Tangent

Ok, so this week I was going to talk about prison chaplains but now I just want to share a quote I found while researching prison chaplaincy from an inter-faith (seemingly rooted in Buddhism though) ministry organization called Chaplain of the Heart:

“As a prison chaplain, it is helpful to always remember that we are all prisoners in some way, and we all want to be assured of this home, this place in heaven too. By remembering this we can see our role more as walking side by side on the same path. We want the same thing, but we as “outsiders” have the luxury (or burden!) of pursuing a wider variety of “earthly” goals. Some of our prayers for achievement of goals in the physical world might be answered, whereas for the inmates, this potential earthly fruit of prayer is not available. They have lost out on the kingdom on earth as they wanted it. To be assured that they still do and always did have a place in heaven or God’s love now and eternally might well be the only thing that can bring them to a place of inner peace.” (Source)

A lot to think about here. Consider the first claim: we are all prisoners and seek assurance of a home. Is this true? Are we prisoners whether inside a prison or not, perhaps trapped within earthly desires or socioeconomic barriers or some other circumstance keeping us contained? It’s certainly an interesting idea to think about.

Next, they claim both us and prisoners want the same thing, and, as this article was written as a response to a Catholic Prison Ministry course, I’ll presume we want traditional earthly fruits but ultimately eternal salvation. The only difference between us is that we are on the “outside” and can pursue a lot more than a prisoner. Ok, so is there really not point of being on the outside? If I have access to what is needed for eternal salvation in prison, am I chilling? Another interesting implication.

These prisoners cannot have their prayers for earthly fruit answered (idk how I feel about this) because they lost out on the kingdom of earth. Think about our prison systems and if this is an accurate way of portraying it - out of the kingdom of earth. If it is, then is this how we want to treat our prisoners? Out of our kingdom? Maybe I just have a certain definition I’m throwing around about the kingdom of earth (certainly they’re not talking about Augustine’s kingdom of man, right?) but I think it raises an interesting question about how we want our relationships with prisoners to be. Do we really want to view them this way, as complete outsiders? It seems it will be a lot harder for people to say that to really accept offenders’ reintegration into society, which I view of the ultimate goal of prison. Eventually we want them to come back into society and live like the rest of us. 

This is already way too long and there is still more to the rant, but I can break it up and release next week’s post tomorrow.