Homily during Red Mass
October 23, 2003
By Most Rev. Carl F. Mengeling

Dear Friends, honorable and esteemed members of the Judiciary, Government Officials, Attorneys, Law School Professors, Legal Professionals, Law Enforcement and First Responders,

I warmly welcome you, your families and guests, the clergy and religious and all present to our celebration of the Red Mass in St. Matthew Church.

In the name of the Church, I thank you for generous service and often heroic witness to truth and justice. I am grateful for this annual spiritual and social celebration of the Red Mass.

The Red Mass was cherished by your colleague and friend, Judge Thomas Gadola. He was one of the original promoters of the Red Mass. We remember this man of faith and integrity and his family in this Mass.

On this evening in our Third Millennium, you faithfully continue a revered tradition of 700 years. Your predecessors in the 13th and 14th centuries gathered at a Mass of the Holy Spirit.

In France, jurists have gathered in Sainte Chapelle, in Paris since 1248. In King Edward I’s England in 1310, the Twelve Judges of the High Court attended Mass on the day opening the Judicial Calendar. The Red Mass was first celebrated in our nation by Cardinal Hayes at St. Andrew Church, New York, on October 6, 1928.

Red Mass relates to the red vestments worn for the Mass of the Holy Spirit and the scarlet robes of Justices and Law Faculty of Universities in earlier centuries. Liturgically ‘red’ is the symbol of FIRE that gives warmth and light which signify the warmth of LOVE and the light of TRUTH.

Twenty-five years ago on October 22, 1978 (yesterday), Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, Archbishop of Krakow became Supreme Pastor of the Church. The first words of his homily were those of St. Peter: "You are the Christ the Son of the Living God."

Within a few months his first encyclical appeared on March 4, 1979 - The Redeemer of Man. He began: "The Redeemer of Man, Jesus Christ is the center of the universe and of history. To him go my thoughts and my heart."

From Christ the Redeemer comes the central theme of his pontificate for the Church and the World - "the cause of the Church is the course of the human person." The human person has been and is his and our agenda. He tells us that authentic service to and for every human person requires ‘Tough Love’. This love is based on truth, the truth about each human person. It is TOUGH because such love is demanding and because such love is enduring. Love apart from or contrary to truth is a betrayal.

Over 2,500 years ago, Isaiah taught that justice will bring about peace through those filled with the divine spirit. The desert will become a fruitful orchard where people live in peace and security.

Paul reminds us that we did not enter our vocation and professions for ourselves but for others. United in spiritual ideals and the one love, we look to other’s interests rather our own.

Psalm 85 sings of the kiss that mercy gives to justice. John Paul calls mercy the face of love. In our Gospel, Jesus teaches and shows the way that ‘justice kissed by mercy will bring peace’. "Love one another as I have loved you."

Pope John Paul spoke about St. Thomas More on October 31 in Jubilee 2000:

"St. Thomas More distinguished himself by his constant fidelity to legitimate authority and institutions precisely in his intention to serve not power but the supreme ideal of justice. His life teaches us that government is above all an exercise of virtue. Unwavering in this rigorous moral stance, this English statesman placed his own public activity at the service of the person, especially if that person was weak or poor; he dealt with social controversies committed to favoring and defending the family; he supported the all-round education of the young. His profound detachment from honors and wealth, his serene and joyful humility, his balanced knowledge of human nature and of the vanity of success, his certainty of judgement rooted in faith; these all gave him that confident inner strength that sustained him in adversity and in the face of death. His sanctity shone forth in his martyrdom, but it has been prepared by an entire life of work devoted to God and neighbor."

St. Thomas witnessed to the truth of his own insight - "The final cost of conformity is the sacrifice of leadership."

I thank you for participating in this Red Mass. With humility, we have turned to the Spirit of Truth and have for the wisdom, prudence and fortitude to be advocates of hope to all who seek justice. St. Thomas More and so many like him in the past and your colleagues of our time, like Judge Gadola will bring you support and encouragement.