St Mary's

A 90-year-old man goes to his doctor for a physical. All of his tests come back with normal results.

The doctor says, ‘George, everything looks great. How are you doing mentally and emotionally? Are you at peace with God?’
George replies, ‘God and I are tight. He knows I have poor eyesight, so he’s fixed it so that when I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, poof! The light goes on. When I’m done, poof! The light goes off.’
‘Wow, that’s incredible,’ the doctor exclaims.

Later that day, the Doctor calls George’s wife.

‘Ethel, George is doing fine! But I had to call you because I’m in awe of his relationship with God. Is it true that he gets up during the night and poof! The light goes on in the bathroom, and when he’s done, poof! The light goes off?’
‘Oh my Goodness! Ethel exclaims. ‘He’s peeing in the fridge again!

Sometimes, what appears to be divine intervention has a much simpler explanation.

This Sunday many parishes throughout Australia will be acknowledging this Sunday as Social Justice Sunday. Traditionally the Australian Catholic Bishops commission a statement to be read and studied by all Catholics. This year they have chosen the Australian Prisons and Justice System to be the focus. (front of bulletin)

Thirty years ago next year myself and Peter first met while working as Chaplains in the Prisons in Brisbane and Woodford.

During those 30 years it appears very little has changed, perhaps in many areas it has worsened. In this current Social Justice Statement entitled “Building Bridges, Not Walls” it quotes from the Australian Institute of Criminology’s 2010 Report, “Australia currently spends over $10 Billion yearly on criminal justice, an amount that has increased by 33% over the past decade.” (privatized jails)

Indigenous incarceration rates are 17 times more than the non-indigenous rate. In 1991, Indigenous prisoners made up 14% of the prison population. In 2008 , they made up to 25% – one quarter of the prison population.

After the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody where much was learned about why there were such high rates of imprisonment and death within the Aboriginal population, very little has been done to address these causes. It is a sad indictment of our nation that these numbers have increased since the Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Report.

The vast majority of Australians have no knowledge of prisons or prison life. Prisons have been described as “ exotic institutions unknown to social mainstream”. This ignorance is fertile ground for law and order campaigning. In state elections it is commonplace for politicians to outbid each other in pledging to be tough on crime for the sake of creating a safer community.

But as most of us are aware here at St Mary’s through our involvement with Micah, a safe community starts with adequate support for families, child protection, early learning programmes, affordable housing, mental health services, family violence protection programmes, decent work opportunities, drug and alcohol counseling.

Rather than incarcerating more and more vulnerable people, it is far more cost effective to look for ways to support the most marginalized and include them in community such as improving accommodation support, school retention levels and employment opportunities.

Early intervention in mental health and community services equips people to function more effectively in society and reduce the likelihood of engaging in crime.

Treating all people with dignity, respect and care creates healthy, safer and wholesome communities for everyone . For what we do to another, we ultimately do for ourselves. As the Gospel so powerfully demonstrates “And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?  And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you? And the King will answer them, Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (Matt 25⁴⁰)

And ultimately that Me is me.

For Jesus there was no separation. All were one. For Jesus the greatest commandment of the law after love of God was “to love your neighbour as yourself”. (Matt 22³⁹) Not the same as yourself as you would love someone like yourself, but to love your neighbour as you. Your neighbour is you.

That stranger, that person who is naked, sick and in prison is You.

Not only the stranger, but also those who hate you-“For I say this to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”. (Matt 5⁴⁴)

Jesus was not on about teaching people to live good moral lives, although that was a worthy outcome. What he was ultimately about was a Radical change in Consciousness. As I spoke of earlier, what he would often begin a sentence with was Repent, the Greek Meta noia, meta (above/beyond) noia (mind); move from the small mind, the mind which divides and separates, judges and weighs up –who’s in, who’s out; the good, the bad.

For Jesus the move to the larger mind meant no more exclusion, all are worthy ; no more me and them, only us.

It meant Jesus mixed with the wrong crowd,(the wrong crowd in the eyes of the so-called worthy, religious and righteous people of the time).

It meant challenging and confronting unjust structures and laws which divide.

The invitation to follow him means to do the same today – to challenge laws which discriminate and treat others as less than what we would like to be treated ourselves.

Returning to our opening prayer, “We reach out in grace, knowing that human divisions are false, that we are not the innocent praying for the guilty, or the right praying for the wrong, but people praying for people, the hurt remembering the hurt, the failure reaching out in love to the failure in a single community where all is ONE.