Many
years ago when I lived in California, I joined an organization that reached out
to inmates in the federal prisons such as San Quentin, Folsom and CMF (California
Medical Facility) in Vacaville. CMF is
the flagship correctional facility where prisoners with specialized medical
needs such as HIV/AIDS and mental illness are held; for example Charles Manson was housed
in CMF for years before transferred to San Quentin. During our on-site training at CMF, we were escorted
by guards inside the entire facility. We
saw the over-crowded open cell dormitories, the level three single occupant and
heavily guarded cells occupied by Manson and alike, the pharmacy and hospital
rooms filled with prisoners suffering from HIV/AIDS; we experienced two “lockdown”
situations. During a “lockdown”, the
sirens blare loudly, all the doors and gates are closed, and inmates stay
inside their cells. Everyone except uniformed
correctional officers must stand inside the yellow line against the wall or may
risk being shot by the guards. Sometimes
a lockdown can last up to days. This
experience reminds me prison is a dangerous place, you definitely do not have
all the rights you normally have when you are outside prison.
Today
is Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday is the
celebration of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem before his arrest, trial,
persecution and burial in the coming week.
Christians are reminded of the triumphant parade where people waved palm
fronds and laid down palm and clothes on Jesus’ path; but also aware of the dark,
difficult time of suffering, agony and death ahead. How do we experience
solitude in the face of imprisonment? Imagine
our Lord Jesus was wholly God and human.
During the last week of Jesus life on earth, as God, he was fully aware of
what was coming. As human, he would have
doubt, uncertainty of the future, fear, humiliation, injustice, pain, suffering
and the ultimate persecution and execution on a cross. This is quite clear in Matthew 28:38 “My soul
is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” Later he prayed, “My Father, if it is
possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you
will."
This
week, we are called to meditate on what our Lord Jesus went through to give us
Eternal life. We are also called on to
pray for those confined to solitude not by their own choice. As an exercise to practice solitude and
imprisonment, read Psalm 88.
Psalm
88 (Eugene H. Peterson’s The Message)
1
God, you're my last chance of the day. I spend the night on my knees before
you. 2 Put me on your salvation agenda; take notes on the trouble I'm in. 3
I've had my fill of trouble; I'm camped on the edge of hell. 4 I'm written off
as a lost cause, one more statistic, a hopeless case. 5 Abandoned as already
dead, one more body in a stack of corpses, And not so much as a gravestone —
I'm a black hole in oblivion. 6 You've dropped me into a bottomless pit, sunk
me in a pitch-black abyss. 7 I'm battered senseless by your rage, relentlessly
pounded by your waves of anger. 8 You turned my friends against me, made me
horrible to them. I'm caught in a maze and can't find my way out, 9 blinded by
tears of pain and frustration.
I
call to you, God; all day I call. I wring my hands, I plead for help. 10 Are
the dead a live audience for your miracles? Do ghosts ever join the choirs that
praise you? 11 Does your love make any difference in a graveyard? Is your
faithful presence noticed in the corridors of hell? 12 Are your marvelous
wonders ever seen in the dark, your righteous ways noticed in the Land of No
Memory?
13
I'm standing my ground, God, shouting for help, at my prayers every morning, on
my knees each daybreak. 14 Why, God, do you turn a deaf ear? Why do you make
yourself scarce? 15 For as long as I remember I've been hurting; I've taken the
worst you can hand out, and I've had it. 16 Your wildfire anger has blazed
through my life; I'm bleeding, black and blue. 17 You've attacked me fiercely
from every side, raining down blows till I'm nearly dead. 18 You made lover and
neighbor alike dump me; the only friend I have left is Darkness.
(from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary
Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.)
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