This is the latest installment in our ongoing dialogue about doubt and faith between Rev. Dean Lueking and Helen Mildenhall, which began in July of 2006:

Dean, I was interested to read your thoughts about The Way as it applies to people inside prisons. ['The Way' reaches behind bars, Viewpoints, May 28]

I appreciated how you brought up Jesus' statement, "I was in prison and you visited me." I love the story that comes from! For me it defines The Way.

In the story, I understand Jesus to be saying, "People who help others are the type of people I want in heaven with me." If I were choosing people to spend a long time with, those are the people I, too, would choose. Maybe that's why I like this story so much.

In it, Jesus also mentions helping people in five other situations: those who are hungry, thirsty, strangers, unclothed and sick. I'm glad you focused on prisoners because those are the easiest ones to dismiss as "not like me" and "not worthy of help." The other circumstances Jesus mentioned can happen to "innocent" people, but people (usually) only go to prison if they've done something wrong. The temptation is to set myself apart because "I would never do that!"

Yet prisoners are human beings too. And we all make stupid mistakes and bad choices, even if ours didn't land us in prison. The Way helps expose and break down our prejudices about other people. It challenges us to help people like prisoners who are more convenient to ignore.

When we help, we discover they're surprisingly like us even though their circumstances are different from ours. We become aware of when we've thoughtlessly affirmed unfair stereotypes about them. Instead we start defending them against the stereotypes.

I've never visited a prisoner, but I have written to a couple of them whom I met just before they were incarcerated. I was pleased to hear back from each of them. Judging by their responses, those were some of the most appreciated letters I ever wrote.

As you said, it's a mystery why Jesus equated visiting prisoners with visiting him. Maybe this is one of the things he meant: When we follow The Way, it unexpectedly turns out to be the route to what we're really looking for in life. I say "unexpected" because we tend to assume happiness comes from making ourselves comfortable. Maybe that helps but it can't provide the joy and fulfillment we experience when we make a positive difference in someone else's life.

Helen Mildenhall

Oak Park