Bishop Kevin Farrell of the Diocese of Dallas had the opportunity to give the homily at the annual Red Mass in Washington, D.C. In attendance were five U.S. Supreme Court Justices and many other government officials.
Bishop Farrell's full homily is available on his
blog. He introduced his main theme of unity by stating:
I am not the first person to comment that we seem to live at a time of highly polarized and polarizing rhetoric. In that sense, today, we are more like Babel than Pentecost, we are more about confusion than wisdom, more separated in and by rhetoric than united. Among the things that we celebrate at this Mass today is the countercultural reality of God’s very spirit hovering over us as it did at the beginning of Genesis to create clarity out of chaos, (Gen. 1:1-2) and, as the Holy Spirit did at that first Pentecost, he now bestows wisdom, clarity, insight and, yes, unity.
Please notice that I did not say uniformity. I deliberately said unity because the Holy Spirit is the source of unity on all that matters and the source of variety in and among the differences we have that make us who we are.
It also means that we can and should debate, refine positions, truly listen to each other and seek consensus on essentials and respect details that may well be different.