Today’s find: Gloom, dispelled

It wasn’t a “driving” rain exactly. More like “steady,” the winds mercifully silent as we made our wet way along Front Street for the four-minute walk from the prison’s entry house to the chapel deep inside the grounds yesterday.

Because we were “inside” Menard, no umbrellas were permitted of course. On the inside, an umbrella bears too much resemblance to a bludgeon, a potential weapon. So we trudged along bumbershoot-less, with nothing but our jackets and caps to fend off the chilly December precip. 

“Gotta get me some waterproof shoes,” I thought to myself at the point in the trek when we were not-quite-there but moisture had begun to penetrate my socks and ice my toes. 

Only once inside the chapel yesterday was I able to perceive a bit of blessing in the way things were unfolding – recalling Isaiah’s prophetic words (45:8): “Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation may sprout forth…“

It was something of an Advent moment, I realized – the atmospheric gloom the Lord had given us Kairos team members for the day of our monthly reunion inside the prison. One day ahead of Gaudete Sunday, we were celebrating an early Christmas with our “inside” brothers – singing carols and retelling the tale of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem.   

And against all the odds, that made it a joyful moment. 

“Salvation” had indeed made its presence known, tucked in behind all the bars and brick and razor wire. “Righteousness” was raining down on us – cutting through the gloom – in and through this time of Christian fellowship and encouragement we shared.

They say Saint Paul was himself in prison when he wrote the words we hear proclaimed in the second reading as Mass today:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! …The Lord is near.

Hard to believe that Paul’s heart felt like rejoicing under the dire conditions he was experiencing in that long-ago moment. But I saw something very much like Paul’s joy yesterday – in the eyes of the inmate who thanked us for coming. “This is the first time I’ve had the chance to celebrate Christmas in all the years I’ve been at Menard,” he said.

There was wonder in his eyes, and gratitude, and hope. All borne in by a team of admittedly broken and sinful men who came to visit him in prison.

He and we were blessed by our time together, inexplicably blessed. The gloom did not prevail. Rather, I’d say he and we were given a taste of what the great saint experienced in a prison two thousand years ago:

Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

O Wisdom 
Lord and Ruler 
Root of Jesse 
Key of David 
Rising Sun 
King of the Nations 
Emmanuel 
Come, Lord Jesus

Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.

IHS