The sign in front of Mercy House for formerly incarcerated women. (HCH file photo)
OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY
“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10, Feast of the Good Shepherd)
From Easter to Pentecost, the joyful words “Jesus is Risen, Alleluia” resound around the world wherever Catholics are gathered. The Paschal season provides Christians the opportunity to experience the hopeful joy that comes from believing in the Paschal mystery of Christ’s Resurrection victory of life over death. The Gospel reading on the Fourth Sunday after Easter, the Feast of the Good Shepherd, expresses the purpose of our Savior’s mission, in the promising words of Jesus, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly,” and in the compelling image of the Good Shepherd.
Pope Francis chose the image of the Good Shepherd as the focal point of his pectoral cross which he always wears. In his homily on Good Shepherd Sunday this year, he reminded all that the Risen Christ as the Good Shepherd “loves each of us with infinite tenderness, and brings us back to the Father’s fold” as one family, as brothers and sisters, so that all may have abundant life.
This year Pope Francis preached on the Good Shepherd’s dual role of “gathering in and leading out” as an essential dynamic of Christ’s merciful mission in the world. The Holy Father focused on how Jesus the Good Shepherd carefully gathers his flock together to “experience God’s immense love that enfolds us in one embrace.” And then, as a Good Shepherd, the risen Christ leads his flock out into the world “outside our comfort zones” to minister with those on the margins of society, so all may have abundant life. The pope points out that, like Jesus the Good Shepherd, we must become open doors sharing the abundant life with others who are marginalized in our midst, such as migrant refugees, homeless families, and persons in prison.
This Good Shepherd model of “gathering in” and “leading out” to share abundant life is embodied in the Mercy House social ministry program, administered by the Pu‘a Foundation and supported by the diocese. This program provides temporary housing plus leadership and vocational training to women transitioning from prison to a normal life. Mercy House currently has five formerly incarcerated women residents. They include a” house mother” manager who herself previously graduated from Mercy House. This house manager will soon receive an associate’s degree from Windward Community College and is on track to pursue her bachelor’s degree with a $5,000 scholarship in the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Social Work program.
Peer support and kokua
The Mercy House ministry not only gathers and welcomes formerly incarcerated women back into community, but helps them go out to assist others in need through the Peer Support Kokua Project. This project focuses on vocational training, leadership development and employment of Native Hawaiians as certified peer specialists to work with Native Hawaiians in the child welfare and criminal/juvenile justice systems. The project has already certified dozens of formerly incarcerated women around the state. The project recently held a peer specialist training in Hilo, planned and organized at Mercy House on Oahu.
The Pu‘a Foundation has been amplifying the voices of Native Hawaiian lived experience for more than 10 years. In 2013, the nonprofit hired its first peer support specialist who today is an official peer support coordinator and trainer. Mercy House ministry and peer specialist training are also vital parts of the Oahu Going Home Consortium that involves volunteers from the diocese in transition classes with persons inside prison, as well as receiving them upon release with “welcome home” baskets and backpacks full of basic necessities, donated clothing and transportation to social services. All these activities “gather in” formerly incarcerated women to move from trauma to transformation, opening doors to re-enter their communities contributing to abundant life for all.
For more on the Mercy House ministries and peer specialist programs, please visit the Pu‘a Foundation website at puafoundation.net and the Office for Social Ministry website officeforsocialministry.org. These are some of the ways to live the Gospel mission of the Good Shepherd, gathering persons into the fold as family and then going out, healed and nourished, to help others in need — as one ohana.
In the words of Pope Francis’s Good Shepherd Sunday homily, “May the Good Shepherd accompany us always and with him … may our lives, our families, our Christian communities flourish with new and abundant life!”
Mahalo,
Your friends at the Office for Social Ministry
