Lenten thoughts on holiness, part 6: For Lent this year, I went to prison

 

     When I first began thinking about what to “take up” for Lent this year, I admit, spending many hours in a detention facility was not on my radar.  However, as providence would have it, Ash Wednesday found me undertaking my second day in a federal facility designed to detain, for an indefinite period of time, migrants whose status is “unresolved”.  In case you’re thinking, “Wait a minute, Sam.  You’re a Canadian citizen!”, let me explain.  The reason I often find myself “behind bars” this Lent is that I’m working as a chaplain for a facility run by the Canada Border Services Agency.

     What have I learned about holiness while behind (many) locked doors?  Well, it seems to me that compassion is more frequently “caught” than taught.  Spending my days among detainees has given me a small taste of the discomfort, frustration, anxiety, anger, desperation and fear that are the daily lot, not only of detainees in Canadian establishments, but also by millions of displaced/incarcerated people around the globe.  It seems that only those who have been personally confronted by the pain of the world are moved to do anything to help alleviate it.  Many detainees feel like their wings have been clipped; they came to Canada to make a better life for themselves and their families – and several even had some initial success – before being detained because of past criminal offenses and/or inadequate documentation.  Every story I hear is different, and I must always read between the lines of what is shared in order to discern the (perceived to be) shameful facts that led these individuals to find themselves detained while the government deliberates whether to allow them to remain here or to deport them.

     Another reality that has struck me is that faith is very present behind the fences, walls and doors of the facility.  Whether it is a question of Muslims observing Ramadan or of Christians reading the Bible and praying both together and individually, their present circumstances have not prevented these believing detainees from seeking God.  Naturally, perhaps, my thoughts upon beginning my work among them immediately went to the letter of St. Paul to the Philippians.  You will recall that this letter was written from a jail cell, as Paul experienced yet another imprisonment “for the gospel” (cf. Phil. 1.12-14). 

     Besides the immediate context of this letter, there are 3 themes in the apostle’s epistle to the Philippians that I find particularly relevant to those I’m ministering to during the season of Lent and beyond.  First of all, there is the challenge of living as a believer amidst paradoxical situations and feelings.  As G.K. Chesterton is purported to have said: “Jesus promised his disciples three things–that they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble.”  While there are letters in the Pauline corpus that reveal the sorrow and anguish that often haunted the apostle (e.g. 2 Corinthians), Philippians is indeed a “happy” letter.  The theme of joy is omnipresent, even as Paul manages his frustration at being temporarily “taken out of the fight” for the advance of the message about Jesus (cf. Phil. 1.12-26).  Those who find themselves caught on the horns of an emotional/ spiritual dilemma have a true companion in the apostle Paul, as his letter to the Philippians shows – prayer (cf. 1.3-11) is essential if we would navigate and conjugate our faith with our often-fraught life-situations.  It remains true that even when we are locked up, we can experience joy, gratitude and hope for the future (Phil. 1.25-26; cf. 2 Cor. 12.10).

     A second “Philippian” theme that is relevant to detainees is Paul’s acute awareness of “the Day of Jesus Christ”, i.e. the day of judgment.  Paul’s “prayer request” for the Philippians is that they will be ready for “the Day”.  Everyone will have to stand before Jesus, as he “judges the case” of each individual and the whole world in order to establish true justice (1.7-11).  Paul prays that the Philippians’ love will increase in “the knowledge of the things that are exceptional”, so they will be blameless on the Day of Christ and so be vindicated as belonging to the people of God, the community of those whose sins and/or crimes are forgiven (1.9-10).  Detainees regularly “appear” before immigration judges who themselves appear on screens in the “hearing rooms” of the facility.  They nervously anticipate these hearings, as they receive updates on their file, the date of their next hearing, and sometimes…the judge’s (final) decision.  St. Paul reminds us that we are all, as Christians, called to prepare for the day when our Lord will render his verdict on the lives we have lived as his servants (cf. Phil. 1.1-2).

     A third theme is that of hopeful trust in the goodness of God.  As he prepares to sign off, Paul exhorts the Philippians to not be anxious about anything, but rather to ask God to supply their needs and promises them the “peace of God that surpasses understanding” (Phil. 4.6-7; cf. 2 Tim. 2.4).  The apostle then instructs his disciples to ponder those things that are “true, grand, right, pure, lovely, and of good repute”.  He then reminds them one last time to put into practice “those things that they learned and received and heard and saw in him” (4.8-9).  As ever, Paul is the Philippians’ exemplar of a joyful, faithful, resilient and holy Christian.  Paul’s words to the Philippians are good news both for detainees and for those of us who enjoy the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.  Wishing you a blessed second half of Lent!  Please pray for me and for those to whom I minister (and read Philippians!).