“I, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:1-3
“You will not be released until you have paid the last penny.” Luke 12:59
Piety
God, we all feel imprisoned by forces beyond our control. Even if we are not in jail literally, many of us feel imprisoned in ill bodies; imprisoned by desires for food, alcohol, illegal drugs; imprisoned by demands of life – work, taxes, crowds, traffic; and imprisoned by our emotions and ideas.
Generous Father, please open wide the doors of our cells. Send your Spirit down to release us from what chains us. Set us free from our addictions, obsessions and diversions in order to live our life to make your will be done. Give us the humility and gentleness needed to bear with one another in love and gentleness. Preserve in us the bond of peace so we might spread this throughout the world for your greater good. Amen.
Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/102706.shtml
From the theme of divisions that Jesus promised yesterday, today we move to prison and get a prayer of unity from St. Paul.
From his Roman prison cell, Paul calls on us to exhibit humility, gentleness, patience and love in our life to overcome our divisions. Rather than the resentment and indignation that we (at least I certainly would feel) if unjustly jailed, Paul shows none of those negative emotions. He wishes for his brothers and sisters in Ephesia and Virginia: “One Body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:4-6)
Jesus goes on, in the Gospel from Luke today, to point out the imprisonment that awaits us if we do not live according to the prescription laid out by St. Paul. If we do not settle our debts, differences and divisions with our neighbor, we can expect civil society to thrown our sorry souls into jail until we pay off every penny of our debts.
Ironically, Paul, who lived a life filled with the virtues called for in his letter to the people of Ephesia finds himself jailed anyway.
In the Gospel filled with contradictions of logic to make us think about the rules in the Kingdom of God not in our society, it appears that we risk jailed if we do what is asked of us and jail if we don’t? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Why should we have any special insight to interpret the present time that would be greater than the apostles had when Jesus was with them?
Action
Prisons have been in the news and on my mind a lot lately. The State of Florida executed a prisoner on Wednesday. Danny Rolling was executed for what the newspapers call “the grisly 1990 slayings of five college students in Gainesville, Fla.” He got a lethal dose of drugs just after 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Florida State Prison in Starke. Outside protestors as well as supporters of the death penalty held vigil emphasizing the divisions among us. Is life in prison without the possibility of parole too lenient?
Last week, in a White House ceremony, President Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006 which eliminates some of the rights defendants usually are guaranteed under U.S. law while allowing continued harsh interrogations of terror suspects, a provision President Bush has said was vital. Humanitarian organizations such as the International Committee for the Red Cross expressed “immediate reservations.” The Catholic Worker movement has asked American bishops to lead the call to repeal the law. A group of Christians went to Cuba last year to try to fulfill the Gospel call to visit the prisons but were denied entry to provide humanitarian aid to those in prison at Guantanamo. What implications does this have to the Golden Rule – Do unto others as you would have them do unto you?
Currently I am reading The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran minister and German theologian who publicly repudiated the Nazis in the 1940s. Bonhoeffer was arrested in 1943 and linked to a group of conspirators whose attempted assassination of Hitler failed. He was hanged in April 1945 shortly before the war ended. He writes movingly about costly grace versus cheap grace. According to Bonhoeffer, suffering and redemption are a “divine necessity” for not only Jesus but also for anyone who wants to call herself or himself a follower of Christ. Am I ready for costly grace or just more comfortable with cheap grace that doesn’t ask a lot? (If you prefer cheap grace, avoid reading Bonhoeffer and Kierkegaard.)
Many of our friends have volunteered for jail ministry or prison ministry. Kairos weekends in Buckingham Correctional Center in Dillwyn, VA. Clearly ministry like this takes us out of our comfort zones of suburban middle class pre-occupations and crosses the border to a new ministry. Am I not also called to minister to people in our jails?
Are we worthy of the call of Matthew 25:37-40?
“Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?” And the king will say to them in reply, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”
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