6 Then He proceeds to upbraid the cities now that wisdom has been justified; now that He has shown all to be fully performed. That is, having failed to persuade them, He now does but lament over them; which is more than terrifying. For He had exhibited both His teaching by His words, and His wonder-working power by His signs. But forasmuch as they abode in their own unbelief, He now does but upbraid.
For “then,” it is said, “began Jesus to upbraid the cities, wherein most of His mighty works were done, because they repented not; saying, Woe unto you, Chorazin! Woe unto you, Bethsaida!”
Then, to show you that they are not such by nature, He states also the name of the city out of which proceeded five apostles. For both Philip, and those two pairs of the chief apostles, were from thence.
“For if,” says He, “the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon, at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell, for if the mighty works which have been done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.”
And He adds not Sodom with the others for nought, but to aggravate the charge against them. Yea, for it is a very great proof of wickedness, when not only of them that now are, but even of all those that ever were wicked, none are found so bad as they.
Thus elsewhere also He makes a comparison, condemning them by the Ninevites, and by the Queen of the south; there, however, it was by them that did right, here, even by them that sinned; a thing far more grievous. With this law of condemnation, Ezekiel too was acquainted: wherefore also he said to Jerusalem, “You have justified your sisters in all your sins.” Thus everywhere is He wont to linger in the Old Testament, as in a favored place. And not even at this does He stay His speech, but makes their fears yet more intense, by saying, that they should suffer things more grievous than Sodomites and Tyrians, so as by every means to gather them in, both by bewailing, and by alarming them.
Source: Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew (New Advent)