February 2, 2015
Yesterday was the fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, but you’d be hard pressed to know that since it also happened to be Super Bowl Sunday. And with that Super Bowl comes fans who love the Seattle Hawks and those who are cheering for the New England Patriots. Recently the Patriots have gotten involved in what is now referred to as “Deflategate.” And that gives me a chance to reflect a bit about what’s serious in moral dilemmas and what isn’t.
I think most of us travel the roads at speeds slightly above the speed limit. I certainly have been passed by many cars while I was doing that myself. So, I know lots of folks exceed the speed limit. Sometimes a member of the State Police might decide to enforce the law as it stands. And when they do, and we happen to be the one who is speeding, we’re going to get a ticket. We won’t be fined $25,000 or anything close to it. Depending on the speed at which we’re caught, it could be a hefty fine, but it’s still a fine that will go along with the ticket.
When we think about serious sin, we recognize that the fault we’re talking about must be serious in and of itself. For example, stealing $5,000 by cheating on taxes is serious. Now, let’s suppose we recognize that stealing that much money is serious, and we reflect about that for a while, and then decide to do it. At that point we have three important moments in a moral decision that indicate if we do indeed steal that $5,000 we probably have committed a serious sin. So, the act needs to be serious, we need to reflect about the seriousness of what we are doing and then decide to do it. When that happens we have a moral dilemma.
Let’s get on the other side for a minute. We steal a candy bar at a drug store. We feel terrible about it when we get outside. Was it a serious sin? No. Why? Because stealing a $1.50 candy bar is not what moralists would consider serious matter. So, whether you reflected on what you we’re doing or not, the reflection will not lead you to moral behavior that is determined a serious sin.
Often times people come to confession and tell me about things that they thought might have been serious sins. “I was terrible to my mother.” “I talked uncharitably about my neighbor.” “I was angry with my husband.” Chances are pretty good that none of those activities is morally serious. Could those actions be serious? In some cases, yes. If you’re angry with your husband and haul off and belt him, that could be serious.
All of this is to say, we need to know when things are serious and when they aren’t when we make moral judgments about the correctness or wrongness of actions. Do we really believe that the weight of footballs is serious moral matter? Given all that’s been said and written about it, apparently many do. I’m more inclined to recognize that the moral matter in “deflateagate” is minor. So, football was played, and let’s hope it was played with footballs at their optimum weight to make for a game that was exciting to the very end.