Last Monday at Waterworld USA in Concord, California, about forty high school students celebrating their graduation crowded on a water slide even though the lifeguard warned them not to do that. The slide collapsed under their weight and they fell about thirty feet. One student was killed and thirty-two were injured, six of them critically. Now the public is calling for stronger slides and better safety measures at places like Waterworld. In my opinion, that is like criticizing God for having put a forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden without posting warning signs and building an impenetrable fence around it.
Decisions have consequences.
The extent to which society is required to protect people from the consequences of their own decisions is an open question. In the final paragraph of today's gospel Jesus is told that his mother and his brothers are outside asking for him. Here is the bottom line of today's gospel. Instead of worrying so much about demons and how they are cast out, we do well to trust that God knows what he's doing. Instead of punishing ourselves by endlessly wondering whether we have ever committed the unforgivable sin, we do well to accept the forgiveness the Holy Spirit offers us through Jesus Christ, the Son of God.