Convicted Felons

As a result of the “felony-high crime” of eating the “forbidden fruit,” Adam and Eve were driven out of Paradise and entered the “prison” of the isolated self, estranged from the direct presence of God that they once enjoyed. Shawshank Prison is a grand metaphor for the collective state of humanity that is alienated or “walled off” from Divine intimacy. Adam and Eve enjoy the “distinction” of being the first two inmates at Shawshank, #00001 and #00002.

            This is the existential “prison break” that every soul is summoned to: “The only true joy on earth is to escape the prison of our own false self and enter by love and union with the Life Who dwells and sings within the essence of every creature and in the core of our own souls.”  – Thomas Merton