Tattoos on the Heart - Gregory Boyle - Part 2

Tattoos on the Heart: the Power of
Boundless Compassion
Gregory Boyle

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 35

 February 4, 2017 

Book 10 - Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion
by Gregory Boyle (2010)
 Part 2 - Pages 61-108
Reading Time - 60 minutes

This is really quite a radical book. Radical as in it really gets back to the heart of Jesus' teaching. The author, a Jesuit priest, works in the most gang-infested area of LA and everyday sees "kids I love killing kids I love". He doesn't love the killers any less than the victims. Loving only those we like isn't what Jesus taught.

This section opens with a discussion between "homies" (gang-members) and Boyle about the distinction between sympathy, empathy and compassion. The first two are easy... for the third, the homies can only shrug and say "compassion... that's like Jesus". Boyle would say... compassion is not a relationship between healer and wounded... it is a covenant between equals. Being with others... not for others.

It's kind of a mind-blowing concept in society today, where we so often want to "help the less-fortunate". Already, we have judged them as "less" than ourselves who are "more fortunate". We walk around through life with blinders of judgement on... judging where others live, how they live, what they own, how old they are, what gender they are, what colour there skin is.

The good news is... God doesn't have those blinders on... God sees "people I love hurting people I love". But we... we just can't wrap our tiny, judgemental, finite brains around that concept. And so we continue to go around judging people... including ourselves. Sad, really.