In his modern spiritual classic “Tattoos on the Heart,” Jesuit Father Greg Boyle writes about the gang-intervention ministry he runs in Los Angeles.
Frequently, Father Greg says Mass at juvenile detention camps, and he shares the story of a meeting with one of the teenagers there. After Mass one day, a kid walks over to Father Greg, “all swagger and pose,” with a scowl fixed on his face.
“What’s your name?” Father Greg asks.
“Sniper,” the kid replies.
Father Greg pushes back — there’s no way the kid’s mom named him Sniper.
“What’s your name?” he asks again.
“Gonzalez,” the kid says, easing up a little.
But Father Greg wants to know what the kid’s mother calls him. He replies with a Spanish word that loosely translates as “blockhead.”
Father Greg tells the kid he doesn’t doubt it. “But, son, I’m looking for birth certificate here.”
Softening right before Father Greg’s eyes, the kid squeaks out his full first name: “Napoleón.”
What a historic, noble name, Father Greg tells the kid. But there’s no way your mom uses the whole thing. What does she call you?
Father Greg writes: “Then I watch him go to some far, distant place — a location he has not visited in some time. His voice, body language, and whole being are taking on a new shape — right before my eyes.”
Speaking just above a whisper, the kids says, “Sometimes, when my mom’s not mad at me … she calls me … Napito.”
“I watched this kid move, transformed, from Sniper to Gonzalez to [Blockhead] to Napoleón to Napito,” Father Greg writes. “We all just want to be called by the name our mom uses when she’s not [ticked] off at us.”
Names are powerful things. By digging down through Napito’s five layers of names, Father Greg started to build a relationship with the teenager. Napito felt valued and cared for. He felt important.
I think names might be one key part of building what Pope Francis calls “a culture of encounter.” In the Holy Father’s native Spanish, the word encuentro means much more than a mere run-in. Instead, it implies the sort of mutuality and kinship present in Father Greg’s meeting with Napito.
Pope Francis talks about encounter as an antidote to what he calls a “throwaway culture,” in which people who are seen as useless — the unborn, the elderly, the poor and homeless — are pushed to the margins or even literally discarded. However, if we encounter individuals and communities that are usually pushed aside — if we get to know their names — the throwaway culture begins to crumble. You don’t throw a friend away.
The importance of building a “culture of encounter” has found a new emphasis during the papacy of Pope Francis, but it’s not a new idea. Indeed, Christ himself spent so much of his earthly ministry building a culture of encounter, as he dined and conversed with tax collectors, lepers, prostitutes, the poor and hungry, and other people who were usually excluded. Pope Francis’ call is the same as Jesus’ call.
Reflecting on Father Greg’s story makes me think about how we might deepen our commitment to building a name-based culture of encounter here in the Diocese of Camden. Here’s one question that I keep mulling over: How might the church be different if every Catholic knew at least one person by name who had been threatened by the throwaway culture? What would it take to make that goal a real possibility?
To get this “culture of encounter” momentum going, I’m excited about an upcoming initiative called The Encounter Series: Seeking Christ in the Poor and Vulnerable, a three-part experience set for this May.
Co-sponsored by Life & Justice Ministries and the Office of Lay Ministry Formation, The Encounter Series is designed to engage your whole self: open your heart to encountering Christ in the poor on a daylong retreat; open your mind to at an informative lecture by a leading young moral theologian; and open your hands to those living on the margins at a day of service in the city of Camden.
Participate in one, two or all three experiences, and join us as we strive to live the Holy Father’s call to encounter.
The Encounter Series: Seeking Christ in the Poor and Vulnerable
The series includes a retreat day (Tuesday, May 5; Holy Family, Sewell), an informative lecture (Monday, May 11; Catholic Community of the Holy Spirit, Mullica Hill), and a day of hands-on community service in Camden (May 16; Romero Center Ministries). All adults welcome. For more information and to register for one, two, or all three experiences, visit www.camdendiocese.org/encounter or contact Colleen Mayhew at 856-583-6118.
Mike Jordan Laskey is director, Life and Justice Ministries, Diocese of Camden.
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