All too rare: an excellent story from the Odessa American on “Christmas behind bars.”
Stories like this should remind us of our obligations to the imprisoned. The Book of Common Prayer offers the following prayer for prisoners, which is pretty good, though it insufficiently acknowledges the deep hypocrisy and class violence in which our (and others’) penal systems are implicated: Lord Jesus, for our sake you were condemned as a criminal: Visit our jails and prisons with your pity and judgment. Remember all prisoners, and bring the guilty to repentance and amendment of life according to your will, and give them hope for their future. When any are held unjustly, bring them release; forgive us, and teach us to improve our justice. Remember those who work in these institutions; keep them humane and compassionate; and save them from becoming brutal or callous. And since what we do for those in prison, O Lord, we do for you, constrain us to improve their lot. All this we ask for your mercy’s sake. Amen.
Maybe we can supplement that with the BOC prayer for the oppressed: Look with pity, O heavenly Father, upon the people in this land who live with injustice, terror, disease, and death as their constant companions. Have mercy upon us. Help us to eliminate our cruelty to these our neighbors. Strengthen those who spend their lives establishing equal protection of the law and equal opportunities for all. And grant that every one of us may enjoy a fair portion of the riches of this land; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
I also like what St. Karl wrote in Deliverance to the Captives, his brilliant book of sermons for prisoners: Believe me, there is a captivity much worse than the captivity in this house. There are walls much thicker and doors much heavier than those closed upon you. All of us, the people without and you within, are prisoners of our own obstinancy, of our many greeds, of our various anxieties, of our mistrust and in the last analysis of our unbelief. We are all sufferers. Most of all we suffer from ourselves. We each make life difficult for ourselves and in so doing for our fellowmen. We suffer from life’s lack of meaning. We suffer in the shadow of death and of eternal judgment toward which we are moving.
