Your being here is an indication that you’ve made that decision already. You’ve made the decision to walk through the gate of forgiveness to grace. Just as Christ did on the cross. He suffered terribly and He was broken by it, to the point of doubt and a feeling of absolute abandonment, which all of you have felt. Then there was a decision to be made. And the decision was to look upon the people who were causing that suffering with compassion and with forgiveness, and that’s what opens the gates of heaven for all of us. I wish that for all of you. I wish that for myself.
While Carrey’s, a former Catholic, the speech was not totally in line with Catholic theology he did captured an essential truth that many do not, the transformative power of suffering and the transformative nature of grace.
The Rev. Gregory J. Boyle, S.J., is the founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world. More on Homeboy: click here