From the Friar's Desk
(A weekly back-page feature of the Church Bulletin)
I WAS IN PRISON (Matt 25:36)
Those of us who visit the prisons have crossed a certain threshold
many times. For the past 10 years I have consciously been passing
through the reception area to the cells of the various Prison
Institutions in Singapore. The prison threshold is the dividing
line between the world outside and the world inside. Outside
is the world of those who can go wherever they want, the world of
those who are able to choose the people they want to meet,
irrespective of the time of the day. Outside is also the world of
interpersonal relationships, the world of families, jobs and
leisure. Inside everything is very different. The freedom to move
is severely restricted, right down to being locked up in a small
cell every evening, and also many times during the day. Inside is
the world of limited contact, administratively regulated visiting
times, forced togetherness of people who otherwise would never have
dreamt of sharing their living space. The keys we are given are the
tools that divide such living spaces. In any such space you can
find the concentrated miseries of the world: hardship, loneliness
and despair.
Whenever the inmates and I sit in the counseling room the same
question arises time and again: Who is God? Many prisoners feel
very strongly that they have not just been deserted by people but
also by God. In their response they read the psalms and together
with the writer and Jesus they lament: My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? For those people God seems to be outside, not
here inside. The thick prison walls have left God outside. At
least that is the impression many prisoners have. Perhaps part of
it is their sheer disappointment. Perhaps God is closer to those
who are successful, kind and productive than to those who have been
disadvantaged right through their lives. And so, on Sunday
mornings, we the outside hear the bells of the church, the sound
of which call good Christians of the neighbourhood to church,
while those inside ask themselves whether they should attend the
service inside; a service they are taken to in groups, which are
watched closely and which are then accompanied back to the cells.
And so they wonder if that is still the one church they used to
believe in, or if there arent really two churches, the church
outside and the church inside.
I was in prison (Matt 25:36) that statement should surprise us
and make us think. How does this fit into the duality of the world
we experience every time when we cross the prison threshold: the
world of the righteous outside and the world of the sinners
inside? The Gospel tells of the astonishment of those who always
practise this duality. Did we ever see you suffering, sick or in
prison? Jesus replied that he identifies himself with the least
of these my brethren: (Matt 25:40). Those who look at the face of
the poor, the suffering, the sick and the imprisoned will recognize
Jesus. If it is necessary to divide the world between outside and
inside then Jesus is definitely inside and with those
imprisoned.
I believe that such thoughts can help us to stop thinking of a
world in which the good remain outside and the bad inside. We
will also find cases where everything is exactly the other way
round. Of course, not all inmates are saints. Even then, we dont
have the right to be judgmental. On many occasions, I had the
opportunity to find out how these inmates see their sentence. For
the drug traffickers, they easily admit that drug smuggling would
not have been the way to rid themselves of their debts.
I will know that it is not up to me to judge the guilt of others
before God. Jesus does not remind us in vain: Judge not, that you
be not judged (Matt 7:1). We cannot see into the hearts of people.
We dont know the motives that led to their actions. Perhaps, I am
part of those causes. I live on the sunny side of life and have
perhaps failed to take an interest in those living on the other
side. Even during those hours when I faced someone guilty in
prison, I would recognize the untouchable dignity of man/woman, and
I would see the face of Jesus who said of himself: I was in prison
and you visited me.
For some of us, we might never visit a prison or encounter an
ex-offender. However, we can still show those inside that there
is still one Church by supporting the Yellow Ribbon Project on the
18th June 2005, which was initiated in 2004 to engage the community
to offer second chances to ex-offenders who sincerely want to
change. It is a fundraising event as well as an event to encourage
the public to create awareness and inspire acceptance towards
ex-offenders. The event also hopes to promote the Yellow Ribbon
Fund which would contribute to the development and implementation
of reintegration programmes for ex-offenders as well as support
programmes to strengthen the family ties of ex-offenders.
Friar Martin Low, ofm
Bulletin of 11th/12th June 2005