Throughout the past years I have attended the Annual Red Mass at this Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas More.  I have listened attentively to the readings of the day, to the magnificent choir, observed the competent servers, and was delighted by the eminent and qualified homilists.  Add to this, the hospitality of the Rector and you have the dessert.

            As for me, I have served the people of God in South Florida for over 45½ years; was the Auxiliary Bishop of Miami for 5½ years, and have been the Founding Bishop of the Diocese of Venice, located on the Gulf Coast, for over 21 years.

            But, every time I have attended this Annual Red Mass, I have been mesmerized by the beautiful glass mosaic window of Christ Our Lord which is over the main entrance of this Co-Cathedral.  I would like to present to you a close friend of the Lord, who is also the Patron Saint of this Co-Cathedral, St. Thomas More.

            For me, personally, this man for “All Seasons,” will always personify the importance of conscience in our daily life.  I mean a strong conscience, not like the man who one day consulted with his doctor.  “I’ve got this terrible problem,” he said.  “Lately, I’ve been misbehaving and its getting worse.  My conscience is troubling me very deeply, and I was wondering if you could prescribe  something that would help.”

            His doctor said, “Oh, I see, you want something to strengthen your willpower!”  The patient protested, “No,” he said, “You don’t understand.  I want something that will weaken my conscience.”

            Some of you here present may not profess the Catholic Faith, but the Bishops, priests, Religious and laity of Florida welcome you with great reverence and respect.  In particular, we greet our Governor and the First Lady, and all the Florida Legislators; please know we are sincere and pray that your daily deliberations will always be true, just and honest on behalf of all the people residing in Florida.

            We Catholic Christians admire and boast of our Saints, just as we Americans honor the heroes of our country.  The saints for us are our spiritual heroes.  Their lives were fascinating.  Their virtuous lives were remarkable and worthy of imitating.  For example, about 30 years ago Mother Theresa of Calcutta, now a `Blessed’ of the Church visited Miami where as I said previously I served for over 24 years.  The first Bishop of Miami, Archbishop Coleman F. Carroll, asked me to take care of her during her visit.  I considered the task a great privilege.  Her humility and lessons of life, namely, to be good to the poor and especially the elderly of our country, will always remain true with me.  She was beatified on October 19, 2003.

            St. Thomas More was known in his day as a scholar, writer and poet. By profession, he was a lawyer.  According to Peter Ackroyd in his Life of Thomas More:  “all the circumstances of More’s life and temperament suggested that......he had an abiding respect for the practice (of law), and a deep admiration for the principles of law.  He knew that human justice was only the faintest reflection of divine law, but it became for him the principle and model of conduct upon the earth.”¹

            Thomas More was a devout Catholic, a model of conscience for every age.

            Thomas More was born in 1478 and died in 1535.  A Londoner, he studied at Oxford University and became a barrister in London in 1501.

            He was a good husband, devoted to wife and children, devout, cheerful and charitable.

            In 1516 he published his Utopia, which earned him a European reputation as a scholar and humanist.  He was highly regarded by King Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey, and succeeded the latter in 1529 as Lord Chancellor.

            He did not accept the King’s wish to divorce Queen Catherine; however, he resigned and, on refusing to take the oath of spiritual supremacy demanded by the King, was imprisoned in the Tower of London for 15 months.  Then he was condemned for treason and beheaded on Tower Hill.  He was canonized with St. John Fisher in 1935.

            Thomas More was a man of Faith, who also knew theology.  He wrote a book defending, theologically, the Faith; it was called The Defense of the Seven Sacraments.  Henry VIII put his name on it and so acquired the title Defender of the Faith.  Henry played fast and loose with theology according to circumstances, as did indeed his theological as well as political consultants.  But Saints Thomas More and John Fisher, plus many martyrs of England,  lay and clerical, had the Faith that saves and the theology that clarifies and applies Faith to life and death.  They lived and died by the law and the Faith.

            Like Thomas More, we modern Judaic - Christians must realize that the Ten Commandments are the essence and expression of the natural law imposed by the Almighty and All-wise Creator to govern and regulate the conduct of us human beings in accordance with our nature, our obligations, our final end.   They are also the rule of all human actions, of all human laws.  Civil laws, the precepts of parents, of superiors, that do not conform to the Ten Commandments, are unjust, can impose no obligation, for, as the Apostles rightly said as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles 5,29: “We ought to obey God rather than men.”

            There is a conscience in us human beings that bears witness to a higher law and of justice and goodness.  Conscience,  shall we say, is the needle that points out to us the way.  But there is a power which guides the conscience.  And that power is truth.  Our conscience is guided by our intellect.  We must therefore know the truth before we can put our trust in the dictates of conscience.  In other words, to act, we must have a knowledge of the truth; to do, we must have as our guide the principles of truth.

            The voice of conscience is the Voice of God; for it is God, the source, the author, the very essence of the moral law of right and wrong, who has given to us human beings our reason whereby we can recognize good and evil, and, at the same time, the obligation of doing good and shunning evil.  So strongly and deeply is this sentiment rooted in us human beings, that it is vain for us to endeavor to obliterate it.

            A person may blunt his/her conscience, may become hardened, may adopt an agnostic attitude, and look upon the moral and ethical teaching which is founded upon the universal voice of conscience as purely an invention of human philosophy; but it may safely be said that no person succeeds in this; in the heart of hearts the worst and most hardened will retain — can  not help it — that distinction between what is indubitably right and what is wrong, which is founded in the very nature of things, because founded in God Himself.

            Lest we forget, conscience is a reliable guide only if correctly informed.  A person with a false conscience may commit crimes and consider himself or herself righteous in committing them.  Take for example, Saint Paul who was very zealous in following the dictates of his conscience before his conversion as after, and he sincerely believed in the relentless persecution of the Christians.  It is therefore not true if people say their conscience, even without the Faith and without the Commandments, enables them to lead a righteous life.

            At this Annual Red Mass I beg God to bestow His choicest blessings upon our Governor, his wife and family; upon the respective families of all legislators.  And may we Catholic Christians be always active in the citizenship of our beloved country, participate actively in the political arena of our community and nation, and be men and women of conscience, who are guided by the Truth at all times!

                        Amen.