Visit the Imprisoned
Freeing Mercy by Kerry Weber
This post is one in a series on the Works of Mercy. Released on Mondays, each essay is a short reflection on one Work and one chapter of Dynamic Catholic’s book Beautiful Mercy. Read more about the series here.
In her essay “Freeing Mercy,” Kerry Weber describes an experience she had giving a talk to inmates of San Quentin prison. She had been encouraged by a priest to go there to speak about the work she witnessed in Rwanda fostering forgiveness and healing between victims and perpetrators of the genocide of 1994. As many of us visiting a prison for the first time would be, she walked in very unsure of herself and how she would be received. She then explains her humbling feelings of surprise when the imprisoned men greeted her with kind attention, eager to ask questions and welcome her into their own stories. She shares:
And there, in the middle of the prison, in this place so purposely cut off from the rest of the world, I felt a part of the community. It was a community that included both the men beside me and the men and women I’d met halfway around the world, all of us struggling, suffering, seeking forgiveness. All of us trying to become better. And I felt then that the true power of such community is in the way we accompany one another in this struggle. We are meant to accompany each other, as Christ accompanies us.
Visiting the imprisoned can feel like such an out of reach call for many of us, but some of us, no doubt, are called to minister to those who are literally incarcerated. Many churches offer ways to do this in person, through letter-writing campaigns or in gift-giving at Christmas for children of those who are imprisoned.
But beyond the incarcerated, there are many others in our community who are stuck: those in hospital beds or nursing homes. Those trapped in abusive relationships or degrading jobs. Those suffering from mental illness or chronic pain. Those addicted to substances or to gambling or to consumerism or to screens. And all of us, without exception, can feel imprisoned by the sins of our own choosing, the sins we decidedly have to bring to confession again. And again. And again.
Visiting the imprisoned is a call to reach out to the incarcerated of our community, yes. But it is also a call to accompany all of the ostracized around us who feel stuck, trapped, or closed off. As Weber says in her essay, in all of these situations, “we are meant to accompany each other, as Christ accompanies us.” May we listen to the gentle nudges of the Holy Spirit we he gives us the opportunities to do so.