\u201cJustice Scalia\u2019s \u2018Two-Thomases\u2019 speech made a huge impression on me when I first heard it, and it has continued to have that effect each of the many times I have read it since. It was inspiring and exhilarating to hear one of my heroes, Justice Scalia, witness to our faith through a compelling and thought provoking account of another even greater hero, St. Thomas More,\u201d Mu\u00f1iz said.<\/p>\n
Jefferson the \u2018bad Thomas\u2019<\/p>\n
As a graduate of the University of Virginia, Mu\u00f1iz said it was much to his chagrin that the \u201cbad Thomas\u201d in Scalia\u2019s legendary speech is Thomas Jefferson.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe justice describes Jefferson\u2019s project of excising from the Gospel the elements that he found merely superstitious and fabricated, including the Virgin birth and Christ\u2019s resurrection from the dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe resulting work, titled \u2018The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth,\u2019 portrays Our Lord as nothing more than an exemplary role model,\u201d Mu\u00f1iz said.<\/p>\n
In Scalia\u2019s words, Jefferson produced \u201ca Gospel fit for the Age of Reason, or indeed for the wise of any age, including our own.\u201d<\/p>\n
A great man of his age<\/p>\n
Enter St. Thomas More, himself a great man of his age, and a towering figure in England and throughout Renaissance Europe, Mu\u00f1iz noted.<\/p>\n
He said Scalia, an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1986 until his death in 2016, explained that Thomas More \u201cwent to his death \u2018unsupported by intelligent society, by his friends and even by his own wife. More\u2019s peers felt that way because More was sacrificing his life for a principal \u2014 papal authority over whether to bind or loose the marriage of King Henry VIII \u2014 that they found silly, and that More\u2019s position made him a crank.’\u201d<\/p>\n
In historic contrast to Jefferson, St. Thomas More epitomized \u201can intelligent Christian appearing stupid to the world \u2014 a fool for Christ,\u201d Mu\u00f1iz noted.<\/p>\n
St. Thomas More\u2019s view of world<\/p>\n
\u201cJustice Scalia praised the saint\u2019s idea of seeing not with the eyes of men, but with the eyes of faith. And the justice hoped to give his listeners \u2014 those already wise in Christ \u2014 the same courage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prior to joining the court, Mu\u00f1iz served on the staff of then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as the presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed general counsel of the U.S. Department of Education. In addition to working as an attorney in the federal government and in private practice, Mu\u00f1iz had an extensive career in Florida state government.<\/p>\n
He served as the deputy attorney general and chief of staff to Attorney General Pam Bondi; as deputy chief of staff and counsel in the Office of the Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives; as general counsel of the Department of Financial Services; and as deputy general counsel to Gov. Jeb Bush.<\/p>\n
Devotion to him since his youth<\/p>\n
Mu\u00f1iz told the Red Mass gathering that St. Thomas More was his confirmation saint, \u201cand I have had a devotion to him since my youth and that devotion to him has continued to grow throughout my career as a lawyer and a judge.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have an embarrassing number of Thomas More portraits and prints and statues and stuff in my office \u2014 he is somebody who has been a huge spiritual guide for me over my entire life,\u201d Mu\u00f1iz added.<\/p>\n
Mu\u00f1iz lives in Tallahassee with his wife, Katie Mu\u00f1iz, and their three children. He grew up in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, where he attended St. James Catholic School and Bishop Ireton High School in the Arlington Diocese.<\/p>\n
Reason, intellect, religion<\/p>\n
Scalia, he continued, stressed to private audiences not that reason and intellect must be laid aside where matters of religion are concerned, but to the contrary.<\/p>\n
\u201cJustice Scalia reminded his audience that a faith that has no rational basis is a false faith,\u201d Mu\u00f1iz said. \u201cThese are all messages that one cannot hear too often. I think all of us, not just lawyers and judges, would profit from any time spent reflecting on the life and example of St. Thomas More.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that another saintly \u201cThomas\u201d bears remembrance, \u201cone whose teachings our state and country desperately need \u2014 as you probably guessed I am referring to St. Thomas Aquinas,\u201d Mu\u00f1iz added.<\/p>\n
Law through a Catholic lens<\/p>\n
\u201cScalia was famous for insisting there is no Catholic way of being a judge. I am not sure if that is right; maybe it is. But I do believe there is a Catholic way to think about the law \u2014 a way of thinking that is exemplified in the work of St. Thomas Aquinas and that every American, Catholic or not, would do well to ponder.\u201d<\/p>\n