Sometimes, when someone passes away, everyone around recognizes it. Maybe it is a tragic death, or maybe everyone just happens to be watching at the right time. Other times, it happens without anyone recognizing it. And sometimes, even the person who dies is unaware that it happened. Yes, you read that right. I am not referring to physical death, but a spiritual death; which is not always obvious to those around. Spiritual death is where the spirit of a person becomes dead to the spiritual realm. In a sense we are all born into this world spiritually dead and need the grace of baptism to help us overcome it. Yet, there is also the situation where someone has moved from spiritual death to spiritual life, and then at a point later in his life, that person makes choices and does certain behaviors that lead back to spiritual death. It is these situations that are often missed by the person who does them. In other words, they blind themselves to the grave nature of their actions and not only is grace destroyed in their hearts, but also their very spirit dies. Pope Leo said recently that, The real death is the death of the soul — and that is what we should truly fear. Do we truly fear that spiritual death? Is that how we view every decision in our lives? Like something that if done the wrong way can lead to our spiritual death and separate us from the grace of Christ? Only if we have this healthy fear of spiritual death will we work to avoid it, and put a serious effort into maintaining our spiritual health. Now, we all know that the grace of Christ can restore that soul, but it is often a miraculous event that brings that about. Yet, we cannot be presumptuous and say, It's ok, I can commit this sin because Jesus will fix it in the end. If that is truly our perspective, then it is highly possible that Jesus will not fix it, precisely as a punishment for our taking His grace for granted. When a person falls into a spiritual death, not only is he usually unaware of it, but he also presumes that this new perspective that he has found is a good development in his heart and mind. He will call it something of an enlightenment, and not realize that he is actually fallen into darkness. It is that very darkness that is blinding him, and preventing him from realizing that all he has to do is ask God to turn the lights back on and it will happen. Ask, seek, knock is Jesus' admonition, and yet because the one spiritually dead tells himself that he is not in the dark, he refuses to ask for the light. Watch for those who are struggling with their spirituality. Watch for anyone who is in a vulnerable situation in his life. Watch for people who trying to increase their devotion to the Lord. All of these people are likely targets for the devil to attack. All he really needs to do is convince them to be attracted to something forbidden by God. Once they head in that direction, he can take a few simple steps to keep them thinking selfishly and eventually will be able to kill their soul. Are you watching for your own soul? Are you working to protect yourself from these attacks of the evil one? If not, then you are putting yourself into a dangerous situation. We are often quick to seek things like medical insurance and life insurance. What will you do to ensure the safety of your soul?