I am often surprised when I minister to prisoners, which I attempt to do several times a year, how many will compare themselves to Saint Paul. I then have to explain that yes, other than Saint Paul being imprisoned for his faith, and them for robbing a liquor store, the similarities are rather uncanny.
Why they could be twins!
The difference between those imprisoned for doing what they thought to be right and those who are imprisoned for that which they knew to be wrong is immense.
The man robbed the liquor store for the money. He presumably did not rob the liquor store to put it out of business and eliminate some perceived evil of liquor stores.
Sadly, the number of those imprisoned for doing what they think right will continue to grow as our government mandates cooperation with evil and punishes what is good, and does neither impartially. In the spirit of St. Paul, there will be many to visit who need no reform.
At todays’ Catholic business breakfast, guest speaker Justice Derek Molter of the Indiana Supreme Court spoke of a time when prisoners at a maximum security prison had made a large table for the Justices’ conference room in the prison’s industrial facility.
The table is evidently incredibly well-made and tremendously sturdy. In a move that had security staff at both the prison and for the Court somewhat alarmed, Chief Justice Loretta Rush had the entire court go to the facility to thank the prisoners personally. Justice Molter recounted a short conversation with one of them in the wood shop who said “This is God’s work. I am only the instrument.” He said that the experience has ridden with him and affected his approach to his job ever since.
Had that not been just this morning I wouldn’t have posted but the “coincidence” is just too much to pass up.
When I was new in AA, I would participate with my AA group in outgoing meetings to the State Penitentiary not far from where our home group met. I was reminded that the only difference between many of those prisoners and me is that they got caught and I didn’t. My AA sponsor constantly reminded me of that when I would complain about how unfair God is, the lesson being this: if God were fair, then I should have been imprisoned for the illegal things I had done, or I should have died from a drug overdose.