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L’Arche founder says with Jesus we’re not alone

By MARY-ANNE LEWIS JAMIN
Special to The B.C. Catholic

PRINCE GEORGE – It is the “amazing capacity of the human heart to change” that gives him hope today, Jean Vanier said.

In an interview July 17, he said when people are able to “move from the closed down barriers of their own comfort and the vision they need for survival,” they can be open to others. It is through this meeting of people that change takes place.

Vanier was in Prince George for a weekend gathering for young adults entitled, Searching for Hope, which attracted participants from all four Western provinces.

In the interview Vanier discussed the need for people to know and feel secure in their own identity in order to be able to reach out and accept those who are different. Conversion is possible, he said, “when I know what my origins are, my roots. Then I can dialogue with those with other roots and other visions and we can discover something together.”

Pointing to L’Arche, the now worldwide community he founded for people with developmental disabilities nearly 40 years ago in France, Vanier said many are disturbed and sometimes even violent when they first come to the community. “Then they discover who they are and they meet someone who communicates to them that they are precious and can be themselves. This liberates them.”

“A meeting where trust is born leads, essentially, to a meeting with Jesus,” he continued. “We discover that Jesus believes in us and this means we are not alone, we don’t have to fight for our own survival or promotion.”

Reflecting on a recent retreat for long-time L’Arche assistants in Palestine, Vanier said that being in a place of war and oppression helps one look at the fundamental question of how we can become people of peace.

“As we go into these places and see the complexity, we see that we have to get our act together.” People can “fall into the idea of creating comfortable communities,” but for those who are rooted in the love of God it is so evident that God loves people and that the “immense desire of God” is that people come together.

Speaking about the differences that separate people he asked, “Are we in contact with God or are we just in contact with our organization? Why be worried if you are deeply in a relationship with Jesus? What have you got to defend?”

Born in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1928 to Canadians Georges (who later became Governor General of Canada) and Pauline Vanier, Vanier was drawn to a life consecrated to God.

In 1950 he resigned his commission in the Canadian navy and entered the Dominican Faculty of Theology and Philosophy at Le Saulchoir in France. After receiving his doctorate from the Institute Catholique in Paris, he taught briefly at St. Michael’s College in Toronto before opening the first L’Arche in Trosly-Breuil, 90 kilometers north of Paris.

Vanier said he had no plan. “I started because I knew it was the right thing to do.” He bought a dilapidated house and welcomed his first companions from the local institute for the mentally handicapped, Raphael and Philippe.

L’Arche, he said, is a place where people can be together and celebrate life. “The whole thing is not to be overwhelmed by the pain of the world but to do what you can here and now, and to see the incredible beauty of people changing. In L’Arche I think we know how to celebrate life; celebrate and have fun!”