Radical Compassion: Finding Christ in the Heart of the Poor

Most people know the pearl of one person’s love and friendship. As I reflect on the pearl of my friends, I think of the person who is the dearest of all to me and of how she has enriched my life. Surely our relationship is a pearl. It has been created over time and, for the most part, at considerable distance. It is the product of pain and struggle

What person who does what this woman does has not been there? How I admire them and cherish them. I see them each day, serving in a variety of ways, dealing with the heartbreaking realities of the poor: frustration; violent transference; physical and mental sickness; rejection; police harassment; loneliness; hunger for food, friendship, and purpose

No person, whoever he or she is or wherever he or she lives, is denied the grasp of God’s heart. We are cherished by God, hunted by God, redeemed by God. And having experienced this, we are reminded that we are called to be bearers of God’s love and truth, and, as bearers, we are to bring that love and truth into our culture, where there exist the

I don’t kid myself; I know I can’t do this by myself. So I do my own kind of handing over. I hand over the mystery of death to God, and I hand myself over to the mystery of my vocation: to be there for these folks, living and dead. I am the divining rod in their search for the holy in their lives. I have confidence in these moments, because I know

Because of this love of my dearest friend, I have learned to love myself and to find the freedom to listen to God’s invitation to me to follow God as a Jesuit priest.

The spirit of God will use me as an agent of reconciliation, no matter how resistant or unprepared or prejudiced I may be.

If we are lost, I stressed, God will hunt us down—in love—like the good shepherd, to the last moment.

My dearest Father Gary, I cannot adequately put into words what your friendship has meant to me over the past few years. You have been my steady rock in the raging storm. You’ve been the father to me that I always wished for when I was growing up. You’ve given so much, and I know you’ve got so much more to give. Your ministry has just begun. When t

These moments at the jail are sobering journeys into human hearts, through electric doors and the barriers produced by human pain. Jail is a place where a word can land you in isolation, where a sucker punch can be right around the corner, where grinding loneliness and only momentary flashes of hope exist, and where bitterness about life is worn li