The Prison Door Is Wedged Open by the Cross of Christ

The Prison Door Is Wedged Open by the Cross of Christ

St. Paul speaks of slavery under the law. Jesus purchased us from slavery and we are free, but we retain our free will and can choose slavery in our lives. St. Paul says, “Do not submit your selves to slavery again.” 

Because we are human beings, we have an inclination to sin. We keep going back to slavery and put ourselves into slavery again instead of going forth into the freedom of God. God knows us better than we know ourselves. God understood that just setting us free was not enough. He had to initiate a way to keep the doors open to himself. We are in the prison of sin, but Jesus opened the prison door by his sacrificial death on the cross. And once we realize that, just like anyone who has been in prison, we see that the door is open to freedom from sin and we run out once we see that the open door that leads to Jesus. 

However, prison can become comfortable, and so, when things get tough, we might run back into the prison because we were comfortable there at least to a degree. However, Jesus has pried the prison door open with his cross. You cannot lock yourself in prison again. The cross of Jesus is wedged in the prison door and keeps the door open, and we can always walk out at any time. We can release ourselves from prison again through the sacraments, the gifts of baptism, confession, Eucharist, the anointing of the sick. These keep the door to our prison open. 

God allows the door to be always open for sinners who return to their prison of sin. They cannot shut the door to his mercy. Even the gift of the anointing of the sick, the last rites, is a way to present the love of Jesus Christ in the last hour. The door to God’s mercy is always open, and sometimes God himself goes in and carries the person out of the prison of brokenness when that person will not walk out themselves. The power of the sacraments carries them out of this prison. 

There is a constant flow of grace in the Catholic Church, a flowering of grace at every moment. The wounds of Christ were not healed over in his hands, feet, and side. The wound in his side is the Church which is ever flowing with the blood of mercy and the water of forgiveness. 

We can pity the Pharisees who always considered the external as a way to salvation. Christ called them to interior change. In his discourse with the Pharisees, Jesus, thinking of people caught up in sin, said, ‘Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? So give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you.' (Luke 11:39-41)

God sees the charity in one’s heart. God knows a person’s behavior and he understands that some people may be away from him, but he sees the charity in their heart. Almsgiving makes them clean on the inside, even if they are not behaving very well on the outside. Some people who have turned away from God can be more godlike in their lives than those who pretend to be godlike, because God sees their heart of charity. He knows a loving heart when he sees it. Charity covers a multitude of sins. 

It is good to reflect on the freedom that God gives us. The chains with which we lock ourselves up are no longer usable because the chains are broken and the locks no longer work. We cannot lock ourselves away from God or go back in our prison and close the door where he cannot enter. The cross is holding the door open and, if we do not go out to God ourselves, at the very last moment, through the Sacrament of the anointing of the sick, he may come into us and carry us out. And praised be God forever. 

--Father David Engo, FBM