To the Band of Brothers: September 1, 2021

Good morning!

Last Sunday it dawned on me that many of the readings we have read at Mass in the last week have dealt with the various rules, regulations, and rites that are found in the Bible. Both the Old and New Testaments make reference to them. In the Book of Deuteronomy there are laws given by Moses and then expanded by the leaders of Israel. Laws about how to act, how to dress, how to pray, how to eat… just about everything. In the gospels Jesus refers to them all the time, weeding out the ones that no longer apply and emphasizing the ones that do. Do you want rules? Check out the letters of St. Paul.

To this day, the Church has many rules about religious practice and laws about morality and good behavior. When I was studying theology in preparation for the priesthood, they even had a class in what they call Canon Law, the law of the Church. What’s the deal with so many rules? Why not just set a basic understanding of the need to love God and your neighbor and that’s it? 

Well, there’s a couple of things we can say about that. 

First of all, I remember something Bishop Robert Barron, Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles, once said about laws. In any given society, any organization or institution, laws are placed around those things we appreciate and care about the most. If you walk on to a vacant, abandoned lot, you can basically walk over and pick up a rock and put it in your pocket. No one will say much about that. But if you walk into a museum with priceless works of art, you simply can’t walk in and take paintings off the wall, run around the hallways, scream at the top of your lungs, and wreak havoc. Unlike the vacant, abandoned lot, museums are precious almost sacred spaces that require a set of rules and regulations to maintain order and protect what’s inside.

Human beings set rules to protect what they love and consider important. Take your family for example. Your parents work hard to maintain the sanctity of the home, to keep it in order, clean, and safe. Because they consider it so precious, they set up rules of conduct and behavior. There are a series of dos and don’ts. In my house for example, the laws were pretty clear. Don’t leave dirty dishes in the sink, don’t wear a hat at the dinner table, don’t talk back to your mother. Do eat all the food on your plate, do mow the lawn, do sweep the floor, do make your bed. 

Second, rules are incredibly important in order to maintain not only the order of a thing, but also maintain its beauty. Think of baseball (actually, any sport applies). This great American pastime is loved by hundreds of millions of people. One of the reasons why it is such a beautiful sport is because of the rules that govern it in order to assure its proper order and execution. Can you imagine there being no rules in baseball? How terrible would the sport be if a team decided that the three out rule didn’t apply or they can have 15 players on the field instead of nine? 

Sports maintain their integrity and beauty because there are a series of rules and laws that have been developed over the years to give them structure and substance. In golf, for example (and a personal favorite), the rules abound. To a large extent, it is knowing the rules and applying them that makes it such a graceful sport. As a matter of fact, it is the only sport I am aware of where the player actually applies the rules and calls penalties on himself. Wow, talk about moral integrity.

Belen is no different. There are a whole series of rules and regulations we apply, developed over 167 years depending on our context and particular circumstances, which contribute to the greatness of the education you receive. I know sometimes they seem to bog you down and are often considered annoying, but trust me, they are all part of a master plan that works towards the formation of you as men. They may not seem important to you now and you may not even fully understand their significance, but, at the end of the day, they are necessary for a solid, Catholic education.

Auspice Maria