Homily from the Blue Mass

Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption
April 17, 2018
 
When we encounter evil in the world --- and there is plenty of it --- our response might be to turn away from God, to reject God, even to doubt God’s existence.  We may think or ask ourselves, “How can God exist if he lets such terrible things happen?”  Murder.  Assault.  Rape.  Drug abuse.  Gang violence.  Burglary.  Rampant disregard for life at all its stages, hatred for other people, for property, for the environment?  These are just some of the things that the women and men in law enforcement face each day and the experience can be, often is, very dark.
 
And, yet, on the other hand from the evil we see in the world, our response might just have the opposite effect: we may come to realize that God is our only hope; that God alone helps us make sense of our world; that God is “our stronghold.”  Of course it is this response --- an affirmation of our faith and hope and trust in God --- that we celebrate each year in the annual Blue Mass.
 
This Mass is our annual opportunity in the Diocese of Trenton to recognize you, the women and men who “protect and serve” us in Mercer, Burlington, Monmouth and Ocean Counties as law enforcement professionals, to thank you, to lift you up to God in prayer, regardless of your particular religious beliefs, to raise you up and ask Almighty God to watch over you, to care for you, to protect you, the way a father watches over and cares for and protects his children.  The Blue Mass is a celebration of faith, a faith that is sometimes tested by the darker side of human life, a faith that cries out with the psalmist today.
 
It is our faith in God that enables us who are believers to see with different eyes the mysterious hand of God, the Father, without whom life in this world could never make any sense at all.  We need to believe and have faith that God our Creator never leaves our side.  And faith, above all, brings us peace so that we need never be troubled or afraid, we might never lose hope.
 
God’s Word in the Holy Scriptures strengthens our faith.  But God also  speaks other words to us as public servants: words like duty and honor, words like integrity and service, words like justice and the common good, words that would be difficult for us to believe in and to understand if you --- our law enforcement professionals --- did not walk among us, the citizens of New Jersey.  Those words would be difficult for you to believe in and understand if the Lord God did not first walk among and with you who “protect and serve.”  
 
During this Easter Season, when we continue to live in hope, we continue fix our eyes on the empty tomb the women found that first Easter Sunday morning, knowing that there is a lot more to life than the things that drag us down.  God saves us from the darkness of this world.  “Greater love than this no one has than to lay down his life for his friends.”  Our fallen brothers and sisters, whose memories we honor today, laid down their lives.  We pray for them and their families; we pray also for you, the living, that none of you will ever have to make that ultimate sacrifice in the service you render. Today, in this Blue Mass, we thank God for giving you, the women and men of law enforcement, the willingness and the readiness to do so.  Stay safe.  And God bless you all.