But - how "clean" are Christians supposed to keep their lives? Some Christians are so concerned about keeping their lives - including their faith life - neat and orderly that they're more worried about not committing sins than they are about saving souls. They're more worried about what their peer group thinks than they are about what their neighbor needs. They're more concerned about being seen with those whom they consider the "right" people than they are about understanding the hopelessness of the people Jesus considers the right people. Their anxiety-ridden lives seem, as Pope Francis says, to be "like Lent without Easter." (from "The Joy of the Gospel.")
But if we allow ourselves, especially our hearts, to have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, we realize that life is meant to be lived without fear, without artificial constraints, and without worry about what others think of us. Life is meant to be lived with freedom and joy. The joy, as Pope Francis tells us, of living the Gospel.
Joy is not the same thing as pleasure. Our technological society offers us a thousand gadgets to give us instant pleasure and gratification, from I Pods to Smart Phones to Mac Book Airs to I Pads to Botox to Ford Mustangs.
Not a single one of these things can travel with us beyond the grave.
Joy runs deeper like an underground stream, born of a deep trust and confidence in our Lord and His constant love for us which can transcend the deepest sorrow and pain. Jesus is the Eternal Gospel, the Good News Incarnate, in His selfless life, His selfless death, and His glorious resurrection, which is also promised to us.
As we are liberated from concentrating on our own comforts and pleasures, we become free to concentrate on the needs of others, to seek their good.
We're capable of leaving security behind. We're capable of getting our feet muddy.
"I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting, and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security....If anything should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life." So Pope Francis challenges all Christians to spread the joy of the Gospel especially to those whom our society abandons.
Sr. Helen Prejean projects the joy and inner peace of the Gospel because she is bruised, hurting, and dirty. She didn't originally intend to get her feet muddy by associating with those who many would consider to be the scum of the earth. She started out her life as a member of the Congregation of St. Joseph originally as a Religious Education Director and teacher. But she was asked to become a pen pal with a convicted murderer on Death Row at Louisiana State Penitentiary.
The inmate eventually asked her to visit him at the prison. She became his spiritual counselor and accompanied him to his execution, observing his death as he had asked her to so that he could see her, see one kind face as he died. It was a painful, life-changing experience, the first of many accompanying prisoners on Death Row through their final days and their executions.
Today Sr. Helen is a leading American advocate for the abolition of the death penalty. Her first book, "Dead Man Walking," a description of her experiences with that first inmate, was made into a major motion picture starring Susan Sarandon. Her second book, "The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions," highlights her other ministry, educating people about the fact that many prisoners are executed for crimes they did not commit.
Sr. Helen says " I realize that I cannot stand by silently as my government executes its citizens. If I do not speak out and resist, I am an accomplice....No government is ever innocent or wise enough or just enough to lay claim to so absolute a power as death....Allowing our government to kill citizens compromises the deepest moral values on which this country was conceived, the inviolable dignity of persons."
She also believes that the truth of what executions are like is deliberately shrouded in secrecy because "if executions were made public, the torture and violence would be unmasked and we would be shamed into abolishing executions."
Why such compassion for murderers and rapists, the scum of the earth? Sr. Helen says simply "A person is more than the worst thing he has ever done."
Sr. Helen has personally encountered the Real Jesus Christ.
The Jesus Who said that prostitutes would enter heaven before the so-called proper and righteous. Who forgave women caught in adultery. Who healed the mentally ill and possessed and deaf and dumb and blind and lame. Who touched lepers. Who spoke with Romans and Samaritans.
The Jesus Who affirmed women as being more than their husbands' property. Who affirmed children as being more than their parents' property. The Jesus Who, by His words and actions, affirmed over and over again that a person is more than the worst thing he or she has ever done. That a person is more than his or her disabilities.
Is it any wonder that, knowing this Jesus Who got Himself in trouble with the "clean and righteous," those who separated themselves from sinners and the disabled, that Sr. Helen would also say "All of life is sacred and must be protected. I stand morally opposed to killing: war, executions, killing of the old and demented, the killing of children unborn and born."
Pope Francis challenges us " More than by fear of going astray, my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules which make us harsh judges, within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door people are starving and Jesus does not tire of saying to us "Give them something to eat." (Mark 6:37.)