TAMPA — Father Paul Scalia donned the red cassock as he marched down the aisle behind the line of judges who wore their black robes. In the sanctuary, they declared allegiance to truth, and pledged fairness, integrity and civility. They received Communion. As Scalia raised the chalice, the glow from a setting sun shone through stained glass above the altar.

Scalia, a visiting priest from the Diocese of Arlington, Va., who is the son of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, was a guest of honor Thursday night as he conducted the annual Red Mass for lawyers and judges and legal professionals at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Tampa.

Judges gave readings from the books of Isaiah, Colossians and Matthew on justice and forgiveness. In a homily before the crowd of two dozen local judges and hundreds of lawyers, Scalia made little mention of his father's work, but expressed thoughts about justice and mercy.

"I imagine the worldly minded might look at this scene and be a bit amused," he said, "to hear the Beatitudes, those gentle, peaceful words about the meek and merciful, spoken to a group of lawyers."

He spoke about faith being a guide for those who seek justice, and he suggested that justice and mercy are compatible ideals.

"I shut my eyes and I could hear his father speaking," said U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Kovachevich. "He delivers it with the same type of style and content."

Kovachevich, who led the attending jurists in reciting the oath of attorney, recalled the visit the elder Scalia made in 1998, when he gave the oath himself at a Red Mass in St. Petersburg.

"I think he spoke from his heart," said Hillsborough Chief Judge Ronald Ficarrotta. "We're honored to have him here."

The Red Mass originated in the 13th century in France, England and Italy. The color red represents the Holy Spirit, believed by Catholics to be the provider of wisdom. The Tampa Bay Catholic Lawyers Guild began the tradition locally in 1996.

It's not unheard of for a Red Mass to be tinged with politics. In 2011, Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg surprised attendees with a promise to thwart the Affordable Care Act. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who is Jewish, used to attend Red Masses in Washington, D.C., before a sermon at one that she described as "outrageously anti-abortion."

But this Red Mass had none of that.

Afterward, about a quarter of those who attended trekked two blocks north for a reception in the ballroom at the Floridan Palace Hotel.

"My dad was a lawyer who spoke about faith a lot," Scalia told the crowd. "I'm a priest who's going to talk about the law."

The practice of law is a good thing, he said. Divine, even.

"The work you do is very important," he said. "The rule of law is one of the greatest things we've had, but it's not the only thing."

Family and friendship, he said, are just as important.

"A lot of people asked when my father died, 'Why now?' " he said. "You look at the election and some of the other things going on, why now? I don't have an answer for that. But perhaps at least a provisionary answer is that for a couple of days, the nation was jerked out of its obsession with the political grind and was forced to think and pay attention to family and faith."

Judge John Badalamenti of Florida's Second District Court of Appeals, who once argued a case before the elder Scalia and recalled meeting him as a child when the justice visited his elementary school, said he understood the younger Scalia's message.

"I think that public servants owe a duty to do justice and follow the rule of law regardless of their religious beliefs," Badalamenti said. "I believe that when you have a pure heart, it frees you to impart and apply the rule of law without passion or prejudice."

This story has been updated to reflect the following correction: In his homily, Father Paul Scalia spoke of the Beatitudes in Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, which were referenced in the Red Mass. An earlier version of this story quoted him incorrectly.

Contact Dan Sullivan at dsullivan@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3386. Follow @TimesDan.