Following
Jean Vanier
's death last week, tributes from many voices have been offered. Having had the honor to meet him and visit with him in 2012, we offer our own reflections about the gentle, wise, and compassionate man we met.
In the tag “Ceremony” you will find the information on how to connect on the website of the French TV KTO and follow the ceremony live at 10:00 AM Central Time Thursday 5/16.
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When I received the email from Odile Skjellaug, my heart sank. It began, “Chers amis,” and I knew this email from Jean Vanier’s secretary bore the news we were expecting, that he had joined the communion of saints – in heaven, that is. His time on earth was spent among the saints he served: people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. His first two companions, Philippe and Raphaël, with whom he formed
“a covenant, a sacred bond” awakened in Vanier the “‘qualities of the heart, the child within’, and in doing so empowered the philosopher and naval officer, the thinker and the doer, to negotiate a new way of being present, of being in the world—a way of listening and attending with intentional vulnerability.” (
Higgins 34)
While Jean Vanier is best known for founding L’Arche communities for his friends with disabilities, his life list of achievements and awards reflect his contributions to society. Nonetheless, it was the qualities of his heart that attracted Henri Nouwen to L’Arche, changing both of their lives and the lives of multitudes who have read their 70+ books.
I, like many who have read their books, have felt drawn to the qualities of love, compassion, and inner freedom in Vanier’s life. There was an unrelenting summons in my soul to simply be in the presence of this man. Although he mentioned in one of his 2012 newsletters that he was no longer receiving guests for interviews, Bill and I were welcomed into his home in the L’Arche community at Trosly, France, near Paris. We talked about things of life and Jesus. The conversation flowed on clouds of simplicity and graciousness. He talked with great delight about sharing the Gospel of John with his companions in the L’Arche community “who have taught me to welcome Jesus from the place of the poverty in me” and who, by their reflections, contributed to the book,
Drawn Into the Mystery of Jesus Through the Gospel of John.
Jean Vanier was a man of paradoxes. He claimed his own internal poverty while giving to others from the richness of his heart. From his inner freedom, he empowered companions trapped in disabilities. Although Vanier was a great philosopher, theologian, and humanitarian, his most noble achievement was “to change the world one heart at a time.” (
Becoming Human 163)
As I recall our visit with Jean Vanier, it was much like standing before the 1425 Andrei Rublev icon of “
The Trinity” at the Moscow Tretyakov Museum, and seeing in this work of art the layers of symbolism, the “embodiment of spiritual unity, peace, harmony, mutual love and humility.” Being in the presence of The Trinity, a work of art that has affected so many lives through the centuries, was much like being in the presence of Jean Vanier, whose life has been a gift – a work of art of the heart.
--by Jan
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Nearly thirty years ago, Jean Vanier wrote that Jesus wants to reveal four secrets to us. Four secrets, each of which “will at the same time reveal and calm our fears.” Nearly thirty years later, in the shadow of Jean Vanier’s death, I am still struggling to come to terms with those secrets.
The first is about Jesus himself. “He is that place where God resides.” His body – his particular flesh: strong hands, piercing eyes, and weary, callused feet – this “is the temple of the Spirit of God.” We have heard this first secret so many times, it may no longer surprise us as it should.
The second, however, “is an incredible secret.” Our bodies, too, are temples of God. Most of us look at our bodies with some mixture of shame and vanity, frustration and pride. Few, I dare say, consider our bodies with reverent awe. Our guilt or shame or fears keep us from seeing our own bodies, fit or flabby, as “the temple where God resides.” Do you find that hard to believe? Is there something frightening about this thought?
“The third secret … is that [Jesus] is hidden in a very special way in the poor, the broken, and the suffering.” The very people many of us shy away from are where Jesus is found. And if that were not troubling enough, Vanier then touches another of my tender spots, suggesting that Jesus is to be found in the places of my own poverty, in the spots where I am broken. Jesus dismantles all our false securities “to bring us into the insecurity of love and the insecurity of communion, where God is present and calling us.”
Jesus’ fourth secret concerns the meaning of pain. “We have been taught that pain and suffering, loss and grief are the worst things that can happen to us.” Most of us run away from pain, but to do so is to run away from reality. Jesus, who faced his own cross, encourages us to walk toward pain, the pain of others or – sometimes even harder – our own. When we walk toward pain, we discover “that pain can be enfolded in love, that pain and suffering can become a gift that I can give to God and to humanity.”
Four secrets, four fearsome secrets, all about the insecurity of love and the gift of pain. We are blessed that Jesus came, bearing secrets about where God is found. And we are blessed that Jean Vanier embraced those secrets, just as he embraced struggling, vulnerable people with his big arms and larger heart.
--Bill
Source: Jean Vanier,
Images of Love, Words of Hope
(Lancelot Press, 1991), pp. 88-90; reprinted in
John Vanier: Essential Writings
, ed. Carolyn Whitney-Brown (Orbis Books, 2008), pp. 123-125.
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These videos offer a brief introduction to Jean Vanier and his work.
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Recent Issues
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Copyright (c) 2019 Soul Windows Ministries
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Sincerely,
Bill Howden and Jan Davis
Soul Windows Ministries
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