Prison may not be a hell or a place of despair, but a space where God meets the hurt and the suffering. And prison can even become a place of faith.
The above is what Father Matteo Revelli, priest of the African Missionary Association (SMA) and pastor of the parish of François d'Assise, Fès in Morocco recounts his recent experience.
The missionary said he visited prisoners held in the Fès prison. Three of them, who will be released in a few days, gave him a rather heavy package, with three crumpled Bibles inside.
Father said: "One of them gave me a large Bible, weighing at least a kilo and a half, crumpled, marked with important places, with missing pages. Then he pulled me aside. to confide that the Bible has been with him for 20 years; he got it from a prize in a biblical culture contest in the country.He always takes the Bible with him and reads it on his adventures in the world as in search of fortune".
Father Revelli explains: "For many years he was transporting drugs in his luggage, from several Latin American countries to Europe or Africa. He confessed to me that because of a spiritual belief he still had a spiritual belief in him. never dared to put a Bible in the same luggage.One day he was arrested on his last trip to Morocco where he spent 9 years and only knew the airport and the two prisons where he was staying with him.
When he was released from prison, he knew the Moroccan language and the Bible very well. He confided to me that the Bible was his only source of support during his imprisonment and now he no longer needs that book too, because during his time in prison he memorized it. He gave it to me because he wanted me to give it to another inmate."
The evangelist added with emotion: "I took the crumpled Bible and looked back at my clean Bible, I felt ashamed." This crumpled Bible tells the story of a man who met the Word of God while in captivity: like him today, other prisoners can experience grace, the spiritual uplift of spirits. pastors, religious and laity for the prisoners of Fès.