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SETON HALL SCHOOL OF LAW
COMMENCEMENT MASS
MAY 25, 2007
10:30 AM
THE AUDITORIUM
READINGS: EZEKIEL 36:24-28
PSALM 145
ROMANS 8:26-27
LUKE 4:16-22a
HOMILY
The Holy Spirit, Advocate
Seton Hall Law graduates of the class of 2007: today will be published for all
to see and all to know, that you are each Juris Doctor – a Doctor of the Law. On
the first day of orientation we tell you that you are in law school not merely
to absorb and master a new body of information, but also to become something you
are not. Today that process of transformation is declared completed. You are
lawyers. You know how to think like a lawyer. You understand the law from the
inside out. You can apply the law as an effective advocate for a client, one who
“is clinging to you, holding on to you from a position of vulnerability.”
Cathleen Kaveny, professor of law and professor of theology at the University of
Notre Dame, reflects:
In teaching my first-year law students, I don’t worry primarily that they learn
for their own sake – I worry that they learn for the sake of the vulnerable
clients they will be taking care of in less than three short years. If I don’t
do my job right, and my students don’t do theirs, it’s not just their loss. A
widow might be exploited without effective redress; an orphan may be deprived of
all means of support. An innocent third party might pay the price. Law students
have outgrown their role as wards; they have now joined the ranks of society’s
caretakers (America, May 14, 2007, p.17).
Today’s liturgy is a Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit. Traditionally we associate
the Holy Spirit with the sacrament of confirmation. But the role of the Holy
Spirit in Christianity is far more expansive than any single sacrament. A
trajectory can be traced through the Hebrew Scriptures whereby God becomes ever
more present to his creation by the action of his Spirit. In Ezekiel we hear,
I will give you a new heart and place a new Spirit within you, taking from your
bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts.
I will put my Spirit within you and make you live by my statutes,
careful to observe my decrees (Ezek 36:26-27).
In other words, God is returning his human creation to its original and natural
state of harmony with him, the condition depicted in Genesis 2 as God breathing
life into the man he had fashioned from the dust of the earth.
When Jesus stands in the synagogue on the Sabbath and reads from the scroll of
the prophet Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me” (Lk 4:18), he means to
inaugurate the new era of the kingdom of God. The poor, captives, the blind, the
oppressed are the focus of his glad tidings and the beneficiaries of God’s
decisive action. Luke’s text says, “The eyes of all in the synagogue looked
intently at him.” We can hear the silence in the room and sense the awe among
those in attendance.
Our amazement is similar as we realize that Jesus promised to send the Holy
Spirit to the community of believers after his death and resurrection, as the
Advocate. In John’s Gospel, on the eve of his passion and death, Jesus promises,
“The Advocate, the Holy Spirit,
whom the Father will send in my name,
will teach you everything
and remind you of all that I told you” (Jn 14:26 ).
Jesus names the Holy Spirit the Advocate, parakletos in Greek. The word can mean
“intercessor” or “comforter,” but is best understood against the backdrop of
law. Every lawyer is an advocate for the client. As an advocate the lawyer
intercedes for the client in a court of law in order to obtain justice. As law
students you have been taught that most clients seek out advocates because they
find themselves in positions of vulnerability. Lawyers bring professional
comfort to clients by providing effective advocacy. In fact, the word “client”
itself means one who is clinging to, holding on to,” suggesting need and
vulnerability. The law jealously guards attorney/client, advocate/client
privilege to secure the rights of individuals involved in the legal process.
Viewing the Holy Spirit as the advocate in and for the Church shows the members
of the Church in every age to be clients, that is, those who from a position of
vulnerability in a world redeemed but not yet fully transformed into the
heavenly Jerusalem, depend upon the guidance, the illumination, the “expertise,”
if you will, of the most reliable advocate any client could ever have. Paul
writes in Romans, “The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not
know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with
inexpressible groanings” (Romans 8:26).
You are lawyers now. You have joined the ranks of society’s caretakers as
custodians of the law. You will have clients – real human beings (even
corporations and government entities are ultimately made up of human beings) --
clinging to you for aid in obtaining justice. Does all this sound imposing,
intimidating, even slightly scary? I suppose it should. But the entire point of
today’s liturgy is that you can ask for assistance. In fact, as men and women of
faith you ought to, you need to ask for help – from the Spirit, God’s Holy
Spirit. As advocates in our system of civil law you ought to find recourse in
the Advocate, the Spirit sent by the Father and the Son, by the Father through
the Son, in the discharge of your professional responsibilities.
Oh, I don’t mean that faith trumps law, that legal judgment becomes subordinate
to religious claims, that doctrine displaces jurisprudence. No, the discipline
of law enjoys its proper autonomy. But as a Catholic who practices law, all the
resources of your faith and spiritual life are at your disposal in being the
best lawyer you can be, and most of all in maintaining a clear sense of your
larger purpose in life.
Professor Kaveny worries that high-achieving students are particularly at risk
as they leave law school and begin employment. She explains:
In their academic life, the willingness to compete in contests designed by
someone else has consistently been beneficial to them. Things are different in
the work world. For example, many big law firms take advantage of the
competitive nature of young associates by setting up contests to see who can
bill the most hours. Who does this contest benefit? The firm, definitely. The
associate, perhaps not. Only if young lawyers clearly realize the billable hours
contest is not all about them, that it was designed to promote other people’s
interests, will they be able to distance themselves from it – to make their own
decisions about what balance of work and family life works best for them
(America, May 14, 2007, p.17).
In naming today “commencement,” the emphasis shifts from finishing law school to
beginning the rest of your life. Some say life’s purpose can be reduced to
nothing more than acquiring the most and best toys and then you die. I pray all
of you here will be spared that hell by the power of the Holy Spirit that is
within you. Life is incredibly rich, textured, multi-layered, interesting,
dramatic, comical, exhilarating, confounding, mysterious, ineffable…if you are
willing to accept the pain of openness and awareness.
German poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote:
Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the
questions themselves. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to
you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live
everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you
will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.
In a more light-hearted vein, singer/songwriter Bill McGarvey reflects on advice
he wishes he could have given himself when he was graduating from college:
-- Momentum can be a good thing, but if you’re not thoughtful, it can also lead
you into a life you never wanted.
-- Until you can say no, your yes means nothing.
-- Laughter and a sense of humor are often signs of health.
-- Jesus saved the world, so you don’t have to.
(And my favorite…)
-- Be very suspicious of free advice and cheap platitudes (America, May 17,
2007, pp. 17-18).
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