Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion

In 1990, Dolores Mission Church was visited by Mike Wallace and his crew from 60 Minutes to film an episode on Boyle’s gang outreach efforts in his community. When Wallace arrived, he stepped out of a long white limousine wearing a flak jacket. Wallace tells Boyle that he had come expecting to find monsters, but that Boyle’s gang members were nothing of the sort.

While filming at the Dolores Alternative Mission School, Wallace claims that Boyle would not turn any of the students into the police. Wallace asks one of the boys there why this was the case, and the boy merely shrugs and says “God…I guess” (20). Boyle goes on to explain that this chapter, as well as the entire book, is about God.

Next, Boyle describes “Ralph.” Ralph was a defensive and stubborn ex-gang member who collected and sold scrap metal to survive. He would periodically ask Boyle for money, and sometimes Boyle would oblige him. One day when Boyle was talking to Ralph, the man actually seemed to be taking Boyle’s words to heart. Ralph said that he was going let Boyle’s words marinate in his heart. Boyle suggests we should all do the same, but with God’s words and love instead.

A local gang member named Willy approached Boyle once and asked for some money for food. Boyle describes Willy as being an extremely charming and overly confident gang member who would rather boast of his exploits than to participate in any. Boyle told Willy to hop in his car and they went to an ATM.

Boyle hopped out of the car to retrieve the money, and he told Willy to pray in the meantime. When Boyle returned, Willy was unusually quiet. Boyle asked him what God said to him during his prayer, and Willy said that God said to “Shut up and listen” (23). Boyle asked Willy what he thinks God thinks of him, and Willy tearfully responded, “God…thinks…I’m…firme,” which in Spanish is like saying “perfect” (24). Boyle claims that God sees us all as firme and that it is God’s pleasure to let us marinate in that knowledge.

Boyle goes on to describe a 15-year-old named Rigo who was set to get his first communion at the Camp Paige County Detention Center. Boyle asked Rigo about his life, and the boy described how his father had largely been absent but that he used to beat him ferociously. Rigo began to cry, and then he talked of his mother, who had to take seven buses just to visit him every Sunday at Camp Paige. Rigo understood the bigger picture of all that his mother had done for him. Boyle suggests with this anecdote that everyone should do the same as Rigo in understanding God.

One day, Boyle received a phone call from a man named Cesar. Boyle had known Cesar since he was a little kid, and Cesar called Boyle to let him know that he had just gotten out of prison after four years. Cesar asked if Boyle could help him get any clothes, so Boyle agreed to pick Cesar up.

The two went to JCPenney’s, where Boyle allowed Cesar to pick out clothes. Boyle then took an elated Cesar home. Later, at 3 am, Boyle received a call from Cesar. Cesar asked Boyle if he was Boyle’s son, and Boyle responded, “Oh, hell, yeah” (30). Boyle explains that this was notable because Cesar had realized that he was worthy of being someone’s son.

Another day, Boyle was in his office when he saw Scrappy enter the building. Scrappy had been in prison for 10 years, and he and Boyle always had a strained relationship. Scrappy even pulled a gun on Boyle before. This time, however, Scrappy came looking for reconciliation. The two men laughed and cried together, and Boyle hired Scrappy that day. Boyle explains that Scrappy never had to go looking for the “gate” to God, as he was already inside it.

To close out the chapter, Boyle describes how he spent a year in a small village in Colombia after his ordination. Boyle spent his days ministering and learning Spanish. One day, a group of health workers asked if Boyle would deliver Mass to a group of Quechan Indians who lived high above Boyle’s location. Boyle agreed, but he struggled to piece together the Spanish that he will later use frequently.

He struggled through the Mass, and once it was over, a health worker approached with a Quechan woman who had requested to give her confession. The woman spoke in rapid-fire Quechan for 30 minutes, but once she was finished, Boyle realized that everyone else had already left. He began to make his way down towards his village when an old gentleman approached and thanked him for coming. He gestured for Boyle to kneel down, and then poured several handfuls of flower petals over Boyle’s head. Boyle ends the chapter by likening this act to God’s desire to surround you with “rose petals” (38). 

Boyle was reading through Homeboy Industries’ daily mail one day when a young woman named Carmen walked into the lobby. Boyle had a baptism to do in seven minutes, so he worried at first that she might hold him up. She then approached Boyle and told him that she wanted help, and that, “I…am…a…disgrace” (42). Not only did she feel ashamed, but so did Boyle, as he initially thought her to be an interruption.

Boyle explains that he finds shame in all of the homies that he works with on a day-to-day basis, as they all have internalized the fact that they are “no good.” But Boyle goes on to describe how it is this very shame that drives many gang members to later lead lives of wholeness. They try to hide their shame through drugs and addiction, but later, it can be a tool to free them.

Once, near the 4th of July, Boyle heard the sound of a firecracker going off in the Homeboy Industries building. He walked down to the bathroom to find Danny denying any wrongdoing, even though he was surrounded by smoke. Boyle resisted anger and gave the boy five dollars to go get some food across the street. Boyle trusted the boy’s word that he did not set the firecracker off, but at this Danny began to cry: He was ashamed of lying to the trusting Boyle. He needed his shame to come full circle.

Boyle goes on to argue that the poor have not historically suffered due to a lack of money or anything materialistic, but rather through bearing the great weights of shame and disgrace. Guilt is feeling bad about one’s actions, but shame is feeling bad about oneself. Boyle states that, regardless of your actions or personality, you will always be in God’s favor.

Boyle next describes how he determined not be a slave to his office. He would ride around his community on his bike and greet gang members. He said the encounters were chilly at first, but things improved as the homies recognized all that Boyle was doing for their community. One homie named Cricket, though, always would give Boyle the cold shoulder. One day Boyle called Cricket by his real name, William, and Cricket was very impressed. Receiving recognition is like being reminded of your shape within God, Boyle posits.

Boyle explains how the gang member that caused him the most stress was a teenager nicknamed Speedy. He was a true daredevil. Speedy told Boyle that he previously walked Karla home, which angered Boyle because Karla lived in an enemy gang area and he could have jeopardized both the teens’ lives by doing so.

After bringing Karla home, Speedy was chased away by enemy homies. While running home, he bumped into a stranger who told him that she had seen him in the community, and that she knew he was truly a good boy and that she would be devastated if he was hurt or killed. Speedy told Boyle that this comment really touched him, and from that day forward Speedy was a changed man.

Speedy goes on to marry his high school sweetheart, have several children, and find work at an oil rig. Speedy took Boyle out to dinner one night, and he explained how he listened to his daughters read Harry Potter aloud each night before bed. Speedy cried as he explained this, and Boyle told him that he had a good life now. Speedy’s former shames and disgraces helped forge his life on to a new path. 

As Boyle had an MA in English, he began teaching classes at Folsom Prison in 1993. The inmates did not want to learn about scriptures, so instead Boyle led a class entitled “Theological Issues in American Short Fiction.” Boyle had the inmates in his classes read Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” and Boyle asked the men to describe the grandmother in the story.

The prisoners used words like sympathy, empathy, and compassion; Boyle had the men define sympathy and empathy, but everyone hesitated to define compassion. Then an older gentleman raised his hand and said, “That’s what Jesus did…I mean, Compassion…IS…God” (62). Boyle agreed with the man and went on to explain the deep compassion exhibited by Jesus Christ.

Boyle shifts back to reminiscing over Homeboy Industries. Every day after school, young adolescents and teens stopped by the office to converse with the staff or play games. During this timeframe, Boyle befriended a young boy named Betito. The two began calling each other “da real deal” in reference to a Pollo Loco commercial. Not long thereafter, however, Betito died in a drive-by shooting.

In light of Betito’s death, Boyle implores that Christ-like compassion must reach into vastness, and even Betito’s killers must be given compassion. Boyle fast forwards to when Looney, a 15-year-old gang member, returned from a six-month stay at a Los Angeles probation camp. Boyle’s office threw a pizza party for Looney, and Looney revealed to Boyle that he received straight A’s at the camp.

In a private conversation, Boyle said he would be “the proudest man alive” if Looney were his son, and this made Looney cry (68). Looney said that he just wanted to have a life, and Boyle assured him that he would have one. Boyle links this to the notion that Jesus did not run from sinners, but instead he ate with them and therefore made them feel acceptable.

Boyle fast forwards to the late 1980s when Dolores Mission Church announced itself as a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants in light of the passing of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. After this, the church received many threats. One day when walking into the church, Boyle saw “Wetback Church” spray painted on the side of the church. He went in and told his peers what he saw, but they all decided to keep the graffiti up, as they wanted their church to accept anyone, including undocumented persons.

The Dolores church eventually began to smell, as many homeless immigrants slept there on weeknights. Some parishioners began to complain, so during one Sunday’s homilies Boyle asked his congregation what the church smelled like. Someone called out that it smelled like feet. Why Boyle questioned why, another person said it was because homeless people stay there at night. When Boyle then asked why the homeless slept there, another parishioner said they stay at the church because it was what Jesus would have done. Finally, Boyle asked again what the church smelled like. People begin saying that it smelled like commitment and roses, and everyone began to cheer and laugh together. Boyle claims that compassion is not about feeling another’s pain, but rather it is about bringing another person toward yourself.

Boyle goes on to discuss Anthony, a homeless 19 year old. Boyle asked Anthony what he wanted to be when he grew up, and Anthony said that he wanted to be a mechanic. Boyle then went to his own mechanic, Dennis, who was legendary in the area for being able to fix anything. Dennis was a man of no words at all, to the point that some thought he was a mute. But when Boyle asked Dennis if he would take Anthony as an apprentice, he agreed. Anthony’s life quickly changed for the better, and it was because he committed to making a change.

Boyle speaks of Julian and Matteo, who came with Boyle on a speaking trip to Helena, Montana. The older teens had grown up in Youth Authority. After Boyle spoke at the event, the two boys gave a very inspirational speech. The crowd gave them resounding applause, and a local newspaper story came out on the boys the next day. During the flight home, Boyle looked over to find Matteo crying. Matteo said rereading the article made him feel like “I am somebody” (79). Boyle told him that he was somebody.

Boyle closes the chapter with a description of a three-state speaking gig he went on with two rival homies, Memo and Miguel. After speaking at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, a local pastor invited Boyle and his companions to visit his church in nearby Pritchard. The poverty in the area was astounding, and Boyle later found Memo crying over what he saw there. Memo found compassion in himself from this experience.