It is all over the news, so I assume that you have all heard about the boating accident at Table Rock Lake a couple days ago. I live only about an hour north of the area, so it has hit home for a number of people around here. It is a terrible tragedy and I grieve for those people. As we pray for God's mercy on those that passed and their families, and also ask Him to bless the survivors, I want us to consider briefly what we can learn from something like this. No, I am not speaking about boat safety; I am speaking about the safety of our souls.
What can we do as a result of this that would help us in our spiritual walk? Although it appears that it will take a while for the NTSB to come up with results, right now it looks like the boat went out when the winds were already up to 73 miles per hour and there were waves over 4 feet high. That is not exactly what most would call safe. I know here at home we had the weather radio alarm go off a couple hours before the accident happened and it warned us that there were "severe thunderstorms" predicted for multiple counties around us for the next few hours.
I am not going to make a judgment on the captain or driver of the duck boat -- I was not there and I have no experience in the field. Let us just ask the simple question: how do we respond to warnings in our lives? When you hear that there is something that is dangerous, what do you do? Are you humble enough to listen, or do you pretend like you are "bullet proof" and nothing can hurt you?
What about spiritual warnings? Do you listen to the things that the Church warns are problematic? Do you even know what Church dogma warns us about? When you are given a warning in the readings in the Mass, do you heed what it says? Or do you let it slip in one ear, and then continue out the other? Scripture tells us in more than one place that when God is merciful and does not judge people quickly for their sins, that often people abuse that mercy by becoming callous and assuming that His judgment will never come. People frequently will "hedge their bets"; they assume if they got away with it once, they can get away with it again.
This is exactly how sin digs itself in deeply into our souls. Commit one sin and it makes it easier to commit it again if there were no noticeable and immediate bad consequences. Then when you are given a warning about that particular sin, you will find a justification for it because you got away with it last time; "I'll be just fine, God will be merciful so I can keep doing it". This is exactly what the devil wants us to think.
The proper response would be, rather, to ask of every warning, "does this apply to me? can I learn from it? how can I take advantage of this and become more faithful to God as result?" Are those the questions that go through your mind? To presume that you do not have to listen to any warning is comparable to walking blindly into the face of disaster. When we do that, we can hurt both ourselves and others.
What warnings have you been given lately? Can you remember what warnings have been in the most recent Scriptures that you have heard? It is possible that there were no technical "warnings" per se, but if you cannot remember, that may also mean that you have tuned them out, and are no longer willing to listen to them. Open your heart and mind to what the Lord may be saying to you, for many of the stories and examples in the Scriptures are said to be "warnings for us, not to desire evil" as others who fell into sin and were punished quickly (cf. 1 Cor 10:6).
God is not in the business of just punishing everyone instantly; He shows mercy because He wants us to heed His warnings and repent. Yet, when we do the very opposite we are turning our back on His mercy. That is not respecting the mercy of God; it is making a mockery of it. God speaks to you on a daily basis, but you must be receptive to what He is saying. Often when He communicates to us (in the Scriptures, a homily, a good online post, etc.) He is warning us that if we continue in our behavior that it will lead to disaster. Are you listening?
