A few weeks ago, Kobe Bryant, a
legendary basketball player, died in a helicopter accident with his teenage
daughter. He was 41 years old. Few people realize that Kobe Bryant was a
devout Catholic when he died. As the
Archbishop of Los Angeles said after attending one of his Laker practices, Kobe
was a good Catholic when he died. Even
with his busy sports schedule, Kobe Bryant attended Sunday Mass every weekend. He even supported works of charity and attended
Mass during the week as his schedule allowed.
According to Kobe’s pastor, Fr. Steve Sallot, of Our Lady Queen of
Angels Parish in Newport Beach, CA, Kobe attended the 7 a.m. Mass before the
crash happened at 9 a.m. [He received
Holy Communion which was his Last Holy Communion.] Father Steve said that Kobe had Holy Water on
his forehead when they last shook hands and saw each other.
But Kobe didn’t always have this stellar
public life before living his Faith. Before
he gave his life to the Lord, Kobe ran into trouble with the law, he had
professional ethics violations on the basketball court, and he also had a
strained marriage that he tried to hold together. With all this going on in his life, Kobe said
that it was then that he spoke to his parish priest. And that was the big turning point in his
life. The priest told him that God would
not give him a Cross more than he could handle.
So Kobe eventually publicly admitted his mistakes, apologized, he said
sorry, and he made reparation to all these.
And this turning point, this moment of redemption, this new Christian
life is the point of today’s Gospel about living a moral life in Christ.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus taught us: I
tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and
Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. In living our Christian faith every day, we
must exceed the world’s expectations in our turning away from sin and living a
new life of grace. Whether it is Jesus’ homily
or sermon in today’s Gospel to respect life in our actions and tempers,
relationships with others through our thoughts, or our manner of speech, we as
followers of Jesus should surpass the legalism of the world. Sure, Kobe could have continued the way of stubborn
pride, as many public persons of power do, but instead he repented. He had a conversion moment. In just the same way, so too God wants you to
come as you are, but God does not want you to stay as you are. He wants us to come away from this church
today, this Mass today, a changed person, someone who is better than when we first
came here, even if it’s just a step at a time.
As we heard proclaimed in today’s First Reading from Sirach, “If you choose you can keep the
commandments, they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live.”
While we
live in the world, our moral lives should stand out from the standards of the
world. This means, first, following the
10 Commandments as the minimum. But,
second, it means surpassing the letter of the law of the 10 Commandments. So while that’s great that “You shall not do
this” or “You shall not do that,” to turn away from sin. But what do we do in our moral life that
surpasses this in the new law of grace? How
does our life surpass the rigid moralism of the scribes and Pharisees? After all, even in the Code of Canon Law, the
last line of church canon law is that “The salvation of souls is the supreme
law of the Church” to remind us that even with all our rules in the Church the
most important law is to save souls.
You know,
this weekend, I baptized several babies.
I’m holding here the “Rite of Baptism For Children.” I told the parents and godparents: It’s fine
and good to say that Original Sin is removed, which is true, but that’s not all
that happens. What replaces and
surpasses evil? Sanctifying grace,
friendship with God, a new adopted sonship, a new adopted daughterhood, the life
of holiness, royalty in God’s kingdom, and this Sermon on the Mount from Jesus
we heard today. These surpass the
scribes and Pharisees. St. Augustine
called the Sermon on the Mount the “constitution of Christian morality.”
Now here,
even in the very opening of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on Christian
moral teaching, it is not just our “moral life” and that’s it, but rather it is
our “moral life in Christ”. It is not
just ethics, which any human being can do, but it is about “Christian ethics,”
a distinctive Christian morality unique to those who are baptized. The Second Vatican Council, in its decree on
the life of the priesthood, stated that moral theology should be renewed with
Sacred Scripture, not just be a mere philosophical system. Christianity then isn’t just about only following
a moral code or even a book, but Christianity is about following a person,
Jesus Christ, who loved us so much that he died and rose from the dead for our
salvation (cf. Benedict XVI). And this following
of Christ (sequela Christi) should change our moral life, on whatever
moral issue that may be, fill in the blank on any controversial morality issue,
but Jesus should change us to think like Christ on all our moral living, and
this starts with baptism!
There’s a
saying: “Lex orandi, lex credendi” which means the law of prayer is the law of
belief. How we pray is how we believe. But there’s also an additional line to this: “Lex
orandi, lex credendi, and lex vivendi.”
How we pray affects how we believe, but it also affects how we live our
moral life. In other words, our belief,
our prayer, and our mora life should not be separated. They should move us to go beyond the minimum
of morality, they should change our moral life in Christ.
And in
our moment when we do fail, out of weakness, our distinct moral life in Christ
means getting back up. Kobe Bryant didn’t
just give up when his chips were down, he got back up after failing in his
responsibilities. He realized that the
correct ordering of priorities is first God, then family, then work and then
basketball. Our following Christ will
mean ups and downs, growth and decline, maturity and setbacks, but in these
moments drawn on the passion of Christ who fell and dropped his Cross time and
time again but got back up. In Kobe’s
moment of Confession, he was not only forgiven by Christ through the priest and
the authority of the Church to forgive sins, but even the public forgave him.
In
closing, let’s return to my opening story.
Kobe Bryant’s pastor, Father Steve, said that he saw Holy Water on
Kobe’s forehead. Just as we started our
moral life with baptism, may we too continue our baptismal promises throughout
our life, promises that we renew every time we recite the Creed after the
homily, AND until the end of our life may the cleansing waters of baptism and
penance remain with us. Let the Creed
(which represents Lex Credendi or the law of belief), let the Body of Christ in
the Eucharist (which represents Lex Orandi or the law of how we pray), let these
affect our Lex Vivendi (how we live our moral lives). May they always be united; may they never be
separated. May what we do on Sunday at
Mass never be separated from our moral choices the rest of the week on Monday
thru Saturday. Let our Creed and our Eucharist
help us to surpass the scribes and Pharisees.
May we too join the ranks of the blessed in Heaven and follow the law of
the Lord, as we sang in today’s Responsorial Psalm: Blessed are they who follow
the law of the Lord.
Jesus
said: I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the
scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. May we surpass the moral righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees of our world. And
may Mary, the mother of Jesus, help us follow the law of the Lord all the days
of our lives.
_____
Please remember in prayer the seven babies and the families and friends of these babies that I baptized on Sat. morning, Feb. 15, 2020.
I was blessed to have baptized the son of my former student, John Salangsang (St. Patrick-St. Vincent High School Class of 2002).
128 - Liam
129 - Sabine May
130 - Jandrey
131 - Lauryn Melinda
132 - Winter
133 - Alexis Neil
134 - Matthew
(Homily #174 for infant baptisms were recorded but not posted on YouTube due to low audio quality.)
