Mass Readings Audio
https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/2021-07-18-usccb-daily-mass-readings
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – July 18, 2021
Welcome to the one hundred and seventy-third episode of By Your Life. I’m Lisa Huetteman and I know that you have a hundred different things you could be doing right now, so I thank you for choosing By Your Life.
My goal is to inspire, empower, support, challenge, and encourage you to connect Sunday, with Monday-Friday, in a secular business world. It’s my desire to help you live our Catholic faith in the marketplace. I hope to offer you practical ways to go forth and glorify the Lord by your life.
In this edition, we’ll reflect on the readings for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. (Year B) If we remember the previous Sunday’s Gospel, the disciples had been out on assignment curing the sick and driving out demons. When they returned, “people were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat.” (Mk 6:31) Jesus, compassionate leader that he was, knew that the disciples needed to refresh themselves. “He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest awhile.” (Mk 6:31) I’m sure there was more work to be done, but he knew their needs were important too, so he took care of the Twelve.
Caring for People
Great leaders know they need to take care of their employees – taking care of those in their charge. They don’t sacrifice the welfare of their people for the benefit of their customers or shareholders. Great leaders know that when they take care of their employees, their employees will take care of their customers, and that is good for their shareholders. This is the model Southwest Airlines commits to their employees: “the same concern, respect, and caring attitude within the organization that they are expected to share externally with every Southwest Customer.”
Whether you are a formal leader with the supervisory authority to sign someone’s timesheet, a project leader, a team leader, troop leader, volunteer coach, a parent or someone who works with others and has the ability to influence them by your example, you are a leader. You’d better take your role seriously because there are serious consequences of failing to care for your people. As the Lord said to Jeremiah in our first reading, “You have scattered my sheep and driven them away. You have not cared for them, but I will take care to punish your evil deeds.” (Jer 23:2)
Wow! I’m not in favor of fear motivation in business, but fear of the Lord is another thing. I happen to think that if we were concerned about our divine performance appraisal as we approach our work every day, it would greatly benefit us, and our relationships with our co-workers and our customers.
Beyond EQ
With the advent of theories of emotional intelligence promoted by Daniel Goleman (see our Resources page for links to his books) and the like, business leaders have come to recognize that EQ is as important if not more important than IQ in leadership success. And so, in some organizations, training and development of emotional intelligence have been added.
There are two dimensions of emotional intelligence, how we relate to ourselves and how we relate to others. Being aware of and able to regulate our own emotions is one dimension. Being aware of and responding to the emotions of others is the second, and this capacity is built on our ability to practice empathy.
Which brings me back to our Gospel for Sunday. As Jesus and the disciples went off by boat to that deserted place, the crowds of people followed. “When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” (Mk 6:34)
Certainly, Jesus modeled empathy for his heart was moved with pity for them. But while empathy refers more generally to the ability to take the perspective of and feel the emotions of others, compassion is when those feelings and thoughts include the desire to help. And Jesus put aside his need to go to a deserted place to rest awhile and instead he stayed to shepherd the people.
The problem is some of us haven’t been taught how to care for others and be compassionate leaders. In fact, by example, we’ve been taught to use force, not compassion when trying to get things done at work. But nothing could be more ineffective. With compassion, you can win, and other people don’t have to lose.
Developing Compassion
According to Rasmus Hougaard, founder, and CEO of Potential Project and author of “The Mind of the Leader,” for leaders, compassion can be trained and developed, just like any other leadership skill. In a Forbes article, he offered three things you can do to increase your compassion.
First, have more self-compassion. He wrote that if you’re overloaded and out of balance, it’s impossible to help others find their balance. Self-compassion includes getting quality sleep and taking breaks during the day. It means letting go of obsessive self-criticism and reframing setbacks as learning experiences.
Second, check your intention before you meet others. Put yourself in their shoes and with their reality in mind, ask yourself, “How can I best be of benefit to this person?”
Third, adopt a daily compassion practice. Compassion is a trainable skill because our brains have an incredible level of neuroplasticity. This means that the mental states you develop can get stronger and more prominent. Like with any new skill, it develops and becomes stronger with practice.
What Gets In Our Way?
But being a compassionate leader can be hard. Henri J.M. Nouwen wrote, “Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to a place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken. But this is not our spontaneous response to suffering. What we desire most is to do away with suffering by fleeing from it or finding a quick cure for it.”
Daniel Goleman the emotional intelligence guru confirms this. He writes that “Self-absorption in all its forms kills empathy, let alone compassion. When we focus on ourselves, our world contracts as our problems and preoccupations loom large. But when we focus on others, our world expands. Our own problems drift to the periphery of the mind and so seem smaller, and we increase our capacity for connection – or compassionate action.”
Compassion In Action
There is probably a no better example of compassion in action than at Homeboy Industries. In 1986, when Homeboy Industries’ founder, Fr. Gregory Boyle, S.J. became pastor of Dolores Mission Church, it was the poorest Catholic parish in Los Angeles located in the middle of the largest public housing projects west of the Mississippi. It also had the highest concentration of gang activity in Los Angeles, which says a lot given Los Angeles’ reputation as the gang capital of the world.
But where others only saw criminals, Father Greg saw people in need of help. In the face of law enforcement tactics and policies of suppression and mass incarceration as the means to end gang violence, he, his parish, and his community members adopted what was a radical approach at the time: to treat gang members as human beings. Today, Homeboy Industries is the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world, welcoming thousands through their doors each year.
Father Greg popularized the radical notion that even the most demonized individuals can thrive when given a second chance. In the beginning, he partnered with local Los Angeles businesses encouraging them to hire homeboys and homegirls. Realizing that there weren’t sufficient businesses willing to take a chance on hiring former gang members, Homeboy Industries was established as a nonprofit and began creating and operating its own job training businesses.
They started with a bakery and now, Homeboy Industries has grown to almost a dozen social enterprises, including electronics recycling, a silkscreen and embroidery business, Homeboy branded t-shirts, sweatshirts, tote bags, and mugs, a café, a catering business, Homeboy Industries’ branded Chips, Salsa and Guacamole products, and a diner, located in the Los Angeles City Hall. These businesses provide both a vital training ground for their clients as well as revenue streams to support their mission. The expansion of the Homeboy Industries businesses proves that people can transcend their pasts and become valuable, empowered employees and business leaders.
Each year over 10,000 former gang members from across Los Angeles come through Homeboy Industries’ doors in an effort to make a positive change. When they do, they are welcomed into a community of mutual kinship, love, and a wide variety of services ranging from tattoo removal to anger management and parenting classes. They are provided hope, training, and support allowing them to redirect their lives and become contributing members of their community.
Widening the Circle of Compassion
But the Homeboy Industries’ impact doesn’t stop there. What began in 1988 as a way of improving the lives of former gang members in East Los Angeles has today become a blueprint for over 250 organizations and social enterprises in 32 states and the District of Columbia, and in 20 countries around the world. These are the organizations that make up the Global Homeboy Network. At its core, Global Homeboy Network works to widen the circle of compassion, tenderness, and kinship. These core values are what energizes GHN’s growth and chart their direction.
In a video message on their website, Fr. Greg says, “This place stands for a high degree of reverence for how complex human beings are. That indeed everybody is a whole lot more than the worst things they’ve ever done. And so, we want to see people as God does. To see each other today and always for the truth of who we are. That we are God’s delight and there is nothing you can do to alter that.”
He continues, “We all want to be invited to the place of inclusion and acceptance, of healing and forgiveness, a place of refuge and kinship.” Homeboy Industries invites people to that place every day. They invite people to “widen the circle of compassion.” A place where people “stand in awe of what the poor must carry instead of judgment of how they carry it.” Now that’s compassionate leadership!
When God said to Jeremiah, “I will raise up shepherds for them who will shepherd them so that they need no longer fear or be terrified; none shall be missing.” (Jer 23:4), I think he was talking about shepherds like Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J., but he is also talking about us. Most of us are not like Fr. Boyle, placed by God in the middle of a gang-torn community, but we are all placed in the midst of people who need compassion, healing and forgiveness. If you don’t know how, I encourage you to watch one of Fr. Boyle’s videos and let him teach you. Let’s also ask the Father to help us so we can widen the circle of compassion.
Heavenly Father, you are a compassionate Father who desires that none shall be missing. Help us to see each other as you see us. Help us to stand in awe of the burden others must carry and not judge them for how they carry it. Help us to invite others to a place of inclusion and acceptance, healing and forgiveness. Help us to widen the circle of compassion so that none shall be missing and in all that we do, we glorify you by our lives.
May God bless you abundantly with the grace of compassion this week and may you glorify the Lord by your life.
If you liked this episode, spread the word. You know what to do, forward, share, or click to post. Also, check out the Resources page where you can find a link to the books and other resources mentioned in this and other episodes of By Your Life. I’m always interested in what you think, so give me some feedback by leaving a comment.
