Red Mass goers hear about patron

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

Lawyers, judges and others were encouraged to love God and neighbor and live their professions well at the diocese’s 59th annual Red Mass Sunday.
Bishop McManus presented four awards at the end of the Mass at St. Paul Cathedral, which was followed by a luncheon in the Cenacle on the lower level.
The homilist, Jesuit Father John Gavin, of the department of religious studies at the College of the Holy Cross, read from a letter by St. Thomas More, patron saint of lawyers. The 16th-century English lawyer and statesman sent the letter to his wife, Alice, after learning that many of their grain storage barns and those of their neighbors had been destroyed by fire.
Father Gavin said Thomas More showed no signs of despair or anxiety but told his wife to trust in God and assured her that with God’s grace they could carry this cross.
“Yet since God has a allowed such an event to befall us, we … are obligated not only to be content but also to be glad of his visitation,” the saint wrote. “He sent us all that we have lost; and since he has by such a chance taken it away again, his pleasure be fulfilled!”
“This embracing of the cross is the greatest way to show love of God,” Father Gavin said.
The saint also showed love for his neighbors, he continued, and read more of the letter.
St. Thomas More asked his wife to find out what his neighbors had lost and assure them that he would see that they had what they needed; “if I should not leave myself a spoon, there shall be no poor neighbor of mine to bear a loss.”  
“Love for God demands a total gift of self, not a cheap sentimentality,” Father Gavin said. Speaking of love of others, he told listeners they don’t have to go to foreign lands; there are people who need them in their families and neighborhoods.
“The demanding law of love must be expressed in both words and deeds,” he said.
He called his listeners scholars of the law and servants of the community, privileged to serve in noble and ancient professions. He spoke of them bringing Christ to the world, and of the need for courage, honesty, compassion and the highest degree of professional rigor.
“The world needs great leaders and public servants, but what we need even more is public servants and leaders who” hunger to be saints, he said.
The Society of St. Thomas More award recipients were as follows:
Distinguished Jurist Award, Chief Justice Timothy F. Sullivan, Massachusetts Housing Court;
The Msgr. F. Stephen Pedone Distinguished Attorney Award, Atty. Patricia Finnegan Gates of Worcester;
The Bishop Bernard J. Flanagan Ecumenical Award, Atty. Jeffrey P. Greenberg of Worcester, and Distinguished Catholic Layperson Award, Steven M. Sargent, chief of the Worcester Police Department.
The Bishop Harrington Law School Scholarship recipient was Briana Mansour, of Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Leominster.