Ceremony

I had the privilege of attending the Memorial Service for Fallen Officers at Ocean Grove today. Four officers ended their watches in the year 2011. I was there with a number of the officers and chaplains from the Perth Amboy Police Department.

It was intense and it was moving and I still find myself unable to process through the feelings it left behind. Maybe that is why I need to blog about it.

There were police honor guards stretching around three sides of the great auditorium. There were row upon row of shaved heads from what I think was the training academy of the Department of Corrections. The Lieutenant Governor was present to give honors in memory of those fallen officers. And there were cops from across the state.

And the ceremony cut me to the quick. I've never been witness to that before, it sent a chill down my spine to be in 'the law enforcement community'. It is very much a man's world in law enforcement, and that gathering was ample proof of that.

That ceremony is how cops deal with their emotions. Gathered in that place with so many uniforms, with tight discipline and a formality that seems so alien into today's world, something very powerful happened. There wasn't crying or sharing of feelings or anything like that, there was something deeper.

Men and women who have been called to a higher purpose, who are governed by a code, by honor, by justice, in ways that most of the rest of society is not, came together and, on the one hand, collectively grieved the loss of colleagues, but, on the other, reaffirmed the life and death nature of their profession, all in one thing.

It blew me away. I felt a code at work. It is the code that defines what it means to do right and wrong. It is a code I would aspire to. It is the code I believe Jesus taught.