{"id":2772,"date":"2023-07-05T08:14:28","date_gmt":"2023-07-05T12:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2772"},"modified":"2023-07-05T08:14:28","modified_gmt":"2023-07-05T12:14:28","slug":"when-the-hurt-seems-to-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/05\/when-the-hurt-seems-to-win\/","title":{"rendered":"When the Hurt Seems to Win"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>.
\u00a0
Gregory Boyle is a Jesuit priest who leads a special ministry.
\u00a0
The guy with the snowy beard in the picture above is the founder and executive director of Homeboy Industries, a gang-intervention program in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles \u2013 arguably the gang capital of the world.\u00a0
\u00a0
His remarkable book Tattoos on the Heart, <\/em>in which he recounts story after story of life on the streets, should be rated R:\u00a0
\u00a0
For Real<\/em>.\u00a0
And Raw<\/em>.\u00a0
And Redemptive.<\/em>
\u00a0
At the time of its 2010 publication he had participated in the funerals of 168 young men, every one the victim of gang violence.
\u00a0
Boyle tells about Soledad, whom he describes as one of the most heroic women he has ever known.\u00a0 Soledad was the mother of four children.\u00a0 That is, until her two oldest sons, who were trying to experience life beyond the Hood, were murdered by local gang members.
\u00a0
There were still grounds for joy in Soledad\u2019s life.\u00a0 But there was so much hurt.\u00a0 She confided to Boyle: \u201cThe hurt wins\u2026the hurt wins.\u201d\u00a0
\u00a0
One night she was taken to the ER suffering chest pains.\u00a0 Boyle picks up the story from there:
\u00a0
The doctors are tending to her with EKGs and the like, when there is a rush of activity at the entrance.\u00a0 With a flurry of bodies and medical staff moving into their proscribed roles, a teenage gang member is rushed to the vacant space right next to Soledad.<\/em>
\u00a0
The kid is covered in blood from multiple gunshot wounds, and they begin cutting off his clothes.<\/em>
\u00a0
The wounds are too serious to waste time pulling the curtain that separates Soledad from this kid fighting for his life.\u00a0 People are pounding his chest and inserting IVs.<\/em>
\u00a0
Soledad turns and sees him.\u00a0 She recognizes him as a kid from the gang that most certainly robbed her of her sons.<\/em>
\u00a0
\u201cAs I saw this kid,\u201d she tells me, \u201cI just kept thinking of what my friends might say if they were here with me.\u00a0 They\u2019d say, \u2018Pray that he dies.\u2019\u201d<\/em>
\u00a0
But she just looked at this tiny kid, struggling to sidestep the fate of her sons, as the doctors work and scream, \u201cWE\u2019RE LOSING HIM.\u00a0 WE\u2019RE LOSING HIM.\u201d<\/em>
\u00a0
\u201cAnd I began to cry as I have never cried before and start to pray the hardest I\u2019ve ever prayed.\u00a0 \u2018Please\u2026don\u2019t\u2026let him die.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want his mom to go through what I have.\u2019\u201d<\/em>
\u00a0
And the kid lived.\u00a0<\/em>
\u00a0
Boyle concludes, \u201cSometimes, it only seems that the hurt wins.\u201d
\u00a0
Only love is strong enough to stand against the hurt is that left behind by bullets, hatred, and hopelessness.
\u00a0
And the only source of such extraordinary love is the One who is Love himself.

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here.\u00a0Gregory Boyle is a Jesuit priest who leads a special ministry.\u00a0The guy with the snowy beard in the picture above is the founder and executive director of Homeboy Industries, a gang-intervention program in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles \u2013 arguably the gang capital of the world.\u00a0\u00a0His remarkable book Tattoos on… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2773,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[112],"class_list":["post-2772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-suffering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2772"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2774,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772\/revisions\/2774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}