My family likes to take beach vacations. My nephews enjoy building sand castles right at the high tide line. They are very elaborate with moats and walls and towers, decorated with shells, feathers and stones. When the tide comes in they study how things fall apart and try to improve the design the next time. But sand castles. by their very nature, fall apart. Jesus applied that lesson to the spiritual life. Everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. We act on the words of Jesus by living the gospel values of compassion, generosity, forgiveness. We act on his words by developing the gospel virtues of wisdom, fortitude and fidelity. We act on his words by a life of love. If we don’t act this way, things fall apart.