Compassion and Vulnerability

	Book review on Essential Writings by Vanier, Jean (2008) Reviewed by David Lorimer, 2009
	(order this book from amazon.co.uk)

Jean Vanier, Founder of L’Arche and Faith and Light, was born in 1928. His father was
Canadian ambassador to Paris, and Vanier began his career at a young age in the
Navy. His father asked him what it was he really wanted and why he wanted to join the
Navy. His father’s answer was: ‘I trust you and, if that is what you want, well then that is
what you must do.’ His father’s trust meant that he could trust himself, and led Vanier
later to say that we must listen to children, and that they will never be able to trust
themselves unless someone trusts them. He came out of the Navy at the age of 21 in
1950, and set out on his spiritual quest with the help of a Dominican priest called Pere
Thomas, gaining his doctorate in 1962 on happiness as principle and end of Aristotelian
ethics.

His life work began in earnest in 1964 when he moved into a dilapidated house in
France with two companions, thus founding that first L’Arche community. Over time, this
initiative grew into an international network of communities where people with
developmental disabilities and those who assist them live together. During his studies,
he existed in a world where weakness, ignorance and incompetence were things to be
shunned. Here, in his new life, he comes across human vulnerability not only in his
companions, but also recognises that it is deeply embedded in himself. He discovers
how much pain was hidden in the hearts of his companions, and ‘how they had been
broken by rejection, abandonment and lack of respect.’ The answer is healing, but this
healing is not an escape from suffering; rather, ‘to be healed one must want to live and
to give life.’ And many who heal are themselves wounded.

The contents of this book are drawn from a wide variety of writings, including
pastoral letters and speeches. They are shaped around what Vanier calls the three
movements of transformation: change the world, with love, one heart at a time. Early in
his experience, Vanier confronts the immense forces of darkness and hatred within
himself, what Jung calls the shadow. This self-discovery was deeply disturbing, but
Vanier does not subsequently retreat into frenetic activity ‘where I could forget all the
garbage and prove to others how good I was.’ This helps him realise that ‘healing takes
place at the bottom of the ladder, not at the top.’ Later, he observes that we have to
welcome our own weakness, poverty and deepest needs and realise that ‘we all have
vulnerable hearts and need to be loved and appreciated’ -- a point which is only too easy
to forget.

An example of reaction to vulnerability is given in a poem about Peter’s denial of
Jesus, when Peter insists that he does not know this man. For Vanier, the man he does
not know is the ‘weak, battered person’; he recognises rather the man who had spoken
with authority, who had performed miracles and called Peter to follow him. This is the
paradox of the cross. Vanier writes brilliantly about old age and death: that the end of life
is similar to the beginning, with the need to be held and open up to our being. This part
of life has to do with loss ‘as we gradually lose our hair, our teeth, our memory, our job,
our health, our energy, our friends, and eventually our life.’ It is a return to the
awareness of our weakness, an opportunity to accept our vulnerability, which is the very
basis of a true experience of communion with another. We lose our capacity to do
things, but we remain able to be, even if we become increasingly dependent. This,
concludes Vanier, ‘is the mystery of life, from the littleness and vulnerability of the child
to the littleness and vulnerability of old age with that period in the middle where we think
we are important and we think we are strong.’ Then he adds that the fundamental
question behind this process is: ‘who are we really throughout all that?’ Some old
people, he observes, grow more gentle and kind; ‘they live communion and become
more human.’

Writing on New Year’s Day 2008, Vanier reflects on the many crises facing
humanity, which he regards as an opportunity to find new and peaceful solutions. His
vision is that these solutions ‘will imply less speed and mobility and more interiority: less
consumption and more relationships; less technology and more community; less
individualism and more sharing and living together.’ These are prophetic words, as is the
poem with which I will end this review in the hope that you will be inspired to buy this
book.
Hope for our world lies not
in the manufacture of greater weapons
or the implementation and more repressive laws;
hope lies in our capacity to love and to forgive
and in our desire to live reconciliation
and to grow in love for our enemies.

(order this book from amazon.co.uk)