In my work here as a counselor, I make it a point never to tell anyone that incarceration is a blessing.  At the end of my day, I get to go home from this place.  That’s the blessing: going home.  However, when I hear one of you say to me that this experience has been a blessing to you; that you are reaping a positive benefit from what you are going through, then I know I am talking to someone that is using his time here rather than just doing it.  I know I am talking to someone who has found the right track and who has his life moving forward.  And forward is the direction that leads to freedom, and freedom means the blessing we all seek: going home.

Today, at the beginning of Romans 8:28, Paul tells us that as Christians, as followers of Jesus Christ, we should know that “…all things work for good for those who love God…”  And so, when we can truly love and trust in God, we learn that even the hardest of experiences, even an experience as painful as incarceration, works for the good.  And it is this knowledge that leads to freedom.  Eventually the freedom to go home, but more immediately, freedom from the earthly bondage to sin that has resulted in this experience of incarceration in the first place.  And that’s the first blessing of many for all Christians.  It is the beginning of the realization that God has put new meaning into our lives, and that he has great and exciting expectations for us that go far beyond the bars and walls of incarceration.  It is the beginning of the knowledge that we have been, as Paul tells us at the end of Romans 8:28, “…called according to his purpose.”

This knowledge that God has called us is, and should be, mind boggling to us.  Yet it is the truth that the almighty master of the universe, who is so far beyond our comprehension that he came to earth in the form of his own son that we might know him, has spoken to us and is today calling us.  And it is this truth that truly sets us free.  And all that is required of us is to accept this truth and know that God has called us to his purpose.  When we know that, though the lies of the world have brought us down into this pit, it is his eternal truth that lifts us up and sets us free, then we know that he has not forgotten or forsaken us but has instead brought to us a freedom that the world cannot understand and that the system cannot take from us.

This is the freedom that Jesus offers us today.  This is the kingdom of heaven brought down to us in this most unlikely of places because God loves us so much he will not allow us to be denied.  This kingdom is here today and it is ours for the taking because Jesus Christ has died for us that we might have life, have it more abundantly, and have it forever.  Victory is yours because he has died for you.  The battle is won, the kingdom secure, the devil subdued, and all that is required of you is to reach out and take this victory over sin and death that Christ has already won for you.  Listen to that voice within you that cries out to heaven.  Offer up the pain in your soul that cries out to him, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!”  Do this and know the joy of those who stand up as beacons of Christ in the midst of this darkness and join your light to theirs and know that today, right here and right now, God is calling you to his purpose.  This is the freedom that Jesus offers us today.  It is the freedom of the spirit that brings us to life eternal, and when the spirit has been set free the body is sure to follow.  Jesus is the way home, both in this life and in the life to come, and when you can say that this experience has been a blessing, I know that Christ has revealed to you this true freedom, and God is calling you according to his purpose.

Answer this call today and know that the kingdom of heaven is more precious than anything on earth.  This is why Jesus tells us it is like treasure buried in a field, and when we find this treasure we should sell all we have and buy this field.  And though we give up every earthly possession and every earthly tie to come behind these walls, we are required to only offer up our hearts to him to purchase this greatest of all gifts.  In Jesus Christ we have found that pearl of great price, and all he asks is that we offer up to him a soul broken in death by sin that he might restore it to life, and hand it back to us healed and made whole forever.  The price for eternal life is paid with those things that have destroyed us.  There is no greater bargain.  In Jesus Christ we find a love for us that is so pure, so profound, so beyond our comprehension that too often it just seems too good to be true that the cost of our salvation is merely the stuff of this physical world that brings us into the bondage of sin.  Sin is cheap, but salvation is priceless. 

It is when the human heart cannot let go of the things of this world that we sell our souls out to the cheapest bidder, the devil.  And so, like Jack trading the family cow for a handful of beans, we strike a bargain in which we offer up that which is most precious to us – our very souls – for that which causes us the greatest suffering and threatens our life.  And when we sow the magic beans of the devil we grow up our own beanstalk and climb up to take the treasures of the world, only to find the demon giant of our own greed pursuing us all the way down into a hell that has been of our own choosing.  And this jail and this system represent the last stopping place before the fiery furnace Christ mentions in Matthew 13:50.  It is here, where the net of incarceration has gathered up fish of all kinds, that the final sorting is taking place.  It is within these walls, here and now, that the angels are sorting the righteous from the wicked.

Praise God for you that can say, “This experience has been a blessing.”  For if this place is not a blessing, then it is most certainly a curse.  And the curse of death is eternal and the gates of hell close by.  Today, the journey home can begin.  Today, perhaps for the last time, God is calling you according to his purpose.  Answer this call and you live to testify forever to the glory of a God so great that even this place can hold the greatest of blessings – eternal salvation.  Ignore it and discover that the fiery furnace is closer than you think:  For if you listen in this place, you can already hear the sounds of the wailing and grinding of teeth.

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Reading 1 Responsorial Psalm Reading 2 Gospel