XMAS INTERFAITH MASS in JAIL (25 December 2014)

Once again on Christmas Day 2014 I had the privilege of celebrating an InterFaith Mass at the Byculla
womens jail. When I went last year I was shocked at its close proximity to the house where I had stayed
till I joined the Jesuits in 1971. A Muslim engineering college separates us by not more than 200 metres.
I was blissfully unaware of the fact that while, on one side of the college, I spent my carefree childhood
days, on the other side women were confined to the isolation of the prison.
Last year when I noticed that most of the inmates were Bangladeshis it brought back memories of the
1971 war when, as novices, we had gone for a month to help the refugees. We distributed food and
clothes from dawn to dusk to unmanageable crowds in inhuman conditions. The children born in prison
brought to mind the child Jesus born of refugee parents in a stable. Are any of the crimes that these people
have been accused of greater than the war crimes of the Indian and Pakistani governments? How does one
channelise the anger welling up at the unfairness of the system in which the small criminals are put in the
jails while the bigger ones are elected to decide the fate of the country in parliaments?
When one woman in depression told me that she was desperately praying to receive Jesus on Christmas
day, I replied that Jesus was definitely going to be born in her life and a concrete sign of His presence
would be her smiling face. The best Christmas gift I received was to see Jesus smiling at me through her
delightful countenance at the end of the Mass. Women of all faiths queued up for confession and a
blessing. The opportunity to share the truth in a confidential setting provided deep emotional release.
The angelic voices of two African women, who had left the Catholic Church to join the Born Again sect,
added a special flavor to the liturgy that was interspersed with interfaith readings on peace. They were in
tears at the fact that they were invited to sing their evocative solos in an inclusive liturgy.
Candice Menezes, led a meditative interfaith chant and another lay collaborator activated all with a joyful
message and lively action song. In that desperate situation both helped the inmates to seek for their stifled
inner voice and infused the undying hope that All Shall Be Well.
Two questions that keep surfacing:
1. How do we devise a relevant interfaith liturgy that is life-giving and liberating for those in prison?
2. How to develop a ministry to empower prisoners and in the process become a voice for the voiceless?
When I went to celebrate Mass for the Katkaris, labeled as a criminal tribe, at Kune Mission on
27 December I met the wife of one of the youth who was falsely arrested for a highway robbery in 2002.
She shared how it took her more than three years to earn enough to bail him out. Two months after he
committed suicide the court declared his innocence. The torture and harassment by the police have left the
others traumatized and some of them have died in despair. I had tried to get the group released at that
time but to no avail. I also wrote an article Set the Prisoners Free which was published in the Examiner.
Mary did you know that the child that you delivered would soon deliver you? These words from a
modern carol implying mutual liberation are so true. In our efforts to give joy to those imprisoned we
experienced the gift of freedom from our own narrow prisons of fear and insecurity. What a blessing to
feel the joy of receiving Christ in the process of giving Him to those imprisoned.