I was grateful to receive an advance proof copy of the upcoming release, Jean Vanier: Portrait of a Free Man, from Plough Publishing. In fact, it reached me within a week of Vanier's death, as I wrote earlier. I have not written more about the book until now because from the very first pages the work (which could be called an "authorized biography") by Anne-Sophie Constant made very clear that it was not to be consumed, but contemplated.
There were lines in the Introduction that stayed with me for days. "Yes, this." That was my response to certain expressions, certain choices Vanier made along his ninety-year journey of discipleship. The L'Arche founder could have become such a different man, given his background: His father was at the top of a list of the 100 most important Canadians of all time; his mother was a chancellor of the University of Ottawa. But he followed a mysterious call, one that led along a way no one would have planned.
He left home as a boy of 13, crossing an ocean during wartime to attend the Royal Naval College (with his parents' somewhat bewildered blessing). Later, he acknowledged the striking gift his father had given him in that act of emancipation: Had the permission been denied, Jean would have obeyed; would have stayed close to hearth and home; would have followed a scholarly path to the priesthood, lived a devout life. But he would not have changed the lives of tens of thousands: disabled people, their families, their assistants, the witnesses of the communal life of L'Arche.
Constant takes us through Vanier's life, but also into Vanier's life with Jesus, because the driving force for Jean Vanier has been his desire to live with Jesus. This is what led him as a young naval officer to take the night watch and use it to pray Matins, and to use his shore leave to go to Mass; what inspired him to spend "a year" (he ended up with a doctoral degree) studying theology in France as a kind of discernment period while he focused on his future; what prompted him to invite the first disabled men to leave the institution where they were housed and share a home with him, that "ark" which became the first of many.
It was unsettling to read a book that was meant to celebrate the life of a man who was still on this earth as its last paragraphs were written (just this past January). I can't imagine the publisher pulling the proof from the printing schedule and updating the whole text to reflect Vanier's recent death, but the book is so beautiful I think it would be worth doing. This is a book that can be (ought to be!) fruitfully brought to prayer.
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. In addition, I received a review copy of the book mentioned above for free in the hope that I would publish a review of it. I am committed to giving as honest a review as possible, as part of my community's mission of putting media at the service of the truth. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
