It is truly an honor to be with you for this Thirtieth Annual Florida Red Mass. We call upon the Holy Spirit to guide the work of all those involved with the formation, implementation and judgment pertaining to the law. As judges, lawyers, and legal experts, your vocation is a most noble one since it insures the good order of society. The work that you carry out in courtrooms, offices, classrooms, and the political arena involves the lives of individual men and women. This work pertains directly to the expression of God’s love for all people through justice which is due to every human being. The law of our Country, as expressed in the Constitution of the United States, is the very heart of our Nation since it protects our freedom and rights which are endowed by God Himself. It is no wonder that twenty-five of the United States’ forty-three presidents have been lawyers. The law is indeed a noble vocation and it is my privilege to address you during this Red Mass.

It might be said that, just as the heart of our Nation is the Constitution, the heart of the Gospel are the Beatitudes to which we just listened. They form a constitution which is at the basis of the message of Christ. Like the Constitution, Jesus articulates them to promote justice and to protect the rights of all, most especially the poor and those who have no one to speak for them. The law of the land and law of the Gospel compliment each other. Our founding fathers were well aware that the law of the land is based on the law of God. However, God’s law is one that goes beyond the letter of a code or constitution and that is why you play a critical role in the life of the law as Catholic lawyers and judges.

Although everyone is challenged by living the law with purpose, those in the legal profession have a special role in integrating a vision of law and life through a consciousness that comes from authentic participation in legal events. This is particularly true of Catholic judges, lawyers, professors and even law students who must see their role as a vocation in bringing Gospel values to the authentic interpretation of the law and to live them out.

The renowned American jurist, judge and legal philosopher, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, likened the law to a magic mirror in which all of the triumphs, tragedies, struggles and routines of the human race are reflected. Holmes is also well known for his arresting generalization that the life of the law is not logic but experience. There is no doubt that, for better or for worse, Holmes’ utilitarian jurisprudence has made a lasting impact on American legal philosophy. As men and women of faith, it is our primary vocation, working with the law, to articulate what truly is the life of the law and to ensure that the law mirrors God’s justice for all.

It is the message of Jesus in the Beatitudes that is truly the life of the law. For us, as Christian legal experts, the life of the law and the mirror which reflects it can be nothing less than Christ Himself. Law has its roots not in experience, not in consensus, not in positivism or realism, not even in logic. True Law has its roots in God Himself and the expression of God’s law is most fully revealed in Jesus Christ.
It is a great grace that this Thirtieth Annual Red Mass coincides with the Year of the Eucharist. As you know, our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, has designated October 2004 through October 2005 as a special year in which we focus on the gift of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the center of our lives as believers in Christ. It is also the center of our lives as men and women involved with the law. The Eucharist joins the Constitution and the Beatitudes and mirrors the life of God. It is in the celebration of the Eucharist that we realize that there is no distinction between the Constitution and the Beatitudes. Both are integrated in Christ who is the purpose of the law.

In introducing the Eucharistic Year, the Pope wrote an Apostolic Letter entitled, Stay with Us Lord. These are the words of the disciples on the road to Emmaus lamenting the death of Christ, not realizing that He had been raised from the dead. As Christ appears to them, He is unknown to them until He breaks bread and reveals Himself in the Eucharist.

Through the Eucharist, Christ becomes truly present among us. His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity become our food for the journey of life. Our participation in the Eucharist enables us, as those involved with the law, to fully articulate the justice of God Himself. The Eucharist unites us in Christ and reminds us of the dignity that we possess as human beings. It calls us to a genuine care for the poor and neglected who are our brothers and sisters in Christ. It reminds us that we all share the same dignity. Indeed, the Eucharist reminds us of our vocation as lawyers since it calls us to participate in legal events with a consciousness that only a mind enlightened by faith can visualize. There is no greater service to the law than such consciousness.

As I said before, Oliver Wendell Holmes referred to the law as a mirror which reflects the triumphs, tragedies, struggles and routines of daily life. Jesus’ continued and Real Presence here on earth through the Eucharist is not a mirror of the triumphs, tragedies, struggles and routines of daily life but the Lord’s actual participation in all of these in a real manner. He stays with us and continues to be part of our daily life.

The Pope describes this reality in the following words from his Encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia: “Many problems darken the horizon of our time. We need but think of the urgent need to work for peace, to base relationships between peoples on the solid premises of justice and solidarity, and to defend human life from conception to its natural end. And what should we say of the thousands of inconsistencies of a ‘globalized’ world, where the weakest, the most powerless and the poorest appear to have so little hope! It is in this world that Christian hope must shine forth! For this reason too, the Lord wished to remain with us in the Eucharist making His presence in meal and sacrifice the promise of a humanity renewed by His love.”

Since the law involves us in the struggles and triumphs of humanity, the Eucharist gives us the food through which we can live our vocation of seeking justice for all. Today, our calling especially involves the rights of the unborn and those who have no one to speak for them. It involves the rights of all of the poor and neglected of our society. Law’s noble aspiration is mirrored in what is celebrated in the Eucharist. When God became man, He stayed with us and in the Eucharist gives Himself again to us that we might give Him to others.

The Red Mass is indeed an ancient and venerable practice. It reflects that for centuries those involved with the law have called upon the Holy Spirit’s guidance in working with the law. It also reflects the reality that the Eucharist contains the heart of what the law is all about, namely, the protection of all God’s people. Truly, the Eucharist joins the Constitution and the Beatitudes. It is not an exaggeration to say it is the life of the law and mirrors, through the life of Christ truly present in it, the tragedies and triumphs of life since it is the celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Indeed, it is a privilege and joy to be with you at this Red Mass. May the Lord continue to stay with us and to help us to promote a society based on the dignity and freedom of every human person. The British statesman, Edmund Burke, commented that “No other profession is more closely connected with actual life as the law.” May we all continue to be connected to actual life through this Eucharist we now celebrate and recommit ourselves to the noble profession of the law. I thank you for all that you do.