Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J., delivers his sermon “Fill the Earth with Mercy” Sunday in the Amphitheater.
Column by Mary Lee Talbot
When some religious leaders asked Jesus to give them a sign, he told them no. In Matthew 12:38–42, Jesus told the leaders that Jonah spoke to the people of Nineveh and they repented, but “something greater than Jonah is here!” He also said the queen of the South came to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, but “something greater than Solomon is here!”
Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J., told the congregation that he would not mention Jonah, the whale, the queen or Solomon because “something greater is going on here.” Boyle preached at the 9:15 a.m. Tuesday morning worship service in the Amphitheater. His sermon title was “The Table That Has No End.”
“There is something greater here. So I’m going to do it, like Pope Francis. … St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of our society, said that God is always greater; we want to align our hearts with this God who is spacious and expensive, who loves us without measure, without regret, and Jesus who is anchored in exactly that God,” Boyle said.
He continued, “Jesus took four things seriously. Only four. They’re big, but only four. Inclusion, nonviolence, unconditional loving kindness, and compassion and acceptance. And Jesus doesn’t just give us stuff to think about — he really, truly invites us to do concrete things.”
Sammy, a Homie, was in Boyle’s office and overwhelmed with the suffering in his life. Through his sobs, he asked, “Has God disowned me? Have you?” Boyle said, “I realized at that moment that the only way he’ll ever know this is not on God’s mind, is to know that it’s not on mine either.”
Then he said, “So we received the tender glances so we could choose to be that tender glance in the world. We choose to be the very generosity of God, as siblings of divine love … and we align our hearts to the God that Jesus knew, then we align our lives to the path that Jesus took.”
Boyle was at a high school in San Francisco and invited Gary to come with him. Gary, who has three daughters, was speaking and was very vulnerable. He and his twin brother had been taken from their parents at age 9 and sent to live with their grandmother, “the meanest human being I have ever known,” Gary said.
Gary and his brother spent weekends sitting in the hall of the house, just wearing their underwear, with duct tape over their mouths because their grandmother “hated the sound of our voices,” he said. “That is why I never tell my daughters to shush. I love the sound of their voices.”
Gabriel was one of the Homies who gave the first tours of Homeboy Industries. He had a big “Colgate smile” and loved to walk visitors through buildings. He took them to the case managers and explained what they did. Then he would get them goggles so they could watch tattoos being removed and then got them hairnets so they could watch rival gang members make croissants.
When Boyle was invited to speak at an event sponsored by Laura Bush, he was also invited to bring three Homies with him. “Certainly crooks have resided in the building, but I think this was the first time that gang members were invited to dinner,” he said.
The dinner was a buffet, and Gabriel decided to try some fingerling potatoes stuffed with caviar and crème fraîche. He popped one in his mouth and then spit it out almost immediately and said, “This shit tastes nasty.” Boyle noted, “He was not using his inside voice.”
As they were flying home the next day, Gabriel got up to go to the bathroom and took a long time coming back. When he got back, he told Boyle he had been talking to the flight attendant and he said, “I made her cry. I hope that is OK.”
The flight attendant had seen his tattoos and the Homeboy shirt and had asked him. So he gave her a tour of the offices, at 36,000 feet, just like he did in Los Angeles. He described the case managers, the tattoo removal area and the rival gang members making croissants together.
“I told her we made history last night: For the first time, three gang members walked into the White House. I told her we had dinner and the food was nasty. And she cried,” Gabriel said. Boyle said, “What did you expect? She saw you as somebody — the shape of God’s heart.”
Boyle urged the congregation to have an assurance that steady, harmonizing love will overcome distance. “We receive a tender glance and introduce that to the world. We surrender into the arms of the God of love and we choose to be those arms. We create kinship. Rumi says (build) a table with no end. And we do this together because all of you here know that God loves the sound of your voices.”
The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, senior pastor of Chautauqua, presided. Cathy Nowosielski, past president of the Chautauqua Catholic Community, read the scripture. Sonya Subbayya Sutton, interim director of Sacred Music, played “Cantique” by Jean Langlais on the Massey Memorial Organ for the prelude. The Motet Choir, under the direction of Sutton, sang “The Word of God,” by Rosephanye Powell a cappella. The postlude was “Fugue, BWV 577 (‘Jig’),” by Johann Sebastian Bach, played by Sutton on the Massey Organ. Support for this week’s chaplaincy and preaching is provided by The Lois Raynow Department of Religion Fund and The Daney-Holden Chaplaincy Fund.
Hall of Philosophy worship changes
The 9:15 a.m. Thursday morning worship service will take place in the Amphitheater. The change in venue will allow more people to attend the service and stay dry. The Thursday service will follow the format used in the Hall of Philosophy for most of the season. There will be a conversation between Fr. Greg Boyle and Chautauqua’s Senior Pastor, the Rt. Rev. Eugene Sutton, about Boyle’s faith journey. Members of the Motet Choir will sing an anthem setting of the English folk melody “O Waly Waly,” and lead other congregational music from a variety of traditions. The prelude will be a work for piano, “Flight into Egypt,” by Ottorino Respighi, later orchestrated by the composer in his “Church Windows” composition.
The 9:15 Friday ecumenical communion service will take place in the Hall of Philosophy as previously announced. Willie LaFavor and Joe Musser will play Bach Chorales arranged for four-handed piano. The Motet Choir will sing Harold Friedell’s “Draw Us in the Spirit’s Tether” and “Break Thou the Bread of Life,” in a setting by Stanley Hovatter. The congregation will join in music from Taizé and other global traditions. Instead of a sermon on this final Friday of the season, the tables will be turned on Eugene Sutton, who will answer questions about his own faith journey in a conversation with his wife, Sonya Subbayya Sutton, who is serving as the interim director for Sacred Music this season.
