ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Bishop Dougherty,
Monsignor Bambera
Monsignor Bohr,
Brother Priests and Deacons,
Distinguished Judges,
Members of the Lackawanna Bar Association
   and the Bar Associations of the other ten Counties of the Diocese of Scranton,
Legal Professionals,
Elected Officials and all who are called to serve the public
   and the common good,
Dear Friends in Jesus Christ,

We are assembled here today in a humble plea to God: “Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth” (Psalm 104:30). The Church fervently invokes the Holy Spirit, asking Him to sustain and bless all of you in your dedicated service of the law.

We know that, from the farthest reaches of the solar system to the most intimate inner workings of systems of the human body, laws abound. Whether we gaze through a telescope into the reaches of the heavens, or through a microscope into the tiniest particles of earthly matter, we can discover, observe and measure the reasonable effects of laws. These laws existed long before we had knowledge of them.

The familiar image of Lady Justice, found in the architecture of many courthouses and schools of law, illustrates this point well when we turn to the natural laws of justice. She is depicted with a sword in one hand and scales in the other. She is also blindfolded. She is blindfolded to emphasize that the object of law is not vengeance or fate but truth. Truth in this sense is objective; it does not come from us but to us. We must often persist in discernment to move from what appears to be true, to authentic truth itself. Yet, we will never be able fully to discern the truth until we learn to stand humbly before the truth. Authentic truth is visible only through the lens of humility. Truth sees past partialities and partisanship, measures beyond polls and statistics, and gazes through the lens of right reason to see the original brilliance of the authentic order of justice.

This afternoon we see before us, in this Cathedral, the impressive and inspiring gathering of those who search for the truth through the law. We gather to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all the members of the legal profession. As we come together in humility before the great gift of the law we pray for and warmly greet all members of the Christian faith, our Jewish brothers and sisters, members of the Islamic faith, and all people of faith and good will who stand committed to the service of the law through the judicial system, the legislative process, and the administration of the law. We are here this afternoon because we love truth. And we search for what we love.

The Servant of God Pope John Paul II, at the beginning of his pontificate, spoke these memorable words to the entire world: “Be not afraid!” Almost twenty-seven years later and only three months before his death, in what was to be his final address to his own apostolic tribunal, the Roman Rota, the Pope repeated in January 2005 the same exhortation, but this time to servants of justice in particular. He said: “The criterion that inspires the deontology of the judge is his love for the truth. First and foremost, therefore, he must be convinced that the truth exists. The truth must therefore be sought with a genuine desire to know it, despite all the inconveniences that may derive from such knowledge. It is necessary to resist the fear of the truth.... The truth, which is Christ himself (cf. Jn 8: 32, 36), sets us free from every form of compromise with interested falsehoods.” Notice that the words of Pope John Paul II at both the beginning and the end of his pontificate were the same: “Be not afraid!… Resist the fear of the truth!” We resist the fear of the truth by approaching the truth with humility.

Every search begins in humility. Long before we learn the lessons of Procedural Law, Trial Law, Common Law, Corporate Law, Civil Law, Business Law, Intellectual Property Law, Criminal Law or Constitutional Law, the first lesson that the law teaches us is that we do not create it; we receive it. The first lesson of the law, therefore, is humility. Humility, at first, might sound like a too modest unassuming attitude. We might misinterpret the word “humility” to refer to naïveté, untried innocence or a vague and hesitant shrinking away. Humility is none of these things. In fact, humility is the opposite of these more timid attitudes. Humility is the persistent strength of time-tested determination. Humility is the basis for the acquisition of all truth.

From the opening pages of Sacred Scripture, God even reveals Himself as the humble judge. We notice that even God engages in what we now refer to as due process. Recall the third chapter of the Book of Genesis and the account of the sin of Adam and Eve. God, all powerful and all knowing, would certainly be justified in calling forth immediate recompense without appeal. God is infinite. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they committed an infinite offense, and by all rights they had set themselves at an infinite distance from God. Only an infinite offering could atone for and satisfy an infinite offense. But God is the humble judge. God does not explode into a rage when Adam and Eve sinned. He does not seek revenge, immediate penalties, or vow to make an example of Adam and Eve, though it would be well within his rights to do so. He knows that the truth of the law is not meant to be a prison, but a pathway. It is not an end in itself, but a means. God is not content to stop at justice. He always continues on to mercy. His justice is sealed in mercy.

Medieval commentators on church law observed that God’s first response to Adam and Eve’s offense is to grant them due process. He questions Adam and Eve. We could even say that He cross-examines them even though he knew full well the guilt of the offenders. In the aftermath of the disobedience of Adam and Eve, of their breaking the law, God is the just Judge who appeals first to a process. He summons the defendants and affords the opportunity for the same to answer the charge. After they break God’s law, Adam and Eve hide. And God searches for them and asks Adam and Eve a series of questions: “Where are you?” "Who told you that you were naked?” “You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!" "Why did you do such a thing?" (cf. Gen 3:9,11,13). Instead of remaining steadfast in humility, Adam and Eve attempted to hide from the truth and escape through the loopholes and unacceptable mitigating factors of blame and excuses.

Many today likewise fear the truth, and hide from it. They hide from the truth that every human being has inviolable dignity and must be protected from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death. Some turn instead to abortion, euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, human embryonic stem cell research, and thus turn away from the path of life. Some hide from the truth that the rights of the laborer must be respected; that it is the duty of more prosperous countries to assist those nations whose citizens are vulnerable to famine and disease; that the unemployed deserve gainful employment; that human trafficking is a grave offense; that refugees and immigrants deserve safety, respect, and opportunities; that the poor and the hungry must be offered shelter and fed; that every person deserves adequate and affordable health care; that health care plans must respect human life in all of its stages from conception to natural death; that freedom of conscience and religious liberty must be guaranteed in every corner of the world; that the bond of marriage between one man and one woman is the basis of society; that we are to be responsible stewards of the environment; that domestic violence and racial prejudice have no place in our families and neighborhoods.

We, too, are so often tempted to hide from the truth. But God calls out to us through his Church and through the ordinances of right reason, the law, not to try to escape the truth, but to approach it humbly so that justice might be administered always in service to that redeeming truth.

Pope Benedict XVI, in his most recent Encyclical Letter, Caritas in Veritate, reminds us again that the law is the means by which we search humbly for the truth. The Pope says: “In all cultures there are examples of ethical convergence, some isolated, some interrelated, as an expression of the one human nature, willed by the Creator; the tradition of ethical wisdom knows this as the natural law. This universal moral law provides a sound basis for all cultural, religious and political dialogue, and it ensures that the multi-faceted pluralism of cultural diversity does not detach itself from the common quest for truth, goodness and God” (no. 59).

God longs to guide us in our common quest for truth. God is faithful to Himself. If He had simply dismissed the guilt of Adam and Eve with an arbitrary wave of the hand, God would have declared that love itself is arbitrary and has no relation to truth. God asks Adam and Eve questions not because He is simply seeking to declare them guilty. He does not ask them questions because of any lack of knowledge on His part. He questions them in order to pursue the truth in love, so that they, forgiven of their offense, may love Him again.

Truth, in its deepest splendor, is not meant to condemn, but to heal. God engages Adam and Even in a process which seeks the truth because in His wisdom He knows that the light of truth is always the first remedy in times of darkness. Truth heals. God condemns sin out of his love for man. The same truth that condemns sin begins to heal the sinner. Through His questions, God leads Adam and Eve in the very first examination of conscience. God, by his questions, created a space for justice. God opened the way for the infinite offering of His Son. Only in the light of truth does God then hand down judgment. Justice creates, and God’s justice creates the promise of mercy: He will send His Son for our salvation—an infinite offering to satisfy an infinite offense (cf. Gen 3:15).

As God’s plan of mercy proceeds to culmination through salvation history, we again find the law playing a critical role. In the second chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Luke we learn that the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph obey the decree of the lawgiver, Caesar Augustus: “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child” (Lk 2:1-6). The Blessed Mother and Saint Joseph obey the decree of the census from the civil authority. This civic obedience takes place in the context of their larger obedience to God. To the words of the Archangel Gabriel, that she will conceive and bear the Son of God, Mary responds: “May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). And Joseph faithfully responds when the angel instructs him, saying: “Joseph, Son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins" (Mt 1:20b-21). As the earthly census is carried out by civil mandate, the heavenly courts fill the sky by divine decree as the angels proclaim: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests" (Lk 2:13). In the context of the obedience to God and to the law, the Savior of the human race is born: Jesus Christ. Earth unites with heaven as the Son of God is born.
Jesus is the one who willingly, humbly, stands in the place of Adam, and in our place, too. This is mercy. Mercy takes full account of the transgression and then reaches out in justice to heal the wound. This reaching out must seek to proceed all the way to the heart. Jesus our advocate lodges his plea with the Father from the Cross: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” (Lk 23:33). To the repentant thief we hear the most merciful sentence ever rendered: “This day you will be with me in paradise” (Lk 23:43). Jesus discloses the justice of God as mercy. The fruit of this mercy is immediate: a Roman centurion was standing nearby. He was simply in the midst of his assigned daily work, as horrific as it was. He had most likely witnessed dozens of crucifixions. He was hardened, not easily moved. Most likely, he had not heard any of the parables of Jesus, had not seen any of the Lord’s miraculous deeds. This centurion, most likely, was not present for the Sermon on the Mount or the great catch of fish. All he has seen is the humble manner of Jesus’ death: the persistent strength that is made perfect in weakness. And this veteran centurion cries out with words the embody humility before the Divine Truth, “Truly, this was the Son of God!” (Mt 27:54, cf. Mk 15:39). The light of God’s truth shines forth even in the darkest moment of human history, and even the most hardened and unsentimental of hearts discovers a new law. This is the Light we trust: Jesus Christ, the Son of God! Humility evangelizes.
This afternoon as we are surrounded by the historic mountains of North Eastern Pennsylvania we are reminded of another mountain: the Mount of the Beatitudes where the Lord revealed to the multitude that the New Law was not to be written on stone tablets, but deep in the heart of every person. As you look at these beautiful mountains of Pennsylvania, may you be reminded of the law that God has written and placed in our hearts: His universal law of truth and love. The Church is most thankful for your devoted service to the common good. This service often comes at deep personal sacrifice: untold hours of travel away from home and family, the many hours of research, case and document preparation, mediation, communication with clients, as well as the difficulties of private practice and the heart-wrenching decisions of those in public service.
May your humility, dear friends, before God’s universal law of truth and love strengthen your commitment, and be your first gift to those whom you so devotedly desire to serve. May Our Lady, under her title of Mother of Good Counsel, sustain and deepen your commitment to truth and love, freedom and justice. And may her Son, Jesus Christ—the one who proclaims: “...you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn 8:32)—send forth His Holy Spirit on you and your families, on this city of Scranton, on all the municipalities of North Eastern Pennsylvania, and on the whole United States of America, today and always. Amen.