Father Greg Boyle

Father Greg Boyle is a Jesuit priest and founder of Homeboy Industries, which provides hope, training, and support to formerly gang-involved and previously incarcerated men and women, allowing them to redirect their lives and become contributing members of our community.

Grateful People: You talk a lot about the cultivation of kinship, gladness and joy in your book Tattoos on the Heart. How does gratitude play a role in your work in Homeboy Industries?

Father G: Gratitude keeps you anchored in the present moment, and we’re saved in the present moment, so I think that’s an essential place to be situated all the time. In being eternally grateful. Delighting, as I think I mention in the book, is kind of the flipside of that. That’s the action verb. It’s being attentive to who’s in front of you. Somehow transforming interruptions into great adventures. This place is packed with interruptions. If you can correctly consider them then suddenly they become adventures that are delightful as opposed to things that pull you from your tasks.

What do you find is the most interesting thing you’ve learned about gratitude in working with the homies and homegirls? 

Well they’re always grateful because everything is new and everything is deeply appreciated. Y’know, I’m always struck by that. When I first arrived at Dolores Mission 30 years ago, if you took former gang members to the beach, or to the mountains, or to the snow or something, they were just undone with gratitude. A lot of times I take homies on trips. I just got back from DC and they were just beside themselves thanking me every two minutes.  

Thanking you specifically? 

Yeah… “Wow, this is the most amazing experience of my life to be here in Chicago…” Or to come to DC. Or whatever it is. You kinda think “Wow, it doesn’t feel like a big deal to me”, but to them they’re just over the moon, grateful.

Do you think that gratitude comes easier to the Homies because of some of the challenges they’ve faced?

Not just the challenges, but the deprivation. They don’t take anything for granted. They’ve never been on a plane. They haven’t been to another city. They’ve never been to a restaurant. They haven’t done things that we take for granted.  

Are you able to take some of that surprise that they have about everything and infuse that into your own life for the things you’ve grown up with or are used to? 

Yes, I think there’s also a sense of… The flipside of that is that kids who’ve had everything are nonplussed by most things. And these folks are just the opposite of it. So just as you would roll your eyes at someone who says “Oh, we’re going to have filet mignon tonight, again?” These kids, on the other hand, are so completely attentive to the littlest things. I can remember once taking kids onto a college campus to give a talk. They were like “Wow, I’ve never been on a college campus.”

What have you learned from the homies’ examples in terms of gratitude? 

The profile of folks who join gangs are three-fold. Kids who are stuck in despair, kids who are hugely traumatized, and kids who are trying to balance the huge heavy burden of mental illness. So, I’ve never had to deal with a despair that was ever dark, I’ve never had to deal with that kind of damage or trauma, and I won the lottery in being born, more-or-less, mentally balanced. And all these folks haven’t. It’s so extraordinary that you’re compelled to stand in awe that they’ve had to navigate those 3 huge things. Because they were fleeing those things, they joined gangs. Not because they were seeking anything, but because they were fleeing that. [Pauses as he lets this sink in] I’m in awe of what they’ve had to navigate, because it’s really quite huge. Family is a particular thing around here – where there’s a decided absence of it. But there’s an absence of a lot of things. A lethal absence of hope. And an absence of normal kinds of adolescent growing up. And an absence of parents where there’s a secure attachment and people are paying attention in an appropriate way. So I’m just astounded by what they have to carry, knowing that I’ve never had to carry anything like that.  

How do you help the homies knowing that?

One of the things I’ve learned here is it’s not about fixing or rescuing or saving. It’s about receiving people. Can you receive people? We have 200 volunteers, and one of the things we vet is people coming in saying “I have a message these young people need to hear.” No no, we don’t want you here if you have a message! Or service-provider, service-recipient. We don’t want that either. Are you willing to come here and have your life utterly and completely changed? If you are… welcome, it’s good to have you here. It turns everything on its head, that idea of the advantaged trying to “rescue” or “save” the disadvantaged, which doesn’t make any sense to me. 

Right, I imagine that idea can perpetuate some of the same problems it's trying to solve.

It does, I think you’re right. I had a PBS reporter ask me “How does it feel to have saved thousands and thousands of lives?” And I said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” I come here, and if I’m lucky, my life is saved.

One of the things I’d like to do is explore the practice of gratitude not just for the clear blessings we receive, but also for life’s challenges and difficulties. I was wondering, for you, is there anything you’ve experienced that during it gratitude was the last emotion or feeling that you thought you would have for it, but which you are grateful for after having gone through it? 

I think the trick is, if you stay anchored in the present moment, there’s a luminous meaning in everything that’s right in front of you. No matter how bad things get. 

I had to bury a two-month old baby today who died of SIDS.  The child of a much beloved homie who works here. You straddle this fence – if God didn’t bring this terrible thing into their life, but SIDS happens, then where is God? Well, there’s a luminous meaning somewhere in it. Suddenly you’re discovering something very important, like, what a blessing the gift of support of people surrounding them with love is. Those are things that are really powerful. You don’t have to wait to three days later to look back. You can actually do this right as stuff is happening. Even better if you’re doing it then. Even the pain, the pang, whatever it is you’re feeling, you want to be able to go through it and say “This is interesting. I’m curious about it. This, on the one hand, happened, but look at all this other stuff that is happening as a result of it. When Joe and his wife Judy came in… 

The parents of the child who had died?

Yes, they came in here two days after. I was in here having a meeting. It was unbelievable, there were 300 people who surrounded them to comfort them. I mean literally, surrounded them.  I was having a meeting in here and looked outside and thought “What the hell is that?” They all just converged. Then they kinda held the couple. Somebody lead a prayer. It was spontaneous and wonderful. You say, “Wow, that’s more powerful than death.”  

Wow.

This morning at the burial Joe hugs me and wouldn’t let go and says “If it weren’t for Homeboy I would never have known the love that I’ve felt in this week since the baby died.” So he was somehow able to find the grateful place. 

In the present.

Yeah. “Being present to the presence” as Father Richard Rohr always says.

At this point one of the homies came in and talked to Fr G about the case of an addict that they've been trying to help.

One last question for you. What are some things that you’re grateful for from this very day? 

That’s a good one right there [referencing the conversation he just had], because that was vexing and I didn’t know how to handle it. He’s really in recovery. I said “Do me a favor, talk to Jose.” Then I saw him walk out there and thought “This is not going to go well.” He came back and it went better than well, it went perfect. So I’m grateful for that. 

Tests came back clean? 

Not a clean test. He’s agreed to go to rehab, which is nice.  

Good! It’s the little things..

Yeah. Well, big things!

Actually yes, I take that back!

They’re very big things.

Grateful People: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me.

To support Father Greg and his work at Homeboy Industries, you can donate here. To learn more about Father Greg's work at Homeboy, I highly recommend his book Tattoos on the Heart, which is laugh-out-loud funny, poignant, and hopeful.

Read Ana's gratitude for Homeboy here and Richard's here.