Sept. 11 Blue Mass honors selfless public servants

Father Steven Schwab, third from left, pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Indianapolis and Catholic chaplain of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, prays with emergency medical technicians, firefighters, police officers and military personnel during the playing of “Taps” at the fifth annual archdiocesan Blue Mass on Sept. 11 at Calvary Cemetery in Indianapolis.

By Mary Ann Wyand

Courage. Dedication. Selflessness.

Public servants demonstrate these remarkable character traits every time they help and protect people, Father Steven Schwab explained, in spite of possible risks to their own lives.

Police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians deserve their community’s thanks and support every day they put on their uniforms and serve others in the line of duty, he told public servants and their families gathered for the fifth annual archdiocesan Blue Mass on Sept. 11 at the Calvary Cemetery Mausoleum Chapel in Indianapolis.

Father Schwab, pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish and Catholic chaplain of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, was the homilist and concelebrant for the patriotic liturgy that also paid tribute to the 2,996 victims who lost their lives or are missing in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania.

Father James Wilmoth, pastor of St. Roch Parish in ­Indianapolis and Catholic chaplain of the Indianapolis Fire Department, was the celebrant.

Father Frank Kilcline III, pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Peru, Ind., in the Lafayette Diocese, and a volunteer chaplain for the Indiana State Police since 1983, was also a concelebrant.

“I want to say something about firefighters, police officers, emergency medical personnel and sainthood,” Father Schwab explained in his homily. “… The best I can figure out [holiness is] trying to enter into the life of Christ, and that is definitely about the calls we’ve been given. … Those of us involved in public service … need to give thanks today for this special call that we have, this very special call to serve and protect others.

“These are folks who sacrifice,” he said. “These are people who risk their lives to save others. And that’s where God is at. And that’s where they find holiness. And I think a lot of them find sainthood.”

He encouraged the public servants to reflect on “what God is doing in our lives, how God is using the calls he has given us to make us holy and maybe even a saint.”

Franciscan Father Mychal Judge, a New York Fire Department chaplain who died on Sept. 11 while administering last rites to a fallen firefighter at the World Trade Center, would probably be amused at the idea of being remembered as a hero and a saint, Father Schwab said, because he was just doing his job as a priest by serving others the best he could in the midst of terrorism and tragedy.

“Father Mychal Judge had this little prayer,” he explained. “He used to say it over and over. I’ve written it down and I’ve started using it myself. ‘Lord, take me where you want me to go. Let me meet who you want me to meet. Tell me what you want me to say. And keep me out of your way.’

“Every day, God takes us where he wants us to go,” Father Schwab said. “Every day, he lets us meet people he wants us to meet, and tells us what to say and what to do. … That’s what public service is, and just by doing the calls that we have received we stay out of God’s way. That’s how God works. God works through us and sometimes even makes saints out of us.”

In his ministry to police officers, Father Schwab said he has met a lot of public servants who are good and holy people.

“I see a lot of holiness in the men and women that I work with,” he said. “I know very few of them very well, but I think I know selflessness when I see it—and I see it all the time. I see sacrifice for the sake of others. And if that’s not a sign of holiness, I don’t know what is.”

Ambulance driver Ashley Busbin of Indianapolis, who also volunteers as a member of the civilian traffic patrol for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, attended the Blue Mass for the first time.

“I have volunteered for IMPD for nine months and worked on an ambulance for a year,” she said. “I hope and pray for everyone to be safe and to watch out for some of the crazy stuff that goes on out there today because you never know what you’re going to run into.”

St. Michael the Archangel parishioner Marylin Jordan of Indianapolis attended the Blue Mass to pray for her late husband, Tom, who served as a chauffeur for the Indianapolis Fire Department at Station 30 for 28 years. He died of cancer on March 25, 2005.

After the Mass in the mausoleum chapel and prayers at the Public Servants Section of Calvary Cemetery, she spent quiet time at her husband’s grave next to a statue of Jesus.

She had decorated his tombstone with a colorful fall wreath, and is glad that his grave is in a place of honor in the Public Servants Section.

“We have seven children,” Jordan said. “They come out here all the time with me. It’s such a beautiful place.” †