There aren’t that many times in the Gospels when Jesus tells his disciples how they might act if they’re hoping to get to heaven one day. When Jesus does indeed get that direct, it’s probably a smart idea to pay attention. And probably the most famous example of this sort of Jesus talk comes in the 25th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. It’s the Last Judgment story, the one about the sheep and the goats. Jesus tells his friends that whenever they feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick or visit the prisoner, they are caring for Christ himself. He makes a radical one-to-one identification with people who suffering and oppressed.
Perhaps the most challenging category of person listed in Matthew 25 is the prisoner. Because Jesus doesn’t just say you can find him in unjustly held prisoners. He just says prisoners. If you want to see Christ, he seems to be saying, look into the eyes of someone on death row. That’s a privileged place to find Jesus, important enough to make it into this dramatic story in the Gospel. Our criminal justice system is certainly not set up to treat prisoners as if they were reflections of the Lord’s face. But our guest today is the founder of a Catholic organization that’s working hard to make world a bit closer to God’s dream for it.
Fr. Zach Presutti is a Jesuit priest and the founder and executive director of the Thrive For Life Prison Project. In 2017, before his ordination to the priesthood, Zach founded Thrive For Life with a mission to transform lives both behind and beyond prison walls. In jails and prisons, Thrive For Life offers thousands of men and women in New York and Wisconsin retreats and spiritual direction rooted in Ignatian spirituality. On the outside, the organization is growing a network of houses of study for returning citizens to live in community while receiving holistic support services.
Recently, Fr. Zach was nominated as one of three finalists for the prestigious Opus Prize, hosted this year at Santa Clara University. The Opus Prize is given to recognize unsung heroes, anywhere in the world and from a variety of faith traditions, solving today’s most persistent social problems. All Opus finalists receive gifts of $100,000, with the winner receiving $1 million. When host Mike Jordan Laskey spoke with Fr. Zach recently, he asked him to share the story of how Thrive For Life got started and why he thinks it has grown and thrived the way it has. Fr. Zach shared his reflections on working in prison ministry and why he finds it to be such an enlivening mission. While he’s a humble guy who deflects praise and is always quick to lift up members of Thrive For Life’s team and network, we couldn’t help but be struck by Fr. Zach’s passion, energy and vision. We think you’ll enjoy getting to know him a bit.
