'Invite Jesus Into the Courtroom': Archbishop Golka Encourages Colorado Legal Professionals
At his first Denver Red Mass, Archbishop James Golka urged judges, lawyers and other legal professionals to seek the Holy Spirit's guidance and exercise their authority with humility, courage and faith.
“What is the true power that we learn in our faith?” asked Denver Archbishop James R. Golka.
Pointing to the Cross, the archbishop noted what at first seemed the catastrophic failure of Jesus’ earthly mission.
“His sacrifice willingly out of love changed the world — and it can change you and me,” he said. “That's the kind of power that we want to live in.”
Celebrating his first Red Mass in Denver, Archbishop Golka challenged judges, lawyers and other members of the legal profession to seek something more important than their own self-created plans.
“The Catholic Lawyers Guild follows the century-old tradition of knowing we must seek the Lord's guidance in our practices and for jurists in their daily decisions,” noted Martin Plank, a longtime member of the guild who helped plan this year’s liturgy. “The Red Mass is a public showing of this fact. We have both sides present, prosecutors and public defenders, probation and incarceration, etc. But the differences melt away, and it is up to us to take the guidance of the Holy Spirit.”
Red Masses were first celebrated in Europe in the Middle Ages, the name coming from the red liturgical vestments worn to symbolize the Holy Spirit’s descent on the Apostles at Pentecost in the form of tongues of flame. Participants often wear scarlet robes or sashes, which also serve to call to mind the martyrdom of St. Thomas More, patron saint of lawyers, statesmen and politicians, and his example of holding fast to the teachings of the Church in the face of oppression.
Across the US, Red Masses are held each year, usually coinciding with the start of the Supreme Court’s term. Denver’s Red Masses began in the 1950s, and this year’s Mass, sponsored by the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Colorado, was held at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Denver. Colorado Supreme Court Justices Brian D. Boatright and Carlos A. Samour Jr. both attended the Denver Mass, while Deacon Tim Kelly, himself an attorney, served the Mass alongside Archbishop Golka.
Key to the archbishop’s message was the interplay between power, responsibility and the gift of religious freedom.
“Perhaps there's nothing more personal than our freedom of conscience and freedom to live out our religious convictions, but as personal as they are, they are not private. In fact, the demand of Christian faith is to live our faith publicly and to witness to that faith,” he explained.
Drawing on St. Thomas More’s example, Archbishop Golka counseled those in attendance toward good governance and the humble exercise of power in service of God and others. “Thomas More stood up to tyranny and held his character and his religious beliefs, and he died a martyr because of it. And somebody who's willing to die for their faith enlivens something in us, and it also raises the question, would I be willing to do that myself?”
It’s a question that hits home for Plank.
“In the case of St Thomas More, the question could not have been clearer. Obey the King, or your belief in the Lord and conscience,” Plank said. “The decision St. Thomas More made, and the one we aspire to follow, led to his head being unceremoniously removed and put on a pike of the London Bridge for his family and all to see. The Red Mass can remind all of us in the legal profession on a yearly basis that making the right decision might be hard and unpopular, but it’s the right thing to do.”
For anyone in power, there is both an invitation and a responsibility to exercise that power prayerfully, and for God’s purposes rather than our own, the archbishop explained.
“He gives us the incredible privilege to be able to help with the tending of the vineyard,” he continued, referencing the Gospel parable that had just been read. “God delights in watching his children join with him in his work of creation and his work of justice and his work of governance.”
Turning back to the very beginning, to Genesis 2:15, Archbishop Golka further illustrated the importance of cooperating with God in building up a just world.
“We are to be stewards of the garden,” he noted. “So what's a good steward to do? You tend the things that don't belong to you, and you put them where they're supposed to be, where God wants them to be. And I think that's a wonderful way to understand some of the work that you all do. You're tending the vineyard of justice, tending the vineyard of caring for God's people as they come into your offices, into your courtroom. You tend to them with the best wisdom you have, with the best instinct you have, well-prepared and well-studied.”
With so much asked of them, the archbishop reminded the legal professionals that they are never alone in their important work and encouraged them to seek God’s assistance in all they do.
“Please pray. Invite Jesus to go ahead of you into the courtroom. Ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten you so that you receive what God wants you to know,” he said, offering his prayers and a blessing to those gathered at the end of the Mass as well.
