Donning red vestments and invoking the name of St. Thomas More, the patron saint of Catholic lawyers, Bishop Thomas John Paprocki celebrated the Red Mass on Oct. 19 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield. Retired Judge John Mehlick of Illinois' seventh judicial circuit represented the St. Thomas More Lawyers Guild of Springfield in leading the procession to the altar that included Father David Hoefler, diocesan vicar general, Father Seth Brown, parochial vicar of Cathedral Parish and Deacon Larry Smith.

In his homily, Bishop Paprocki, himself a canon and civil lawyer, paid tribute to St. Thomas More, who after attaining the highest position in the court of King Henry VIII, ultimately gave it up, as well as his life, in his affirmation to God, instead of to the king. At his execution in 1535, author E.E. Reynolds wrote, "As he stood on the scaffold before his execution, he briefly addressed the crowd gathered, telling them that he died 'the King's good servant, but God's first.' "

Simply put according to Bishop Paprocki, is that "St. Thomas More summarizes the call of Christian discipleship and the proper perspective we must all bring to our daily work — to be God's servant first … to be in the world as the followers of Jesus Christ proclaiming the good news — to be the leaven that makes the bread rise, to be in the world, to address present things, even as we keep our eyes fixed on heaven."

In remarks to a gathering following the Red Mass, Judge Mehlick reflected on a lifetime of work grounded in his Catholic faith. After leaving the seminary, Mehlick promised himself that after choosing the legal profession over the priesthood, that would be a "different" kind of lawyer, one who would remember to "know our faith" and be "ethical every day in all that I did." The retired jurist continued by saying, "People can tell by the totality of what you do and that you must be a warrior of the faith."