It was prophesied by Isaiah that the Messiah would “bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness” (42:7). The quality of life in those dungeons of Isaiah’s time has little in common with what we find in prisons today. The food and drink, the beds, the lights, the clothing, the medicine, the plumbing, the HVAC, the lawyers, the chaplains, the prisoners’ rights: all of these things are standard today but were unheard of in Isaiah’s time. Ancient near eastern jails were uncomfortable to a degree hard for us to imagine.
Did the Messiah, when he came Earth, go to dungeons and free prisoners as foretold by Isaiah? Physically, no. At least, the scriptures don’t mention it. But he did free prisoners from the worst dungeon of all: the spiritual one, which is slavery to sin. That is a dungeon far worse than any other, even those found in the ancient near east. After the first Christians were freed from the dungeon of sin, they no longer had any fear of the dungeons of this world. On the contrary, in those wretched places they happily sang hymns to God.
In the sixteenth century, Saint Ignatius Loyola, although innocent, was himself arrested and thrown into jail. His experiences there, unjust as they were, proved to be good for his soul. That is to say, when Ignatius was confined apart from worldly comfort it opened his soul to receive spiritual light from God. Ignatius made this one of the guiding principles behind his Spiritual Exercises.
Let us apply that principle this Holy Week. Let us confine ourselves in Church, as much as possible, as if it were a kind of jail. Going to Church can be tedious and even uncomfortable, but it can also be a time of rich spiritual light and grace.