[FEB 20, 2020: [FEB 22: L'Arche, the community founded by Jean Vanier, has just released a report that reveals that Vanier engaged in abusive and manipulative sexual relationships with at least six women under the guise of spiritual accompaniment.]
Thanks to Plough Publishing, I just received an advanced proof copy of Jean Vanier: Portrait of a Free Man, a biography of the L'Arche founder, who died last week at age 90.
Vanier has been an inspiration to me since the early 90's,
when I first encountered his writings and his witness of living with
the profoundly disabled. He taught the world what he learned from
experience. His book, Community and Growth, is one of the textbooks for our novices--with good reason.
Life in community with the
profoundly afflicted means more than community meals and prayers; it means close companionship and intimate forms
of service. The poor, the vulnerable, the fragile, especially those with serious
intellectual and physical disabilities, are unable to mask their weaknesses or
needs. They cry out until their needs are addressed, whether it is
the need for water, or to be heard, or to be shifted in one's
wheelchair, or for a diaper change... Vanier knew that we can run, but we can't hide from these cries, because what the poor ones are doing is articulating the hurt and weakness all of us feel, but that some of us (the "strong" and "capable" ones) are able to divert, cover up or compensate for (temporarily).
My takeaway from Vanier from the 90's and to this day is this: Encountering people who insist on showing me their wounds, who, as it were, demand from me the charity of my attention or my kindness, tends to arouse not compassion, but resentment in me. Sometimes I just don't have the resources to keep up the act and I respond with a sharp word that reveals my weaknesses
to me so that I, too, find myself crying out to God and to others
for the forgiveness, reconciliation, tenderness, acceptance that I might ordinarily have too much ill-conceived self-respect to beg my neighbors for (until the time comes when I will have grown in tenderness and vulnerability myself and will be gracefully able to manifest my needs in freedom).
Such a powerful message. And it all
came from Vanier's willingness to hand his life over to the Gospel
whole and entire. Between Mother Teresa and Jean Vanier, the modern
world was given this matched set, this image of the complementarity
of masculine and feminine love for the ones society would trample
down, cast away or at least keep out of sight. Instead, Vanier and
Mother Teresa made the “least ones” the center of their
community, telling everyone who would listen that they would find
Jesus in serving them. What a privilege it has been to be their
contemporaries! (And what a challenge!)
For further reading:
L'Arche UK (Official): Announcing the Death of Jean Vanier
Christianity Today: Jean Vanier Made Us All More Human
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