… A leper approached, did him homage, and said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” He stretched out His hand, touched him and said, “I will do it. Be made clean.” (Matthew 8:3b, 4).
Drug addiction had become leprosy. The facial sores, the track marks, clothes worn for days at a time. People had known for a while that I was “unclean.” They did their best to stay clear of me or wherever it was that I was going. I can only begin to feel the pain of isolation the leper of Matthew, Chapter 8, felt.
I had found myself in prison, upstate in London, Ohio. I had gotten a sentence of 56 months; I tried to be a car thief with no success. I was strung out just needing a fix and, at that time, I knew people who would pay money for stolen vehicles. They call them “chop shops.”
After seven months of incarceration, I was just lost. Nobody I knew ever answered the phone and I didn’t have any letters coming in. It just seemed like nobody cared, so I just decided that I was going to commit suicide. I had only been in for seven months; “You mean to tell me that I’ve got another 49 months to go?!”
I went down to the chapel to make whatever peace I could with who I thought God to be back then. I grew up in a home that was primarily apostolic, so I’ve heard of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. I had seen plenty of people “catch” the Holy Ghost; my hope was that He would bring me some kind of sign that everything was gonna be alright.
After sitting quietly in the chapel for a little while, I believed I made peace with God and thought, “Tonight is the night.” I had planned to hang myself after the 3 a.m. count; it would be a couple of hours before anyone found me, so I could get the job done. But as I walked through the doors, I just felt like someone breathed down the back of my neck. When I turned around, there it was, a copy of Give Us This Day. This devotional would help to completely change my life.
Can I tell you that the prayers in this book had what I felt to be authentic authority? The sto-ries of the saints inspired me deeply, and the reflections on the readings were written in a way that I could completely understand and incorporate into my life. Christianity took on a new and exciting meaning I never thought possible.
After a week, I felt moved to go talk to the priest. I was so nervous. I don’t think before then I had actually seen a priest let alone talk to one. But deep within, something stirred.
Thursday came and I was in the chapel waiting area (where I’d found the devotional) and I waited for the priest to come. In came Fr. Michael Hinterschied wearing a cassock no less. I was amazed that he was wearing very old-style clothing. He vested himself up and said, “I’ll be in the next room hearing confessions, or if anyone wants to just talk.” I jumped right up and shook his hand and told him I was interested in becoming Catholic. “You have to study the faith, understand and accept the faith before you become Catholic,” he said. I think of myself to be pretty docile. Learning is something I love to do.
So I began to study the Faith through R.C.I.A. and I received the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and First Holy Communion on December 29, 2022.
My life was transformed. I started to go to Mass every week as well as to Catholic Bible study on Sundays. The Eucharist became the center of my life.
I entered college to study for a business degree and I joined a faith-based community program to further try to change my life. I not only wanted to be a Catholic, but I wanted to be a Catholic leader in the prison community. In a world full of darkness, Our Lord Jesus Christ says that we are lamps, not to be hidden under a basket but to shine for all the world to see. In the encyclical Lumen Fidei, the Holy Father Pope Francis says that faith isn’t blind, but it is in fact a light to help guide us in the darkness.
During the next six months, my life changed dramatically. And little did I know I was eligible for a Judicial Release that following August, but it would be to a place called STAR Community Justice Center, “a community based correctional facility intended to promote public safety and reduce prison commitments.” Basically, a Level 1 prison with Level 3 movement with really intense programming based on cognitive-behavioral treatment.
The Judicial Release was granted to me and I went to the STAR program in the Portsmouth area; the longest, most intense six months of my life.
During that time, I hungered for the Eucharist and longed to have my confession heard. I sent a letter to the nearest “Parish Priest” as I put on the envelope, because I didn’t know the name of the priest. All I’d gotten was an address to the nearest Catholic church.
It was very providential that Betty Fannin, a parishioner at Wheelersburg St. Peter in Chains came to see me. It was an hour after our special meal to celebrate Christmas 2023. She brought me the Eucharist and I was elated! Jesus hadn’t forgotten about me. When I look for Him, He is always there.
Fr. Dave Glockner, a retired Maryknoll priest in Scioto County, came to see me on Good Friday. He came to hear my confession, brought Holy Communion to me, and to just pray with me and tell me that I haven’t been forgotten.
Long story short, I got outta there. My first day out I went straight to St. Mary of the Annunciation in Portsmouth so I could praise God for getting me through, and that day I joined the parish. That evening, Bishop Earl Fernandes was there for a Confirmation Mass, which I attended. It’s always an honor to see the Bishop, and he immediately recognized me from one of his visits to London Correctional the year before.
In the short three months since then, I’ve stayed clean, served at several Masses, read the readings at daily Mass, and I even have the privilege of leading the rosary before church every other Sunday. I’ve even completed vocational training for clerical work and I’ve gotten a job working at a local popular restaurant.
Instead of working in programming to overcome addiction, I use the sacraments. I feel as though, if you attack the sins first, then the addiction, everything else will follow suit. If you just attack your addiction, it’s going to manifest itself in other ways — through different sins.
Life is so beautiful in ways I never even imagined. Slowly but surely I’m becoming the man I’ve always wanted to be by being the man that God wants me to be.
***
Betty Fannin, 71, has a son, Gabe, who was imprisoned for eight years on a drug-related offense. He qualified for a Judicial Release into the STAR program at the same center where Chris Gay was later sent, has since returned to society, clean and sober, and now is successfully em-ployed as a welder/pipe fitter.
After Gay sent the letter to the “Parish Priest,” Father David Glockner asked Fannin, a Eucharistic Minister, to contact the center and try to bring Holy Communion to Gay. After some initial difficulties, she was able to do so.
“So we made arrangements and I went up and they took me to a little, private room,” Fannin said. “Then they went to get Christopher. So, here he comes, grinning ear to ear. Had a big Afro. Little ol’ skinny thing. And so I gave Christopher communion and he thanked me, then left.”She was able to see Gay one more time when she accompanied Father Glockner on his visit to Gay on Good Friday.
Since Gay’s release, she felt it was “providential” that she ran into him once during Perpetual Adoration at St. Mary, where she volunteers as an adorer. This has since become a weekly event for the two of them. Gay now calls her his “godmother” — the mom he never really had.
Father Glockner recalled meeting Gay, saying, “I went out and visited him (Gay) and wrote him a couple of letters while he was there. And since he’s been released and has joined our community, he’s been extremely faithful. We’re very blessed, and tickled to death that he is doing so well. He is so prayerful and really helps us here in the good ministry of our Catholic community.”
