The Titanic Can Save Your Spiritual Life!

Beloved:
May grace and peace be yours in abundance
through knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
His divine power has bestowed on us
everything that makes for life and devotion,
through the knowledge of him
who called us by his own glory and power.
Through these, he has bestowed on us
the precious and very great promises,
so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature,
after escaping from the corruption that is in the world
because of evil desire. For this very reason,
make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,
virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control,
self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion,
devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love.

Perhaps the most infamous of all shipwrecks is that of the RMS Titanic.  We like to blame the iceberg as to why she sank but the problem that ultimately caused the sinking of the ship and the loss of so much life were many and varied.  At a meeting one day between the owner of the line and the builders, instructions were given to reduce the number of lifeboats by at least two-thirds.  The davits that would launch the lifeboats could each hold three boats which would have served to save everyone on board.  Back in Belfast, a clerk ordered 2nd rate rivets in error whose impurity would mean that they would have had a tendency to loosen.  Some rivets near the zone that hit the iceberg had been installed by hand by men using hammers instead of a rivet gun. The Master, (Captains of civilian ships are called masters) ignored warning of ice on his intended course. The binoculars were locked up in a cabinet where the key was with an officer who had been transferred to another ship. Finally, the weather conspired against the ship because it was as quiet as a pond out there that night and icebergs were hard to see with no waves breaking on them.  All of these things and a few more all worked together to bring the state of the art Titanic to an end that none could foresee.  

Our spiritual life can end up on the rocks as well if we fail to work at it.  Failing to go to mass on one Sunday coupled with a lack of prayer will cause us to lose touch with Jesus.  He will still be there, we will not!  All of these things can conspire to end our hopes for heaven. We are being told today in our reading: 

For this very reason,

make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,

virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control,

self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion,

devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love.

This seems like a good plan to me.  What do you think? 

Our brothers and sisters in Purgatory, including an untold number of Protestants have no one to pray for them.  Please take pity on these souls who cannot do anything for themselves. Your prayers and sacrifices will mean so much to them.