Abrahams intercedes:
“Oh, let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there”. Neither the benevolent acquiescence of God who each time accepted the smaller number, nor Abraham’s heartfelt entreaty succeeded in saving the city, because of its general perversion; only Lot’s family was to be saved to give testimony to divine mercy and to the powers of Abraham’s intercession.
Not even 10 to save the cities:
This episode remains forever a proof of the terrible consequences of obstinancy in evil and of the saving power of good through which only ten just men—if they had been found—would have been able to prevent the destruction of the two cities.
Jesus’ sufficiency:
But notice in the New Testament how there opens a new and wonderful page in God’s mercy: a single just man, “the Servant of Yahweh,”already foretold by the prophets, is sufficient to save not two cities, nor a country, but the whole of humanity.
God has forgiven all the sins of men in virtue of Christ’s passion, “having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands: this he set aside, nailing it to the cross” (Col 2:14; 2nd reading). St. Paul’s imaginative sentence gives a good explanation of how the enormous weight of the sins of the whole human race has been canceled by Christ’s death.
We must COOPERATE:
Nevertheless, not even his superabundant expiation will be of use to individual souls if these do not cooperate with their own personal renunciation.
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