BOOK REVIEW: THE WHOLE LANGUAGE

One minute, you are crying; the next minute, you are laughing; and the minute after that, you are reflecting deeply. Only Gregory Boyle can give that feeling.

One minute, you are crying; the next minute, you are laughing; and the minute after that, you are reflecting deeply. Only Gregory Boyle can give that feeling. He makes you laugh like an idiot, he makes you reflect like Socrates, and he makes you cry like David. He is not just Gregory Boyle. He is Fr. Gregory Boyle. A Jesuit priest who found his calling amongst the gangs.

Amid these rejects of society, the men and women whom many consider only to be worthy of jail, Gregory Boyle has made a home for himself. In the process, he helped them find a home in him. He loves them, and they love him. Fr. Gregory does not just love them; his love has turned into action. As Khalil Gibran said, "Work is love in action."

Gregory Boyle established the largest gang intervention program in the world. Rather than allow these men and women to go to jail, Padre gives them jobs. He says, “Jobs, not jail”. His motto has always been, “Nothing Stops A Bullet Like A Job”. He wasn’t kidding. He has provided jobs to hundreds and maybe thousands of homeboys and homegirls through the Homeboy Industries. They run the Homeboy Bakery, the Homeboy Farmers Market, and Homeboy Groceries, amongst many others. They removed more than 43,000 tattoos from gang members in 2018 alone.

Gregory Boyle has brought hope to many, and he continues to do so. Rather than follow the conventional path of Non-Governmental Organizations, the path of education, advocacy, and so much talk, he removed his clean cassocks and wore dirty boots. He does the hard work of turning gang members into respectable and useful members of society daily.

His three books are stories from the frontline. Stories of men and women whom he has encountered. Men and women who have been transformed at homeboy. And unfortunately, men and women whom he has buried. Gregory Boyle has buried more than 400 homeboys in his long career. He has buried 12 people every year for the last 31 years. That’s too much for a human heart. That’s too much than a man can bear. If he had a family of 12 members, which is unlikely, they would be much less; he has buried his whole family every year. Imagine the whole of Manchester United's first eleven players and their coach all dying in a single year. That's exactly the scale of burial that Gregory Boyle does every year. The violence in the streets is ugly. Perhaps this buttresses why the work of Gregory Boyle is important. He is a shining light in a valley of darkness.

In this book, you will find stories that will keep you laughing, crying, and reflecting. And it will make you hopeful. In between, Greg will introduce you to many mystics and vagabonds, Rumi, Hafiz, Simone Weil, etc. You will feel hopeful. You will feel joyful.

These days, my only prayer is, “God, let me live at least 10% in such a kind way that Gregory Boyle lives. That will be enough for me".

If we all do that, we probably understand The Whole Language. The Whole Language is a universal language. You will understand it everywhere and anywhere. May you get it and live it!

Let Fr. Greg have the final say "Love is the answer, community is the context, and tenderness is the connective tissue."