"People with disabilities remain the most oppressed people of this world"

Vanier was in Durham partly to promote his new book, Living Gently in a Violent World, co-authored with Duke Divinity professor of theological ethics Stanley Hauerwas.

Much of Vanier's message makes the connection between loving the people whom society has cast aside as unlovable and the struggle to create a more peaceful world.

"The fundamental principle of peace is a belief that each person is important," Vanier writes in Living Gently.

"People with disabilities remain the most oppressed people of this world," said Vanier, a tall man with a voice so soft it is often hard to hear. "Many feel that they are not entirely human."

Vanier says his focus on those with disabilities is rooted in Scripture, especially the Gospel stories in which Jesus embraced the mentally and physically ill and other outcasts.

"I just sense the hand of Jesus" in the growth of L'Arche, Vanier said. "The building of L'Arche has been a story of transformation."

That transformation has happened in the form of committed relationships in which people with and without disabilities become like family, Vanier said.

"These people are very precious, and if we live with them, and communicate with them, and enter into a relationship of mutuality with them, we will change.

"People need to be understood," he said, adding that to listen to a person gives him or her dignity, and it is a form of holiness to do so."Our ministry is founded on broken bodies. When you live with people with disabilities, you must be in community."

full article here  (h/t T19)

One of my favorite events of the year is the annual L'Arche Christmas pageant.  if there is a L'Arche community in your neck of the woods, find out if they are doing one.  You might see the Christmas story in a whole new way.  Or do some volunteering - you might see humanity in a whole new way.  Our own SJ has, I am sure, transformed and challenged our own family in many ways.  I think one of her greatest gifts is the challenge to live in a way which connects with the heart, rather than (as is too often the case) only through the intellect. 

There are many layers to this.  In Lent I'll be giving an address (as part of the Prayer Book Society lecture series) on the topic: "Thanksgiving After Childbirth:  Choosing Sarah in an Age of Options".  March 22, at St. Timothy's.

Comments

[Jamie Arpin-Ricci]

Great post. Vanier has always been a significant influence in my life.

Peace,
Jamie

[joseph]

Thanks for dropping by, Jaime. I became acquainted with Vanier's work a number of years ago, and had the opportunity to work with him at a young adult retreat on the University of Alberta campus.

I sometimes muse to myself that families who have children with disabilities have their own private L'Arche. Sarah (our second daughter, who lives with Down Syndrome) got to meet Vanier when he was about 70 and she was about 7 months old.

They hit it off well.