Elyse Muratore, M.D.
"We aspire to see the mystical wholeness of the other. God sees this way. Jesus sees this way. We want to see this way."
Father Gregory Boyle, a Jesuit priest, has been working with gang members for decades. His organization, Homeboy Industries, in Los Angeles has become well known all across the world for its work as the largest gang intervention program in the country. This recent Los Angeles Times article, detailing a 50th Jubilee celebration of Father Boyle back in November 2022, gives a great, succinct introduction to anyone who has not yet had Father's Greg's beautiful influence touch your heart.
Copyright - Homeboy Industries
I just finished his third book The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness. Father Boyle shares anecdotes, often funny and always touching, about his "homies" interspersed with his spiritual wisdom. Every time I read his words or hear him speak, I am reminded of the simplicity of seeking divine love in our world. Love like Jesus. No matter what.
Image from Fr. Boyle's Book The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness
One message that is constant through all of his books, his talks, his life, his work - kinship. We do not serve others at the margins, we go to the margins to be in kinship with others, and we are therefore transformed. It is only through becoming transformed that we can transform our world.
This book is much like his previous two, with his added reflections on the pandemic and our country's racial reckoning. As always, Father Boyle meets the hardest, ugliest, most difficult to contemplate forms of negativity with an open heart, clear eyes, and unwavering faith and grace.
"This mystical kinship, this speaking the whole language, is the exact opposite of the age in which we currently live: tribal, divisive, suspicious, anchored in the illusion of separation -- unhealthy, sad, fearful, other-izing, and demonizing. Mystics replace fear with love, vindictiveness with openhearted kindness, envy with supportive affection, withering judgment with extravagant tenderness...At Homeboy Industries, we long to see deeply -- to see homies in their soul fullness. We want to see beyond rap sheets and past behavior; beyond tattoos and trauma, We aspire to see the mystical wholeness of the other. God sees this way. Jesus sees this way. We want to see this way."
There are countless stories, parables, lessons, and pearls in this book. It is the kind of book where you want to savor every sentence, and at the close of every chapter feel the need to re-read to fully absorb the inspiration.
He closes The Whole Language with a touching, cute story about a moment he overheard between a mother and a daughter decades ago during a Good Friday church service. The girls asked her mother, "Who died?" and the mother informed her that it was Jesus. The young girl became alarmed, desperate, asking, "What do we do now?"
Father Boyle writes:
"A really good question.
In the 1950s. Dorothy Day writes to a friend: 'The older I get, the more I meet people, the more convinced I am that we must only work on ourselves, to grow in grace. The only thing we can do about people is love them.' Maybe it's old age, but I agree with her. Epilogue.
That's what we do now. Our own awakened sense of lovability within us moves us out to the other. We rest in the abundant acceptance we feel, and it propels us forward. Jesus always thought that the root cause of oppression was our lack of compassion. We receive the tender glance, then we become it. Compassionate and fluent in the whole language. We all belong to each other. We begin there. So, what do we do now? We laugh from the stomach and hold the world as tenderly as we can."
This is my reflection at the start of this Lent season. What do we do now? We love people, we exude tenderness, we find joy in the simple moments. We show up, and we show up for each other.
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