae sunt in te, mansissent usque in hunc diem... Ubi primum notandum est quia scelera et flagitia hominum nonnunquam vitam minuant impraesentiarum. Ac si dicatur de eis: si non peccassent et contra Deum non egissent, mansissent utique usuqe in hunc diem, scilicet in quo loquebatur. Verumtamen quod ait, forte, ac si dubitantis adverbium, non quod Dominus quidpiam dubitaret, sed ut liberi arbitrii daretur locus et facultas manendi si peccare noluissent, cum fidem ex signis et prodigiis suscepissent. Nam salus omnis ex fide est. Et ideo ubi tot miracula visa sunt, debuisset non solum gestorum visio vocare ad metum, et ad fidem rapere, verum ipsa, licet a longe, auditio invitare. Sed infelices Judaei inter quos facta sunt talia, et quibus praenuntiata sunt haec eximia, quorum immantis peccatorum facit, ut non solum Tyriis et Sidoniis levia sint peccata, verum etiam Sodomorum et Gomorrhaeorum, quia forte illis credendi fuisset affectus, si talium virtutum contemplatio contigisset. Et quod magis est, quia non usque adeo peccaverunt, necdum percepta lege divina. Tamen in his omnibus ostenditur differentia suppliciorum in futuro, sicut et diversa qualitas meritorum Sanctus Paschasius Radbertus Corbeiensis, Expositio In Evangelium Matthaei, Liber VI Source: Migne PL 120.447c-448a

You, Capernaum, He said, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall fall into hell... ' 1  In the Greek this reads: 'And you, Capernaum, who have been exalted to heaven, even into hell you will fall.' There seems a twofold understanding here. Either into hell you shall fall because you have proudly resisited my preaching, or being exalted to heaven by my residence and signs and wonders, because you did not believe, so you have only the priviledge of greater punishments. It is said that Capernaum is along the lake from Gennesaret, in the Galilee of the Gentiles, and on the borders of Zabulon and Nepthali, and was a most fair town, but by the threat directed at it, it seems as Jersualem reproved because of its guilt, as in another place it was said to it: 'your sister Sodom is justifed because of you.' 2 So will appear the vileness of its faults, and the pride of its excessive elation, and the filth of its vices. Whence it is said: Because if in Sodom these wonders had been done which have been done among you, it would have remained until today...1 Where first let it be noted that the crimes and outrages of men may sometimes diminish this present life. As if it were said concerning them, 'If they had not sinned and not done what they did against God, they would have remained until today,' certainly that time in which He speaks. However, because this expresses, 'perhaps', as if indictating doubt, this is not because the Lord was at all uncertain, but because a space is given to the operation of free will, by which they would have remained if they had not sinned, when they received faith from signs and wonders. For all salvation is from faith. And therefore when all the miracles were seen, not only sight should have called to awe and to the seizing of faith, but even by hearing it should have drawn from afar. But the woeful Jews, among whom such things were done, and to whom these extraordinary things were foretold, had such a great heap of sins, that not only were the sins of Tyre and Sidon slight, but even so the sins of Sodom and Gomorrha, because perhaps they would had been touched by belief if they had contemplated such wonders. And what is more, they had not sinned so gravely because they lacked the commandments of the Divine law. And in all these things is shown the differences of punishment in the future, as there are even different types of reward. Saint Paschasius Radbertus, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Matthew, Book 6 1 Mt 11.23 2 Ezek 16.52