Fr Ben Garren

Dear Friends in Christ,

We don’t always make the best decisions for ourselves.

We maintain relationships with friends, sometimes even spouses, who abuse us in some way. We stay in a job with toxic coworkers who don’t value our personal time or emotional wellbeing. We get caught up in situations that we imagine are impossible to leave so that we might be in a better place.

When I am confronted with the absurd decision that occurred when the people of Jerusalem called for the release of the violent insurrectionist Barabbas and sending Jesus to his death… I think of the times when I didn’t walk away from abusive relationships, when I kept working in a hostile work environment, when I voted to accept the status quo instead of risking my life with Christ.

Jesus wants us to take the risk and follow him out of abuse, out of hostility, out of a status quo that is unjust to new life with him. 

We all have a tendency to keep calling for Barabbas instead of investing in the alternative. We hope to fix the relationship or believe we cannot find a job that respects and values us. We find some reason to choose to have a Barabbas in our lives and not Jesus.

At any point we can stop calling for Barabbas to be released and instead seek freedom by calling to be part of the alternative Jesus provides us.

It might be a small step at first: just naming to ourselves that we need to extract ourselves from a relationship or find a new job. But this small turn to Jesus can be the start of a journey of months, or even years, towards a life where we know love for ourselves and others as we walk the way of Jesus.

Pax,

—Fr Ben