The Spirituality and Theology of Jean Vanier and L ’ Arche

1. The Spirituality and Theology of Jean Vanier and L’Arche Dominic O. Vachon M.Div., Ph.D. Director Ruth M. Hillebrand Center for Compassionate Care in Medicine Notre Dame Science University of Notre Dame dvachon@nd.edu 574-631-9536

3. By the hungry I will feed you, By the poor I'll make you rich, By the broken I will mend you, Tell me which one is which. 1. I come like a beggar with a gift in my hand 2. I come like a prisoner to set you free 3. The need of another is the bread that I break [Refrain and first lines of verses of "I Come Like a Beggar”, a popular L’Arche song]

5. Jean Vanier’s life • Canadian, son of the late Governor General of Canada George Vanier and Pauline Vanier, born on September 10, 1928 • From 1945 to 1950, served in the Royal Navy England and then the Royal Canadian Navy

6. From 1950 to 1962, lived in a small community, l’Eau Vive, led by the French Dominican Thomas Philippe. In 1962 he completed a Ph.D. in philosophy at l’Institut Catholique de Paris doing his dissertation on Aristotle • 1963, teaches philosophy at St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto

7. Influenced by Fr. Thomas Phillipe’s work with mentally handicapped men and visiting a number of institutions, asylums, and psychiatric hospitals, Vanier buys a small house and invites 2 mentally handicapped men—Raphael and Philippe—into his home on August 4, 1964 in Trosly-Breuil • He calls the home L’Arche, the Ark as in Noah’s Ark, symbol of refuge, diversity, and hope (Downey, 1986)

9. Founder of 2 major international community-based organizations that exist for people with intellectual disabilities • L’Arche Communities (135 in 33 countries) • Faith & Light (1,600 communities in 80 countries)

10. 85 years old, continues to write, do public speaking, meets many people, and lives in L’Arche

11. Each person is unique and has sacred value

13. Connectedness of all Humans and the need to Belong and be Loved

14. Common Humanity • “Until we realize that we belong to a common humanity, that we need each other, that we can help each other, we will continue to hide behind feelings of elitism and superiority and behind the wall of prejudice, judgment, and disdain that those feelings engender.” (p. 82, Vanier, Becoming Human)

15. The Power of Weakness • “Weakness, recognized, accepted, and offered, is at the heart of belonging, so it is at the heart of communion with another. Weakness carries within it a secret power. The cry and the trust that flow from weakness can open up hearts. The one who is weaker can call forth powers of love in the one who is stronger.”(Vanier, Becoming Human, p. 40)

16. Society’s Problem • “A society that honours only the powerful, the clever, and the winners necessarily belittles the weak. It is as if to say: to be human is to be powerful.” (p. 46, Vanier, Becoming Human) • God is intensely interested in what is happening to those thought insignificant in society. • Society based on competition, individual success, materialism, secular values.

17. The Last Judgment (Mt. 25: 34-45) Then the King will say to those on his right hand, “Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take for your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you made me welcome; naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me….I tell you solemnly, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers [and sisters] of mine, you did it to me.”

18. The Beatitudes (Mt. 5:3-10) Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the Earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons [and daughters] of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.

19. Need for Relationship • “The belief in the inner beauty of each and every human being is at the heart of L’Arche…We do not discover who we are, we do not reach true humanness, in a solitary state; we discover it through mutual dependency, in weakness, in learning through belonging.”(Vanier, Becoming Human)

20. Mutuality of the helping/healing process • “I have learned that the process of teaching and learning, of communication, involves movement, back and forth: the one who is healed and the one who is healing constantly changes places.” (p. 25, Vanier, Becoming Human)

22. “If you enter into relationship with a lonely or suffering person you will discover something else: that it is you who are being healed. The broken person will reveal to you your own hurt and the hardness of your heart,

23. but also how much you are loved. Thus the one you came to heal becomes your healer.” Jean Vanier, The Broken Body (p.74)

24. "People who are weak and vulnerable can also awaken in us what is most dark and ugly. Their cry, their provocations, their constant demands and their depression can unmask our own anguish and violence. But isn't it true that in order to grow in our humanity, we need to recognize the violence and the power of hatred within our own heart, all that we consider shameful and try to hide? In L'Arche, we are gradually learning how to manage these fears and energies in a positive way, and how to free ourselves from the powers of destruction within us." Jean Vanier, The Scandal of Service (p. 3)

27. Spirituality of the Heart • From the biblical and medieval spirituality of the heart in which the emotion/affection is not separated from intellect/reason. • The human being at his/her core has a radical impulse toward the good, an impulse of love • The Spirit works through the Beatitudes in which God’s grace is most present in woundedness and vulnerability

28. Focus on accepting our imperfection vs. striving for mastery and control

29. Caring about others over caring for others • In L’Arche homes, communities are based on the ideas of “living with,” and not just “doing for” those with mental handicaps. • Those with handicaps are considered the core members

30. Focus on our common humanity in our woundedness and vulnerability over focusing on our differences

31. Gift of Ecumenism • “Little by little we discovered that to the live the gift of ecumenism did not mean simply inviting Anglicans and Protestants to our Catholic Masses and celebrations but instead giving them more space to live, celebrate and nourish their own traditions---the Catholic faith at l’Arche had become just one tradition amongst others. And so it was when we moved to non-Christian countries.” (Vanier, Our Life Together)

32. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 1 • 1. Whatever their gifts of their limitations, people are all bound together in a common humanity. Everyone is of unique and sacred value, and everyone has the same dignity and the same rights. The fundamental rights of each person include the right to life, to care, to a home, to education and to work. Also, since the deepest need of a human being is to love and to be loved, each person has a right to friendship, to communion and to a spiritual life.

33. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 2 • 2. If human beings are to develop their abilities and talents to the full, realizing all their potential as individuals, they need an environment that fosters personal growth. They need to form relationships with others within families and communities. They need to live in an atmosphere of trust, security and mutual affection. They need to be valued, accepted and supported in real and warm relationships.


34. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 3 • 3. People with a mental handicap often possess qualities of welcome, wonderment, spontaneity, and directness. They are able to touch hearts and to call others to unity through their simplicity and vulnerability. In this way they are a living reminder to the wider world of the essential values of the heart without which knowledge, power and action lose their meaning and purpose.



35. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 4 • 4. Weakness and vulnerability in a person, far from being an obstacle to union with God, can foster it. It is often through weakness, recognized and accepted, that the liberating love of God is revealed.



36. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 5 • 5. In order to develop the inner freedom to which all people are called, and to grow in union with God, each person needs to have the opportunity of being rooted and nourished in a religious tradition.



38. Aims of L’Arche 1 • 1. The aim of l'Arche is to create communities, which welcome people with a mental handicap. By this means, l'Arche seeks to respond to the distress of those who are too often rejected, and to give them a valid place in society.


39. Aims of L’Arche 2 • 2. L'Arche seeks to reveal the particular gifts of people with a mental handicap who belong at the very heart of their communities and who call others to share their lives.


40. Aims of L’Arche 3 • 3. L'Arche knows that it cannot welcome everyone who has a mental handicap. It seeks to offer not a solution but a sign, a sign that a society, to be truly human, must be founded on welcome and respect for the weak and the downtrodden.


41. Aims of L’Arche 4 • 4. In a divided world, l'Arche wants to be a sign of hope. Its communities, founded on covenant relationships between people of differing intellectual capacity, social origin, religion and culture, seek to be signs of unity, faithfulness and reconciliation.

42. 7 Aspects of Love Necessary for the Transformation of the heart in those who are profoundly lonely (Vanier, Becoming Human, p. 22) • 1. To reveal their beauty • 2. To understand • 3. To communicate • 4. Celebrate them • 5. To empower • 6. Mutual belonging • 7. To forgive

43. So, do not shrink from suffering, but enter into it and discover there the mystery of the presence of the risen Jesus. He is hidden there, in the sacrament of the poor. And do not turn aside from your own pain, your anguish and brokenness, your loneliness and emptiness, by pretending you are strong.

44. Go within yourself. go down the ladder of your own being until you discover--- like a seed buried in the broken, ploughed earth of your own vulnerability--- the presence of Jesus, the light shining in the darkness. Jean Vanier, The Broken Body (pp. 62-63)

46. "L'Arche's spirituality is not chiefly about doing things for the poor, but about listening to them, welcoming them and living with them a covenant---a relationship of fidelity rooted in Jesus' fidelity to the poor---to help them discover the meaning and purpose of their lives." Jean Vanier, The Heart of L’Arche (p.50)

47. "The poor reveal to those who come to be with them how to live compassionately on the level of the heart. They evangelize us. They show us the way of the beatitudes. A gradual transformation takes place in the hearts of those who come to live with them. They discover their own poverty. They discover that the good news of Jesus is announced, not to those who serve the poor, but to those who are themselves poor. The poor lead them from generosity to compassion…." Jean Vanier, The Heart of L’Arche (p.51)

48. "This tension and stress that we experience as we live with wounded people can prevent growth and stimulate anger and exhaustion, which are not always recognized and acknowledged. We must learn not just to free ourselves from tension and fatigue on the sabbath day, our day of rest. We must learn, as the mother must learn in front of the never-ending needs of her children, how to respect our energy and relax in all the moments of our day

49. filled as they may be with arduous work or often tiresome meetings, and crises of all sorts, and the hundred and one things-that-have-to-be-done. To do this we must discover how to harmonize the active and the passive in us. If we are just doers, feeling terribly responsible and serious, we will crack up one day.

50. We must nourish the passive part of us, our hearts made for a personal love, learning to listen to others, to marvel at nature, to rest a moment in the presence of Jesus, to receive the love of those around us and be nourished by their trust, enjoying the little things of each day, not taking ourselves too seriously, accepting to become like little children. Jean Vanier, The Broken Body (pp. 120-121)