For the third consecutive year, Bishop Earl Fernandes visited one of the prisons in the diocese on Holy Thursday to begin the observance of the Sacred Triduum.
Joined by Father Joseph Trapp, a prison chaplain; Deacon Dave Bezusko, diocesan director of the Office of Catholic Charities; seminarians and members of the Order of Malta, the bishop led morning prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours, washed the feet of several men and heard confessions during his April 17 visit to the Pickaway Correctional Institution in Orient.
Bishop Fernandes has made multiple visits to the incarcerated during his three years as the shepherd in the diocese, following the example of the late Pope Francis. The late pontiff emphasized outreach to the marginalized on the peripheries, including the imprisoned, during his 12 years as pope.
Last June, the bishop had visited Pickaway Correctional when the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage made its way across the diocese on the way to Indianapolis for the National Eucharistic Congress in July. Bishop Fernandes shared with the men that exposition and a procession with the Blessed Sacrament through the compound was the only one of its kind on the four pilgrimage routes that started at opposite ends of the country.
“What was the meaning of this gesture? That God’s mercy and love can penetrate even the walls of a prison,” the bishop said on Holy Thursday. “And if it can penetrate the prison walls, then it can even penetrate the hardness of our hearts. The fire of God’s love wants to melt and warm our hearts which sometimes grow cold under the burden of sin.”
Gerardo Sosa, one of the men whose feet were washed by the bishop, also received a blessing. Originally from Brownsville, Texas, Sosa has been incarcerated for 25 months after working in a tomato cannery in Ohio as a warehouse manager.
“When the bishop washed my feet, I felt very special when he was doing it,” Sosa said. “I felt like he brought a sense of inclusion to our facility that, because we are incarcerated and we often feel that we are helpless or we’re in a difficult position — as we are — but when he did that act of washing our feet, it made me feel relieved it gave me a sense of freedom almost. I felt that I wasn’t in prison during that moment.”
James Troiano and Christopher Redwine received blessings from Bishop Fernandes.
Incarcerated for 16 years, Troiano said he grew up Catholic and attended Columbus Our Lady of Victory Church and was baptized at Columbus St. Christopher Church.
“It’s really been inspiring to us, as inmates, that he (Bishop Fernandes) has come here the last three years and said Mass, heard our confessions, and has given us Christ’s blessing,” Troiano said.
Originally from Florida, Redwine has spent the last 25 years as an inmate. He had his feet washed by the bishop last year during a Holy Thursday visit to Madison Correctional Institution, where Redwine was housed before a transfer to Pickaway for medical reasons.
“I really felt it was beautiful that the bishop came here, into our facility, to celebrate morning prayer and wash the feet of our guys,” Redwine said.
Bishop Fernandes told the men that the Church stands with them and that the Lord remains close to them despite their circumstances. He reminded them that Jesus showed his humility at the Last Supper on Holy Thursday.
“Normally, in Jesus’ time, people went about walking and it was typical for the servant to wash his master’s feet,” the bishop said. “Instead, Jesus, who is the Lord, washed His disciples’ feet which were all dirty.
“Each one of us has committed some sin or the other. I do not know why you are here, or what your whole history is, but the fact of the matter is you are here, and we are all here, and no one of us is perfect.
“Jesus, who was perfect, lowered Himself, humbled Himself and washed His own disciples’ feet as a sign of what His apostles were supposed to do and what His Church was supposed to do: forgive sins, show mercy.”
St. John’s gospel recounts that Peter balked at Jesus washing his feet, implying that he could do that on his own and that he was unworthy.
“No one of us can make it through this world on our own,” Bishop Fernandes told the men. “No one of us can forgive our own sins. We need God for that. And God acts through the priests and the bishops to offer the forgiveness of sins. And He wants the whole Church to be a church of mercy.
“And, so, this gesture is a sign of the Eucharist which transforms our lives but also a sign of forgiveness of sins to make us more fit to worship. And Jesus tells His apostles, ‘What I have done you also must do. I have left you an example: Love one another.
“And, so, we are to be as servants to each other, washing each other’s feet, forgiving each other, forgiving even our enemies.”
On Good Friday, Jesus was put to death on a cross and descended among the dead in the netherworld to bring God’s love. Then, on Easter Sunday, He rose from the dead to offer salvation to the world.
“It may seem at times like a prison or a jail is that underworld,” Bishop Fernandes said. “But Jesus brought the Good News even there and He took the devil’s trophies away. And by gloriously rising from the dead, He opened for us the gates of paradise.”