For the past several years I’ve been a case manager at a correctional halfway house with countless federal offenders who leave their respective prisons from all over the United States, enter our facility for a time, and exit into society—our shared community.

Each individual man or woman reacts to their time under custody in different ways. Some, it seems, never changed the mindsets that led them there, while others have made a 180-degree turn. The in-betweens are struggling to make life changes. Some have been broken and humbled and others have been traumatized beyond imagination.

I was talking to one of the latter for close to an hour in my office one day. This individual was beyond frustrated and needed to vent. It was quite intense, to say the least. Although I was at peace in spirit, I could see that the individual was not. This person was imprisoned for over a decade and committed countless disciplinary infractions, many violent, while incarcerated—the most I’ve ever heard of. They spanned two pages long.

The individual was transferred to a supermax prison for the last two years of custody, housing prisoners inclined to violence toward other prisoners and staff. Under its roof were terrorists, bombers, cartel leaders, and organized crime figures.

And there, across from me, sat this individual, who was not only trapped by the physical tentacles of that prison and its inmates but also trapped by the darkness within, pouring forth from trembling lips. Corrupt and lifeless were self-descriptors. All I could do was listen as time and a few soft-spoken words attempted to quiet the demons.

As I sit here replaying that hour in my mind, I wonder, why me, why now. And the answer comes, If not me, who? And in the words of Primo Levi, If not now, when?

We live in a material world of flashy lights and deceptive smoke, greedy glitter, and never-ending entertainment that attempts to inject a happy serum in us and distract us from a dark, spiritual reality. This reality even tries to masquerade as light, as good. Heaven and earth testify through their groaning that evil shares a common living space with us.

I saw that deep darkness take hold of a human from the inside out.

I looked into their eyes and saw the depth of its grip.

And then I saw something else.

I saw a spark of hope as healing truth dribbled out. It had been planted in that soul and took root and broke through the darkness carrying the potential of a mustard seed.

There is a darkness that lurks and connives, penetrating into the human soul not visible to the human eye, until we see its effects.

And it will take God’s light to expose it.

And it will take God’s light bearers to pierce it.

And it will take God’s love to lead the way.

No other substitute will do.