Judges
While cleaning my room, I found a note which I had passed to a lawyer while we were waiting for a hearing in a court case a while ago. Before the case we were interested in came up, other matters were heard, mainly the acceptance of a large number of plea bargains. Typically the defendants pled guilty to something wholly other than what the government had accused them of doing. One person who was apparently suspected of dealing drugs pled guilty to being in the country illegally -- not a word about narcotics was spoken by any party during the whole ordeal.
I had written to the lawyer that the "Dies Irae" says "iudex ergo cum sedebit / quicquid latet, apparebit", which is to say "and when the judge is seated, / he will uncover whatever is hidden". Now, Thomas of Celano was referring to a divine judge, but it seemed to me that this was the very opposite of what regularly happens in earthly courts.
