Tattoos on the Heart

I'm currently reading a book called "Tattoos on the Heart" by Gregory Boyle. It is outstanding. It was just what I needed. It is about a priest in the worst part of gang-ridden L.A. and how he deals with the gang members and reaches out to them.

I, unfortunately, missed him when he came to speak a couple of weeks ago. Had I read his book BEFORE he came, I would have ditched my class to go see him for sure! I wasn't sure how I was going to like the book since it was recommended by a very religious friend of mine and I'm not particularly religious.

But what the priest says, is in line with the part of religion that I do like, not the part that I find off-putting. What he says, basically, is that we have to love them.

We have to reach out to them and we have to love them.

A hell of a lot easier said than done, but a good message nonetheless. And one that I am trying to keep in mind and practice. But it is so hard. In the newspaper, today alone, I read about an altercation at an intersection where two groups were arguing and the guys in the SUV got out with MACHINE GUNS! They shot up twelve different cars and caused a major accident with a bus.

Then last night, at one of MY regular train station platforms, a man stole an iphone from a woman on the platform and pushed an old woman down the stairs as he was fleeing the scene. The old woman died.

This is the world we live in. How are we going to change it? Not by sending these guys to jail. That doesn't seem to be working. We don't have to love what they did, but can we find a way to love them? If we don't show them love and forgiveness, how are they going to learn it?

I think the only solution is to get to know them. Because once you know someone it is so much harder to hate them.

Anyways, it was a good book to come along as I am trying to make sense of this crazy world in which we are living.