The Blue Mass in the Garden State considering to be Grave Site Place

The Blue Mass in the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, in Newark, NJ started with the long parade of flags to the background of loud bagpipes and drums. The church, filled with the various blues that characterized the state, town and correctional forces, was full, their vehicles from horse, bus to SUVs parked outside.

Somber and serious, with many priests concelebrating the Mass, it also served as a memorial to the officers who had fallen that year, in NJ, as well as other states. It also made mention of the 15th anniversary of 9/11. Archbishop of Newark John Joseph Myers led the Mass, though the homily was by a priest, Msgr. Christopher Hynes, KCHS, a former police officer, who spoke intimately of the concerns as one dons on one's uniform in the morning, as so many real dangers could happen in this career. But it is a noble calling, he said, to make the sacrifice to protect the weak, to uphold justice and to be peacemakers. He referred to Pope St. Leo the Great whose feastday it was that day because he was a statesman and the pope, but acted as police officer against the greatest criminal in his day, "equivalent to a terrorist, " he said, "Attilla the Hun". It was never disclosed what happened when Pope St. Leo the Great decided to meet the "terror of the world" who planned to sack and destroy Rome. But Attila soon left with his forces without harming anything or anbody.

I am pleased to see the hand of God working in diplomatic tact of St. Leo who rightfully merited his "the Great" addition, being given only to Saints who have intervened very significantly in world as well as Church history. (It has been given to St. Gregory, St. Leo, St. John Paull ). But more importantly it showed his humility, not revealing what he said that made the Hun turn around, for he truly recognized it was the Holy Spririt who used him and effected his peaceable retreat.

The attendance of troops from North to South Jersey made for a full church. Top officials from Lt. Governor Kim Gaugnamo down were there. Tinted SUVs, patrols and motorcycle and mounted units were all represented outside. But this thought kept returning to my mind. Here are decent people who put life in the line for the good of God and country. They strive to perform their job well and ably, studying hard in the academy and keeping their wits in the daily vigil, through high stress and doldrums, through panic and grief and danger. They are our finest, the young, strong, idealistic folks, who made this committment, career, to serve their home state, their home town or city, their peers and community.

We cannot reward them or anybody with substandard laws that would amount essentially to this--devaluation of profession. In an institution such as the church or law enforcement or medicine, we have a modicum of expectation that they are the good guys. They implicitly have our trust. They will work for us, for our benefit. They will take the fall for us, for they have chosen to make this their vocation.

A police officer, a fire man, a corrections officer, a soldier, an EMT accepts that risk. They know the life-and-death situation that can possibly take their own along with it. These groups are expected to be a harbringer of protection, of life preservation. For them to be around and to have their arms tied because of some technicality, paper work or legality is not befitting their desire to be professional Good Samaritans. They might as well retire.

A doctor or a churchman gives his life in another way, through the gift of time, through the gift of service. He becomes tied to the concerns of his patients or parishioners because he sees a good end to their life--for one, health so that they can get to where they need to go (or resources for adjustment for unalterable situations), for another, holiness so they can truly go where all of us should go--to the Giver of our lives.

The trust that is pre-set to insitutions makes for community to be possible. I come here without any official business, just a regular New Jerseyan from the area seeking a Mass. Here are power brokers and cops with guns upon guns. Am I afraid? Should I be intimidated? The priests enter with their own hierarchy of acolytes, assistant, concelebrants. In a sense Archbishop Myers looms ahead in all of us, being the head of this area of the Catholic Church, which many of us belong--some 1.5 M strong. But Archbishop Myers is subject to the same judgement as all of us, as do all the professions and professionals in this state. Did we help bring on the Kingdom of God of mercy and light? Archbishop Myers whispered that he has called legislators to assist in the fight against assisted suicide, a commendable move. It is his last weeks in office before Archbishop-elect Cardinal Joseph Tobin takes over. Archbishop Myers has been loved by the people of Newark, so I am not surprised he is still doing what he can in the time he has left. But this is precisely why we need to preserve the insitutions that we have.

People come, people go. Legacies remain before Christ, Love Himself, come and replace all. Are they worthy of the insitution they belong or will be practiced? I feared that the NJ legislatures will get caught up on false rights. The right-to-die is from the euthanasia movement, seeking to damn everyone in its path. The doctors are made killers with impunity; the patients, people withheld of real mercy, for their cries are forgotten, clamped, shunted towards despair instead of quality companionship or helpful cure. Police officers like the decent ones here instead of being called to protect one who is suicidal will be forced to consider it as one's right and all prior laws of self-preservation (bringing them to a hospital for their protection) will be nullified. EMTs called to do CPR will not move until they see a paper that says "I (name) want CPR" when it had been historically assumed, as it is scientifically proven, that people want to survive despite limitations. We are the most resilient of creation unless we are tainted by naysayers otherwise.

Under the bill, doctors, nurses and technicians will be called to witness, have this occur in one's faciity, participate, accept, joke about, be numbed to. They will certify a death by suicide/homicide (which is what assisted suicide is) a natural death. They will kill. Like it is an acceptable, legitimate thing. It is the beginning of the death of conscience. It is the same philosophy that made possible the abortion laws: repetition of lies, incremental erosion of traditionally held facts because higher-ups seems to have made it okay, permissible, therefore agreeable, notwithstanding the consequences.

Society will not have the police officers you trust, the EMTs that will come and be prompt to your cry, there will be no doctors on your side, but rather by a funeral director's, a tightwad insurance company's or a Compassion and Choices death activist's. Do we want to live there? If it happens to New Jersey, a land with the seven holy rites of Christianity (which only exist in Rome and Jersusalem also), a minefield of faithful rich with families and friends, a Garden State of delights and natural resources, but most importantly people being the densest state by population... I would tell the lawmakers--you pulled a good state down.