As part of the 4 Corners Festival 2019 themed ‘Scandalous Forgiveness’, St Mary’s University College chapel was the venue for a recent BBC Radio Ulster Sunday Morning Service. What ensued was a ‘live’ ecumenical service broadcast on the issue of ‘Self-forgiveness: easy to say but hard to practise’.

Fr Gregory Boyle SJ, author of Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship and Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion, read from Matthew’s gospel and preached a compassionate homily which brought the Beatitudes to life. He related his experiences of ministering to the people living in the Boyle Heights neighbourhood of Los Angeles, the so-called gang capital of the world. Accompanying him on this occasion to share their stories were three former gang members who now work for Homeboy Industries, the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation and re-entry programme in the world. The music and voices of Rev Kiran Young Wimberly and The McGrath Family lifted the morning service and touched our hearts.

Drawing on Matthew’s Beatitudes, Fr Boyle’s message for us was,

“Don’t settle for forgiving yourself. Pure of heart means seeing yourself as God sees you, this God that loves you without measure and without regret. Don’t settle for forgiving yourself; know the truth, see as God sees and that changes everything”.