Graduating in Jesus’ life: How the Great Pornchai “Super-Max” Moontri did it

The Great Pornchai “Super-Max” Moontri (with “Max” referring not only to his prison, but to his confirmation patron, another ultra-super-max prisoner, Saint Maximilian Kolbe, O.F.M.Conv., Priest and Martyr) now has his Diploma, not a GED, but a diploma. Congratulations! Here’s a bit from his commencement address:

The gift of education has shown me how to not be just a prisoner. It has shown me that the door that kept me trapped opens out, and not in. I have learned to push forward in this life and not just pull back. I have learned that this is the way to freedom.

“I have learned.” How many of us can say that our education has brought us to actually learn something, that is, to understand it, as a lived reality? Who of us could say that the lesson of life he has mentioned is something we live ourselves, pushing forward instead of pulling back?

This is an almost super-human achievement, given his life-experience and present conditions. Indeed, grace is at work here. Pornchai is a hero to all those who know him, finding inspiration and hope in seeing just how this has come about, the great drama that is truly in every life, if we only knew. Certainly, Pornchai has come to know the economy of salvation more than any of us will ever be able to get a smidgeon of understanding about.

To enter into this whole other universe of how our Lord’s goodness and kindness reaches everywhere (even, mind you, into our own hearts), click on the picture above, or HERE to go the article by Pornchai’s cell-mate, the priest’s priest, Father Gordon J. MacRae (about). It’s truly worth the read. And don’t just read it. Take Pornchai’s example. Live what you read there in your own life. Yikes!