Witness from Prison:  Walk Humbly!

Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.  – Philippians 4: 5

While in the Oxford Prison, as a gesture of hospitality my surrogate grandson Buddy, a Catholic student at DePaul University in Chicago, and I attended the Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim and Jehovah's Witness services in the chapel. Buddy joined the choir. He was soon known for his singing talent and nicknamed Jesus because of his long hair and dark beard.

At our last chapel service Buddy sang two solos and spoke of “the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity.” This was a compliment to the inmates present who had chosen the path to a new life and “turned-their-lives-around.” This brought to mind a statistic which I have heard that two-thirds of Wisconsin inmates return, sentenced back to prison after their release.

During my three months in prison, I observed first-hand the distorted emphasis on punishment or retribution with little, if any, attention given to rehabilitation. The prison staff did not have the training, skills, time or interest to help inmates find their way to the “path for a new life.” A changed emphasis is desperately needed if Wisconsin's notoriously excessive incarceration rate is to be corrected. Wisconsin organizations such as Money, Education and Prisons & Prisoners Action Coalition are at work to bring about this change. They need and deserve the support of the Christian community. All of us human beings have weaknesses and short-comings.  Every Christian knows from personal experience the importance of the precious gift of forgiveness and a new beginning.

Reflection:  Is Advent's celebration of Christ's coming inviting/asking us to reach-out to our sisters and brothers helplessly behind-bars to share God's gift of new-LIFE through Christ?  What is my role?