4th Sunday in Lent

Fr. Greg Boyle is the founder of Homeboy Industries, a highly effective program that is responsible for helping to transform the lives of thousands of former members of Los Angeles’ gangs. When Fr. Greg first came to Dolores mission, a Jesuit parish in the heart of LA’s most notorious gang-land, people scoffed at his naiveté in thinking that is was possible to convert gang members. Here was one solitary individual who believed that it was possible for these young men who lived their lives in the fast lane of drugs and gang-banging to reform their lives and make a positive contribution to society. It was Fr. Greg against an ocean of cynicism and a mountain of statistics that said otherwise. But his belief in the good that dwells in each person paid off and over the years Homeboy Industries has offered a way out of the toxic lifestyle of gangs to thousands of young men and women by providing them with an honest job and a community that believes in them.

Once the success of Homeboy Industries had become a national phenomenon, known all over the US, Fr. Greg was inundated with invitations to give talks all around the US. He would often take with him one or two former gang members who would give a testimony after his talk. On one occasion he was invited to give a talk in Helena, the capital of the state of Montana. He decided to take along with him Julian and Matteo, who had both spent most of their teenage years incarcerated in Youth Authority facilities. Before the talk, all three of them are interviewed by the local paper and their picture is taken. At the talk itself, both Matteo and Julian speak very movingly about their experiences and get a standing ovation. The next, day as they prepare to leave Helena to fly back to LA, they find their photo splashed on the front page of the state newspaper with the headline “GANG MEMBERS VISIT HELENA WITH A MESSAGE OF HOPE.” People at the hotel, and later at the airport greet Matteo and Julian as celebrities and the flight attendants make a big deal about “the celebrities on board,” saluting their courage. When all the fuss has died down and Julian is asleep on Matteo’s shoulder during the flight, Fr. Greg steals a look across at Matteo and sees him crying. “What’s wrong mijo,” Fr. Greg asks Matteo. With the Montana newspaper resting on his lap, Matteo replies “I just read this article again,” and then he can’t speak for a second and silently puts his hand over his heart, “I don’t know… it really gets to me. Makes me feel like I am somebody.” Fr. Greg leans across the aisle of the plane and whispers “Well, that’s because you are somebody.”

In our first reading we see that the Israelites interpret their deportation to Babylon and the destruction of the Temple as God’s punishment for their sins. Despite the theological problems with interpreting a national event such as the Babylonian exile as a punishment for national sin, it is an excellent metaphor for what sin does to us. Sin sends us into exile – into a place where we can no longer palpably feel the love of God – even though God never ceases to love us. We are exiled from our true selves that never stop being in communion with God – the source of all goodness. Like Matteo, when we sin, we become convinced that we are nobodies, we lose sight of our fundamental God-given goodness. All we hear are voices of condemnation that make us feel worthless. The path of return is therefore one that convinces us of our fundamental goodness, one that convinces us that we are somebody. It has to be a powerful experience of affirmation like the one that Fr. Greg gave Matteo. It helped that Matteo also had an experience of affirmation from society in Montana to counteract the negative narrative that society in LA projected onto him, namely that he was a good-for-nothing gangster. Fr. Greg talks of this experience of innate goodness when he relates how he had always been long puzzled by the extraordinary resilience of one former gang-member by the name of Miguel, who had been able to deal with a huge amount of tragedy and suffering in his life. When asked by Fr. Greg how he had managed to do so without becoming bitter and resentful, he responded “You know, I always suspected that there was something of goodness in me, but I just couldn’t find it. Until one day,” Miguel pauses a bit, struck by his own truth, “…one day, I discovered it here, in my heart. I found it…. goodness. And ever since that day, I have always known who I was. And now, nothing can touch me.” Sin mars and obscures this goodness for many of us. The salvation that Jesus brings us is to uncover this goodness and restore it to wholeness. When Jesus shines his light on our lives, his light reveals the goodness that already abides in us, made in the image and likeness of God as we are.

Our gospel today tells us that God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world. This is what St. Paul means when he says there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. What Jesus’ light reveals is our fundamental goodness. But it can also reveal our sickening selfishness and depravity as human beings. We are saints and sinners all at the same time, simul justus et peccatus, in the words of Martin Luther. Which narrative are we going to believe? Well both, actually, if we want a healthy spiritual life. An unhealthy spirituality happens when we deny one or other or them. What is salutary about the serpent that Moses lifts up in the desert is the fact that we realize that our sinfulness is poisonous to ourselves and others. But if all we see is the serpent, if all we see is God’s condemnation – then we are truly lost – because that is only half the story. Jesus needs to be lifted up on the cross in order for us to see both sides of our nature – both the sinner and the saint. The cross shows us both the poison of our sinfulness (an innocent man crucified by human greed and lust for power) as well as God’s response to our sinfulness (Jesus forgiving those who crucified him). The lack of condemnation from Jesus when we are at our weakest and worst should rejuvenate our faith in the goodness of our humanity – a humanity that was restored in Jesus to its full glory. The glory of God is the human person fully alive (St. Irenaeus).

Questions for reflection

1. Have I recently experienced an event that has restored my faith in the fundamental goodness of humanity?
2. Do I live in fear of the punishment of God for my sins?
3. Am I a person who spreads condemnation or love?