The lawyer’s world

            THE other day I was asked to bless a young lawyer’s office. A friend naughtily asked me if I would do it since to his thinking blessing a lawyer’s office is like blessing a massage parlor.

            I told him straight that I have no problem either with blessing a massage parlor. At least that would give me the chance to tell those involved about the message of Christ and to show them the spirit of love and goodness of God in the context of their work of lawyers or masseurs.

            Everyone deserves to be given a chance to prove himself. He deserves to be given the benefit of the doubt. That one would request for a blessing means there is an intention to make his work or business conform to God’s laws. And that’s good enough for me to do the blessing.

            Lawyering and massaging are not per se sinful. On the other hand, I also know that some of those who occupy supposedly sacred positions, like being a priest or nun, could even be greater sinners than the BIR agents or politicians.

            I don’t like to sound sarcastic. But this phenomenon comes straight even from the gospel. Remember our Lord telling the supposedly smart and holy guys of the time:

            “Amen I say to you, the publicans and the harlots shall go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of justice, and you did not believe him. But the publicans and the harlots believed him...” (Mt 21,31-32)

            And lest we also forget, among the closest collaborators of Christ, one of the apostles, Judas, was the one who betrayed him, who turned him in. Anything is possible with man. He can soar to glory or sink to ignominy. We just have to help one another become what is best for him.

            Our problem is that many of us are blinded by self-righteousness that would make us see others always in a negative light while we consider ourselves as totally ok. In our current culture, we usually are suspicious of lawyers, masseurs, tax collectors and politicians.

            If not self-righteousness, then we can be afflicted by a paralyzing cowardice that would make us consider certain situations as hopeless. We become cynical and skeptical, and we don’t anymore lift a finger to change things for the better. We have already surrendered without giving a fight.

            Lawyers, just like anyone in any profession, are necessary in our society. They help us live according to law which is our effort to put some order, uphold the demands of justice, defend the rights of persons in our society, and promote the common good.

            The imperfections of our laws and the defects of our lawyers do not detract from the fact that we need lawyers. In fact, it is ideal that all of us develop a legal mind, at least to some degree, because whether we like it or not, we cannot avoid living in a legal and judicial system in our society.

            The lawyers actually have a very delicate task to carry out. I would consider their work as very intricate, involving a lot of study and research that should be continuing.

            Not only that, they need nothing less than also to pray always, because with all the competing values that they have to sort out in their work, they really would need nothing less than divine assistance. They simply cannot rely on their intelligence or genius. Without God, their brilliance can be a very dangerous element in their work.

            But like everybody else, lawyers should go beyond legalistic considerations. They have to have a good over-all picture of the common good, seeing to it that their work really reflects the law and justice of God. While they defend the interests of their clients, they have to see to it that those interests foster the common good.

            In this task, they have to flow with the true spirit of the law and not just get contented with the letter. The letter of the law without the proper spirit is a dead letter that can be taken advantage of and abused by some powerful and influential men.

            They have to realize that human laws are never perfect laws. They need constant polishing and animation of the true spirit of justice that comes from God. We have to be wary of the tendency to fall into legal positivism that detaches our laws from their true foundation in God and would just depend on some human consensus.