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Jury day
A display—“Celebrating the Rule of Law”—honored 150 years of jury law in Massachusetts. There it sat front and center of the jury pool room brimming with people like me called to serve. Perhaps we were all a bit awed. Reluctant to be there. Apprehensive.
In spite of an impending house sale, a pack up and move deadline—with time out to find a new home in another state—I’d felt a strong need to be in court. Yet I was still so focused on wondering, “Will I be called? How long will this take?” that initially the display didn’t catch my attention.
When it did, it really did! Celebrate the Rule of Law. How provocative. Fitting, of course, right there in the Suffolk County Courthouse, near where John Adams first asserted a jury of peers as fundamental. But it was the thought of God’s law, the law of divine Love and profound goodness, that slid in, soothing me. I thought how basic and fundamental the Ten Commandments have become to governments, to lives, to my life. That’s where awe took over, as I considered how for centuries Moses’ Decalogue has guided just behavior, gracious communities, balanced families, and yes, judicial systems that include a jury of peers. Think of the healthy standards that spring up when theft and murder are not condoned; respect for parents and neighbors encouraged.
Celebrating the rule of law meant to me, at that moment, putting God’s law first. It released me from even wondering how long I’d be in that jury pool. Favorite scripture came to mind, including Jesus’ admonitions filled with promise, laced with love for God, for everyone. And that’s where the soothing took hold. Reinforcing the wonder, and need, of celebrating God’s law—which delights in integrity and happy resolves. Divine Love exercising the details; proving the powerlessness of evil, doubt, confusion, greed. I believe that. I’ve seen it—which affirmed for me that Love’s law was all that mattered that moment, any moment. Everywhere. Definitely there in the Suffolk County Courthouse.
I thought of Mary Baker Eddy’s admonition: “. . . let the divine will and the nobility of human meekness rule this business transaction, in obedience to the law of Love and the laws of our land” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 141 ). This is a law for each of us to celebrate. And to me it was the only law operating. With God’s law of love as authority, what could go awry for me or anyone that day? I could witness only justice for victims, lawyers, accused. And jurors. The feeling filled me and stayed.
At 2:00 p.m. we learned that each of the five potential trials—including three criminal cases—had been settled out of court. A sweet resolve, yet my day and the details surrounding it had already been settled in my thought. As an aside, I later learned that I had been exempted from court that day; the law didn’t require me to be there. But my presence that day taught me a deep lesson: the joy that comes from loving God enough to listen for and heed His divine direction. As the Bible says: “Love is more important than anything else. It is what ties everything completely together” (Colossians 3:14, Contemporary English Version).
—Patti Kadick, Salisbury, North Carolina, US