TRANSCRIPT:
Recently here in Nashville, we had a bombing on Christmas day. In fact, you may have heard something about that- a suicide bomb, basically. We still don’t know exactly why. But that bombing took down a lot of communications, and it also put people on edge. They wondered, “Is this the beginning of a round of violence? Is this the beginning of another series of people showing up at churches, and opening fire on people while they’re praying?” And consequently, we’ve had a lot of people start open carrying at church. We’ve had people, of course, concealed carrying.
And as I was at adoration, I was thinking about what would happen if I was there at adoration- oftentimes there’s just two or three of us- and someone broke in and started firing? And I could see myself ducking down for the ground, maybe doing a low crawl to try and get out of there, maybe having to stand up and run for the nearest exit to try to get away from the gunman. And I thought about that. Why would I run? I would be running just on instinct to save my life, to avoid death.
And yet, it occurred to me that most of us- certainly myself- don’t take that same approach to sin. I don’t flee from sin as if it was my life on the line, and yet, it is my life on the line, right? Even that single venial sin starts to form a foundation for other venial sins and eventually for those mortal sins that can destroy the soul.
And that image of running from the gunman in church but failing to flee the near occasion of sin- whether it’s having an extra drink at the end of the night, whether it’s having seconds at the dinner table, whether it’s failing to give of my excess to those who are in need, or failing to live up to the highest plan that God has for me in my life as a husband and father- I’m shirking my responsibilities. I’m fleeing, but not from sin. And that image really stuck with me. It’s given me a lot to think about, and so I wanted to share it with you today. I hope that it’s profoundly beneficial for you as well. God bless.