Father Gregory Boyle is known as the founder of Homeboy Industries, Inc. in Los Angeles and as the author of the best selling book Tattoos on the Heart. Recently his second book has been released with the title Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship. Here is a quote from the early part of the book:
Kinship is the game-changer. It is the Pearl of Great Price. It is the treasure hidden in the field. Let’s sell everything to get it. Yet we think kinship is beyond our reach…Gospel kinship always exposes the game, jostles the status quo in constant need of conversion, because the status quo is only interested in judging, comparisons, measuring, scapegoating, and competition. And we, the Choir, are stuck in complacency. I need this conversion. That’s why I’m writing about it. (p.10)
This quote seems especially appropriate and challenging during this time of division and polarization in our society, our government, our churches, and our lives. Gregory Boyle reminds us that relationships across barriers that normally separate us, real kinship, is at the heart of the gospel of Jesus and the ongoing call to any of us who follow the way of Jesus. It also challenges the status quo that is content with things as they are and with judging those who are different. May we be open to the converting power of kinship that can heal our lives and our society as we open ourselves to God’s love for all people and develop relationships across the barriers that separate us . What step toward kinship is God calling you to take?