ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Bishop Fitzgerald,
Monsignor Rodgers, Rector of this Cathedral Basilica,
Brother Priests and Deacons,
Honorable and Distinguished Guests: Judges, Lawyers and
other Members of the Legal Community,
Public Officials, Servants of the People,
Members of the Saint Thomas More Society,
Brothers and Sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,

With great joy I greet all of you at this celebration of the Annual Red Mass in this Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. Your presence here is a splendid testimony to your desire to acknowledge the primacy of God in your important service to humanity, your important service to the law.

The law is the reflection of truth. A reflection proceeds from an original source. The source of law is truth. Truth pulsates outward as if in a wave, and makes itself accessible through law. In this, the law is the radiance of truth, it is a gift of truth. As we gather here tonight in worship of God, I am honored to welcome you as stewards of the gift of truth.

How does one explore the connection between law and truth? One tool is the question. Lawyers ask questions. The question is, in many ways, the lawyer’s best friend. A question is not simply a request for information. It is not simply a survey tool. The question is designed for more. The question is a search. It is a pursuit. It is a hunger for the truth. By means of the question the lawyer seeks to penetrate to the truth.

This is why in the Gospels there are accounts of lawyers searching out Jesus. Jesus is no stranger to the law. One of the first acts of Jesus, already in His infancy, is His faithfulness to the custom of the law when the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph, His Mother and foster-father, bring Him to the temple to observe the ritual of the law (Lk 2:27). The Gospels of Saint Matthew and Saint Luke speak of the lawyer who asks Jesus a question about which commandment of the law is the greatest (Mt 22:26; Lk 10:25). Saint Luke tells us that Jesus would sit and discuss with the doctors of the law (Lk 5:17). Jesus announces that “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for the smallest part of a letter of the law to become invalid” (Lk 16:17). Jesus emphasizes that the law must be fulfilled (Jn 15:25; Lk 24:44), and He is very interested in how the experts of the law read the law (Lk 10:26). In fact, without a lawyer’s question and persistence, we might not have heard the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37). Remember, it was a lawyer who stood up to pose the question to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” to which Jesus responds with that wonderful parable.

The lawyers who meet Jesus in the Gospels have a unique opportunity. They do not simply ask a question about the truth. They have the blessing to ask THE Truth―Jesus Himself, the Word made flesh (Jn 1:14)―about the law. He is the One who says: “I am the way, the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6). Truth is not an ideology, but a Person. As Pope Benedict XVI teaches: “ … truth is never something purely abstract” (Sacramentum Caritatis, 29). The law, also, must reach the person. The lawyers whom Jesus meets face decisive moments.

Tonight, we too have a unique opportunity. Tonight, as we meet Jesus, He offers us strength for our decisive moments. We may come with questions. We may come with a question: How do we find the truth? The question is a tool, it is a path. The law must sink its roots deep into authentic truth. Fidelity to truth brings freedom, as Jesus emphasizes in the Gospel that we just heard proclaimed: "If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Truth does not become truth by majority rule. Law has the noble responsibility to guard the common good. As such the stewards of the law must remain especially vigilant today when dangerous tendencies of secularism seek to replace sound philosophy with superficial ideology, to replace classical principles with shallow sentiment, and to replace time-honored substantial truth with varying and fluctuating opinion. You, dear friends, are mandated by your vocation, education and training to ask the further question, to unite law and truth, especially in a day and age when so many fill the public square with an artificial recasting of truth. You, like the lawyers in the Gospels, face a decisive moment.

Our natural reason can access the principles and norms that lie at the heart of human existence. Law reflects on the proper character of being and on the deep nature of things. At the heart of all reality we find that the human being possesses the inviolable dignity that calls for respect from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death. Our devotion and dedication to the truth of the dignity of the human being must be steadfast and unshakeable. We find, at the heart of reality, the direct relation of the family and marriage as the permanent, faithful, fruitful union of one man and one woman to the common good of society. At the heart of reality we find the light of freedom which drew the pilgrims to this land in pursuit of religious liberty and freedom of conscience. The law, faithful to the truth of the human person, is meant to protect the rights of workers, to safeguard our homeland, to be a means of mercy for the poor, to advance access to education, to maintain decency in technology and the entertainment media, to ensure justice in financial matters, and to regard immigrants and refugees with dignity and respect. Here are decisive moments for us all.

Jesus is in our midst, just as surely as He was in the midst of the lawyers in the Gospel. And He makes a promise in the Gospel we heard proclaimed only a few moments ago. He promises: “If the Son frees you, then you will truly be free” (Jn 8:32). As He fulfilled the custom of the law, so He fills us with the strength to make sound choices and to engage in virtuous action. As specialists and experts, as professors and practitioners, you manifest your loyalty to the common good through your perseverance in years of preparation, long hours of study, determination to be faithful to the standards of the legal profession. The Church greatly esteems the work you carry out in service to the law, to the truth and therefore to humanity, aware of the many sacrifices, personal and professional, that you make to serve the truth.

May the Holy Spirit of God, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Good Counsel, guide you, dear friends, into all truth (Jn 15:26) so that the law you serve may effectively bring justice to all, especially those oppressed and suffering. It is only through the truth that we can find the love that is charity. As Pope Benedict XVI said only a few months ago, in his address to his own apostolic tribunal, the Roman Rota, “I wish to emphasize that both justice and charity postulate love for truth and essentially entail searching for truth. In particular, charity makes the reference to truth even more exacting. To defend the truth, to articulate it with humility and conviction, and to bear witness to it in life are therefore exacting and indispensable forms of charity. Charity, in fact, “rejoices in the truth” (1 Cor 13:6).’” (Address of January 2010). And may all of us, dear friends, as servants of the people, be guided constantly to embrace transforming truth. And may the law, drawing from its original source, which is the love of God, help guide us to the fullness of truth and love. Amen.