{"id":2762,"date":"2024-02-26T14:39:14","date_gmt":"2024-02-26T14:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/father-greg-boyle-a-modern-day-mystic-the-priest-behind-homeboy-industries\/"},"modified":"2024-10-15T19:00:53","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T19:00:53","slug":"father-greg-boyle-a-modern-day-mystic-the-priest-behind-homeboy-industries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/father-greg-boyle-a-modern-day-mystic-the-priest-behind-homeboy-industries\/","title":{"rendered":"Father Greg Boyle: A Modern-Day Mystic \u2014 The Priest Behind Homeboy Industries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Father Greg Boyle: A Modern-Day Mystic \u2014 The Priest Behind Homeboy Industries<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n By<\/span>Donald E. Miller<\/a><\/strong>\n \n February 26, 2024<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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This article was originally published on<\/em>\u00a0Religion Unplugged<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0with the support of CRCC\u2019s global project on\u00a0engaged spirituality<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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The founder of the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation and prison reentry program in the world is a mystic, a Jesuit priest who does not believe that God has a plan for your life. Having buried 260 young men and women, Father Greg Boyle rejects the idea that it is God\u2019s plan that anyone should die of a gang member\u2019s bullet.<\/p>\n

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I first met Fr. Greg 30 years ago when he was a lot skinnier and the priest at Dolores Mission in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. This was a time when gang violence was at its peak, and the mothers of the neighborhood used to do peace vigils, walking the streets at night, petitioning their sons to put away their guns.<\/p>\n

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At that time, Fr. Greg thought the solution to gang violence was good employment, offering the motto that \u201cNothing stops a bullet like a job.\u201d I visited one of the first social enterprises he started \u2014 a silk screening operation where members of different gangs were working side by side.<\/p>\n

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We reunited last year as part of a research project I’m conducting on exemplary humanitarians to understand the role of faith in motivating and sustaining their work. In the past 35 years, Homeboy Industries expanded into a $40 million a year organization, and Fr. Greg has become a bestselling author.<\/p>\n

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Sipping cappuccinos outside the Homeboy Bakery, I casually interacted with \u201chomies\u201d there for work, counseling, or a tattoo removal session. I was curious how Fr. Greg was perceived by the patrons. Was he the real deal or just a good storyteller in his books?<\/p>\n

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I found the homies come not only for the services, but also for the spirit and values that the priest has infused into the technically secular nonprofit. While Fr. Greg still believes employment is important, as evidenced by the hundreds of former gang members and recently incarcerated people who work in Homeboy\u2019s bakery, recycling program, and solar energy project, Fr. Greg has come to a deeper truth: That personal transformation requires healing the scars that prevent people from realizing their unshakeable goodness, their nobility in God\u2019s eyes. He believes in restorative justice \u2014 reconnecting people with their wholeness.<\/p>\n

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Being something of a skeptic, this what I find to be both exemplary \u2014 and unsettling \u2014 about Fr. Greg and the humanitarians I have had the privilege to get to know through my research: Their beliefs and practices allow them to develop a consciousness of ideal relations in which all beings are sacred, and hope and possibility exist regardless of the circumstances. They envision a world entirely different from our own and work to create it.<\/p>\n

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Whether working with gang members, caring for genocide survivors, stitching up the wounds of civil war, or giving hope and tangible assistance to impoverished people, modern-day saints like Fr. Greg challenge us and show us how to live with a deeply rooted sense of purpose.<\/p>\n

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\u2018Like a monk\u2019\"Large<\/h2>\n

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Courtesy of Homeboy Industries<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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My first attempt at a sit-down interview with Fr. Greg was aborted. Dozens of people were waiting their turns to meet with \u201cG,\u201d as the homies called him.<\/p>\n

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When I sat down opposite Fr. Greg\u2019s desk and pulled out my tape recorder, explaining my intentions, I had barely gotten out my first question when Greg said, \u201cDon, this is not going to work. We need a quiet place.\u201d In the brief time I had been there, someone had already interrupted us with the need for a signature, and various homies kept waving to him as they passed by his glass-enclosed office.<\/p>\n

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On a typical day at Homeboy, Fr. Greg sees homie after homie. Listening to them. Hearing their challenges. Asking them about their goals. One time I sat by his desk for a while, and he was writing check after check, helping this person with rent, and another with groceries. Homies melt into a bear hug, their face buried in his shoulder. He puts his hand on another homie\u2019s shoulders, looking at him with a singular focus that makes them feel like they are the most important person in the world.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOnce I hit the office, I’m not going to be able to do anything,\u201d he told me 10 days later, this time meeting in my house. \u201cI’m not going to be able to do an email, check my cell phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

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We sat for several hours as I probed him about things that were not in his books. To my surprise, he said that he gets up every morning \u201clike a monk\u201d at 2:45 a.m. When his feet hit the floor, he said: \u201cI breathe in and out and make the sign of the cross while saying, \u2018Through Him, and with Him \u2026 in the unity of the Holy Spirit \u2026 all glory and honor is yours, Almighty Father, forever and ever. Amen.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Then, after his first cup of coffee, he said that he does his \u201cgrounding walk,\u201d slowly walking on the brick path that surrounds his house. Then he returns to his room, where he said that he has a corner with a little altar. He lights some candles, sets a timer, and then does what he calls his \u201cbreathing thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Asked about this practice, he says that he can\u2019t distinguish between meditation and prayer. Perhaps this reflects his reading of various mystics and interactions with Buddhists like Pema Chodron.<\/p>\n

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He says that he is a bit of a political junky, so while it is still early, he glances at The New York Times<\/em>, the Los Angeles Times<\/em>, Politico<\/em>, The Huffington Post<\/em> and Punchbowl News<\/em>. He also checks email and interacts briefly with Sergio, a former gang member and his spiritual director, in an exchange of emails about the scripture of the day.<\/p>\n

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At exactly 7 a.m., he and Mark Torres, another Jesuit who lives in his house and works at Homeboy, iron their shirts together and check-in about various homies and their ups and downs. He then showers and heads to the office, often swinging by the bank since, as he says, \u201cI\u2019m the priest that the homies mistook for an ATM machine.\u201d<\/p>\n

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At the end of the day, Greg does what he calls an \u201cIgnatius thing\u201d \u2014 the Examen or \u201cdiscernment of spirits\u201d \u2014 looking back on the day, reflecting on the highs (Consolation) and lows (Desolation), contemplating his response to different events and issues. He then falls into bed and tries to get six or seven hours of sleep before rising early the next morning.<\/p>\n

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Fr. Greg is no lone-ranger guru. His work at Homeboy Industries has a context. He is a Jesuit who went through a period of formation as a young priest and continues to operate out of the rich tradition of the Jesuits, including various practices initiated by the founder of the order, Ignatius.<\/p>\n

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Like most Jesuits, Fr. Greg lives in community. Every Sunday night, one of the five priests is responsible for dinner, and they eat together. This is a time of fellowship.<\/p>\n

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On Monday night at 7 p.m. they share the Eucharist and some readings, exchanging various lights or darkness they are experiencing, much like the members of a close-knit family might share the highlights and burdens of their lives. He and a few other Jesuits also go on annual 8-day retreats, where they practice silence during the day.<\/p>\n

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His community goes beyond the Jesuits as well. Fr. Greg has at least two other groups with which he meets on a regular basis. On Tuesday nights \u2014 ever since COVID \u2014 he logs onto an hour-long Zoom call with 10-12 friends, mostly ex-gang members, including some of his \u201cdearly deported\u201d who live in Mexico or Central America, and they discuss a passage of scripture or a theological concept, such as compassion. The convener of this group is Sergio, his spiritual director, who leads a very free-flowing discussion in which almost everyone participates.<\/p>\n

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Then, once a month, Greg connects with a group of professors and friends for a one-hour spiritual salon. He is the only Jesuit, although the gathering includes a former Jesuit with a severely disabled daughter who lives with him in a L\u2019Arche community in Portland, Oregon. One of the first books they read together was the classic novel by Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, and now they are onto reading short stories. This discussion is more philosophical than the Tuesday night group, and they cover a variety of topics, including what they believe and no longer believe.<\/p>\n

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The making of a mystic\"Father<\/h2>\n

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Photo by Donald Miller<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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However traditional Fr. Greg may be in his practice as a Jesuit, he draws on the mystical tradition of Meister Eckhart, Teresa of Avila and others to embrace a non-dualistic view of God. Like Eckhart, he sees many characterizations of God as human projections. God is not judgmental; God does not get angry; God is not dependent on our love. God is not a string-puller who saves some people from car crashes but vengefully kills others. No, God loves us unconditionally.<\/p>\n

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The practice of Jesuits and many religious orders, both male and female, includes periodic 30-day silent retreats. Midway through his second 30-day silent retreat, 10 years after his ordination as a Jesuit priest, Fr. Greg says that he had a mystical experience that changed his understanding of God.<\/p>\n

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He felt his father coming behind him as he was sitting alone in the chapel, gently rubbing his neck as he used to do as a teenager while Greg was eating breakfast and reading the Los Angeles Times. There was something enormously comforting, physical, and real about this experience, which was accompanied by an overwhelming realization of the love of God\u2014that the essence of God is love. Recalling this experience, Fr. Greg said he cried as he sat alone in this chapel, \u201cas only one can after having been massaged into a newfound sense of sacred presence, deepened peace, and an unshakable holy assurance.\u201d<\/p>\n

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One of the hallmarks of mystics is direct and unmediated experiences of God. According to the great American philosopher and psychologist William James, mystical experiences have a \u201cnoetic\u201d quality that defy rational explanation. Yet they are often life-transforming. One has had an experiential glimpse of a reality that goes beyond theological dogma or institutional authority.<\/p>\n

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For Fr. Greg, this experience was liberating. In his books and public presentations, he often quotes Mirabai Starr, who says, \u201cOnce you know the God of love, you fire all the other gods.\u201d<\/p>\n

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One needs to filter out all dualistic thinking about God \u2014 who God loves, rejects, punishes, and so on, Fr. Greg says. God does not have an evil twin, Satan. Such notions are human projections calculated to blame, separate, and demonize. God is love. God only sees our unshakeable goodness, our nobility, and seeks for us to wake up to our goodness\u2014not \u201cshape up\u201d which is the moralizing view of God.<\/p>\n

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In Fr. Greg\u2019s words, one needs to \u201csmoke out what\u2019s fear-based, what\u2019s a museum piece, what God doesn\u2019t give two toots about.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Once you know the God of love, you filter things out, including magical thinking. Some biblical narratives need to be purified. The man Jesus healed was not possessed with demons; he had epilepsy. The wrathful God of the Old Testament reflects the human struggle to explain certain things.<\/p>\n

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Since Fr. Greg often quotes mystics from non-Christian traditions, I asked whether he has a pluralistic view of truth. In response, he offered an analogy, saying that he likes a particular brand of single malt whiskey. He said, it\u2019s not the bottle that is important, but what it contains. He was born into Catholicism; it is the tradition he knows, and it is the background of most of the homies with whom he interacts. Therefore, he operates within that container and values it, saying mass on a regular basis; but he is unwilling to engage in dualistic thinking about other paths to truth, labeling them false or inadequate. He quotes Teresa of Avila who says, \u201cAll concepts of God are like a jar we break.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Reconnecting to Wholeness\"Father<\/h2>\n

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Courtesy of Homeboy Industries<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Homeboy Industries is not a religious program in a formal, institutional sense. In the ritualized morning meeting, which is about 15 minutes, there are announcements, an acknowledgement of the native lands where the building is located, the celebration of birthdays and positive events in the lives of some members, a \u201csaying\u201d for the day, a testimony of transformation, and a brief prayer delivered by one of the homies.<\/p>\n

Occasionally, Fr. Greg will offer a blessing in his office to someone who is needing support, but he doesn\u2019t mix up with any magic \u2014 just an affirmation that the individual is valued by God and loved.<\/p>\n

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The mystic way of Fr. Greg does not emphasize preaching moral values, except by his actions of love and support. Many of the homies call him \u201cpops,\u201d and he calls them sons\/daughters. Most people come to Homeboy Industries feeling like \u201csh\u2014,\u201d said one homie in my interview. Now on staff, this fellow said that his father told him that he wished he had never been born. Drug abuse, alcohol, fractured families, and violence define the childhood of most of the patrons. They have become strangers to their inherent goodness, and religion with its labels of sin and evil have created a negative identity.<\/p>\n

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Fr. Greg says that it is an outsider\u2019s view that gang members and incarcerated youth need to be taught moral principles. No, they need to be loved, not made to feel guilty. The work of Homeboy Industries is restorative justice \u2014 reconnecting people with their wholeness, their goodness. The method is unconditional love, second chances, third chances \u2014 an infinite number. People will often come to Homeboy, get a little dose of this love and affirmation, and end up back in prison. But they remember that experience of love, acceptance, and affirmation and return to Homeboy once they are out on parole.<\/p>\n

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The method is \u201cextravagant tenderness,\u201d as indicated in the subtitle to Fr. Greg\u2019s latest book. Many other rehab programs focus on helping people make better choices. That is not their problem. They need to be cherished, not told the difference between right and wrong.<\/p>\n

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Fr. Greg says the wealthy think they made the right choices, and that is why they are successful. This is a bogus narrative, in his view. Not all choices are equal, especially given the childhood of most people entering the doors of Homeboy.<\/p>\n

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It is for that reason, says Fr. Greg, that Homeboy Industries is more about context than content. It is the context of tenderness and love that heals and provides the foundation for hope. Not the content of preaching moral values.<\/p>\n

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Nevertheless, content is not ignored in the 18-month program, which includes classes on anger management, parenting, and addiction \u2014 with two-thirds of the staff being graduates of the Homeboy program. It takes 18 months to reestablish the bonds that were broken in an abusive upbringing.<\/p>\n

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Mentorship: A Father-Son Relationship\"Father<\/h2>\n

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Photo by Donald Miller<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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After my first meeting with Fr. Greg at Homeboy, he hooked me up with one of the case managers to facilitate my interviewing and hanging out. On my request, this 30-something Black man agreed to sit outside of the Homeboy bakery at a table and tell me his story.<\/p>\n

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He said that violence was at his door every day growing up. In 2001, his brother and two friends were shot and killed when they were visiting a friend\u2019s house that was out of their territory. This brother was his role model and mentor. Shortly thereafter, another friend was killed. He said that after these deaths, \u201cI started drinking just to get drunk and get the day over with so I wouldn\u2019t feel the pain.\u201d He was at the local liquor store when it opened in the morning. And at night, \u201cI used to go to sleep with a bottle on my lap and a gun at my side.\u201d After his brother\u2019s and friends\u2019 deaths, he said, \u201cI just started hating everything. I didn\u2019t have no love in my heart for nobody.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He ended up in prison, where he had repeated nightmares about his brother coming to him. He got out of prison but didn\u2019t know any other life than the way of the \u201chood\u201d and ended up back in prison. But one day, he said, he woke up.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI gave it to God. \u2026 I had to sit back and dissect it like \u2014 \u2018Man, your brother wouldn\u2019t want you doing shit like this.\u2019\u201d He realized that he needed to live for his brother, for the life that he couldn\u2019t have. He said that his brother might have wanted to skydive, to go camping, to scuba dive. He needed to do these things for him.<\/p>\n

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It was in this frame of mind that he met Fr. Greg, or \u201cPops,\u201d as he calls him.<\/p>\n

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\u201cGrowing up, I didn\u2019t have that father figure for me. \u2026 To this day, he treats me like his son. And I say, G, I don\u2019t look too much like you [he is African American], but I take it.\u201d Continuing, he said: \u201cI see him as a father figure more than a priest. \u2026 He relates to us with love and care and actual understanding, taking the time out to listen. That\u2019s why his door is always open. \u2026 He believes in me when I didn\u2019t believe in myself. \u2026 He be like, \u2018You got this son, you got it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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He said when he came to Homeboy, they gave him \u201cthe ugly truth,\u201d which is that \u201cthe hood sold me a dream.\u201d At Homeboy, he found a community that cared about him. \u201cFather G created an environment for us to be brothers and sisters.\u201d He said that when you walk through the door, somebody is going to give you a hug. Somebody will make you laugh, and he tries to do the same. \u201cIt\u2019s a family, the family that I never had.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On one of his speaking engagements in Memphis, Fr. Greg took this case manager with him. Fr. Greg took him to a Martin Luther King exhibit, to Graceland \u2014 Elvis Presley\u2019s House \u2014 and to a B.B. King Museum. When the young man returned from Memphis, he said he was different. \u201cI seen all the sacrifices people made for me.\u201d He had a different attitude about himself.<\/p>\n

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Although he is currently single, he said that his kids say, \u201cDad is not fucking up no more. He\u2019s got a job.\u201d He said, \u201cI\u2019m getting honest money now.\u201d If one of his kids want a new pair of shoes, he can buy them for them.<\/p>\n

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As a case manager, he tries to mirror Father Greg. He said he tries to get his clients to \u201cwake up.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou\u2019re from the hood, yes. You\u2019re from there, but that\u2019s not who you are.\u201d And when his clients screw up, he practices Fr. Greg\u2019s attitude: \u201cOkay, you messed up. You fell off the bike. Everyone makes mistakes.\u201d And he helps them take the next small step of realizing some element of their dream.<\/p>\n

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Like Fr. Greg, he doesn\u2019t just believe in second chances; he believes in third and fourth and an infinite number of chances. Also, like Fr. Greg, he believes there is a lot of healing to be done for his clients, and it doesn\u2019t happen all at once. It occurs in small doses. \u201cThey don\u2019t give up on you at Homeboy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Engaged Mysticism\"Father<\/h2>\n

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Courtesy of Homeboy Industries<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The common image of a mystic is someone who lives in a cave eating cabbage, if anything at all. Fr. Greg does not fit this image. When I had dinner with him at a Mexican restaurant, he ordered a margarita \u2014 and then another as the meal progressed. Fr. Greg says, \u201cWe have long been saddled with the notion that mysticism is some other-worldly escape, above and beyond this earthly existence.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The famous sociologist, Max Weber, says that there are two types of mystics \u2014 inner worldly and other worldly. Clearly, Fr. Greg fits the first category. He is fully engaged in the world of gang members, the incarcerated, and people who have lost hope. As a young priest, he used to ride his bicycle around the streets of violence-prone Boyle Heights at obvious risk to himself. But this is where God lives, in his view \u2014 at the margins of society.<\/p>\n

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His awakening to poverty occurred in a year he spent in Cochabamba, Bolivia early in his career as a Jesuit. It was here that he encountered Liberation Theology and learned to appreciate the important role of spiritual \u201cbase communities,\u201d which prepared him to serve at Dolores Mission. Over time, the idea of the base community evolved in Fr. Greg\u2019s mind into the beloved community of tenderness. In one of his books, he states: \u201cIf love is the answer, community is the context, and tenderness is the methodology.\u201d<\/p>\n

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While Fr. Greg affirms his Catholic identity, like a mystic, he trusts experience more than the dogma and tradition of the church. It is not exceptional for him to invite everyone to partake of the Eucharist, whether Catholic or not. In his view, God is inclusive. He says, \u201cMystics are joined to their experience in a nondual consciousness. Their experience is both\/and, not either\/or.\u201d In his view, \u201cOnce you know the God of love, you filter things out.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The goal is to see God as God sees. God does not see our sinfulness. In fact, he says: \u201cI\u2019m with Dame Julian of Norwich, who found the mystical view and did away with sin.\u201d In his view, \u201cThe mystic\u2019s quest is to be on the lookout for the hidden wholeness in everyone.\u201d Stated differently, he says: \u201cLove is God\u2019s religion and loving is how we practice it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He says, \u201cBuddha didn\u2019t teach Buddhism \u2014 but a way of life. Jesus too.\u201d Love is the heart of Jesus. To practice love is to be Christ-like. Our goal in life, says Fr. Greg, is to \u201cLove each other into wholeness.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Mysticism sees connectedness. There is not a hierarchy of goodness or the potential to be good, which is why Fr. Greg continually refers to our unshakeable goodness. In his view, \u201cMoralism has never kept us moral. It\u2019s kept us from each other.\u201d Exclusivist views of Christianity have done the same, sometimes in militaristic ways.<\/p>\n

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The mystical tradition, on the other hand, sees unity and wholeness. Fr. Greg quotes Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner in one of his books: \u201cThe Christian of the future will either be a mystic . . . or he will cease to be anything at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Click here to read the article on Religion Unplugged<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The founder of the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation and prison reentry program in the world is a mystic, a Jesuit priest who does not believe that God has a plan for your life. Having buried 260 young men and women, Father Greg Boyle rejects the idea that it is God\u2019s plan that anyone should die of a gang member\u2019s bullet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":813,"featured_media":2765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[51,113,32,80,29,30,81],"class_list":["post-2762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-catholicism","tag-civic-engagement","tag-donald-e-miller","tag-engaged-spirituality","tag-religious-leadership","tag-southern-california","tag-spiritual-exemplars"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFather Greg Boyle: A Modern-Day Mystic \u2014 The Priest Behind Homeboy Industries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/father-greg-boyle-a-modern-day-mystic-the-priest-behind-homeboy-industries\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Father Greg Boyle: A Modern-Day Mystic \u2014 The Priest Behind Homeboy Industries - Center for Religion and Civic Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The founder of the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation and prison reentry program in the world is a mystic, a Jesuit priest who does not believe that God has a plan for your life. 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