Addressing a large audience, Jean Vanier the founder of the world-wide L'arche organization - described how his experience of people with a learning disability has put him in touch with the "essential". He gave the example of Antonio, a member of the L'arche community who dies recently. A fragile 26-year old man, he could not speak, walk or use his hands. He had to be fed through his stomach. Yet this man, so dependent upon others, had "beautiful eyes that transformed those around him." He would look at people with great trust and possessed "incredible gentleness".
Antonio accepted who he was, said Jean Vanier, in all his fragility and littleness. A special form of love flowed from this brokenness, as Jean Vanier put it. "Antonio could not be generous, he had nothing to be generous with, but he had the love which is trust".
Maybe , said Vanier, we have been hurt and no longer know how to trust. People say that Antonio transformed their life. He brought them from a world of competition, of conflict and warfare, to a world of tenderness.
To be tender, said Jean vanier, is a wonderful reality. "Antonio revealed to me what is most precious - my capacity to relate in love". This reveals what is essential in being a human being, he said.
The way to relate to people is in "gentleness, tenderness and being present". People with disabilities, old people, people who have AIDS - fragile people-are asking for communion, relationship and love. He said they are asking a simple question : "Do you love me really?"
In this world, where the gap between rich and poor is rapidly widening, the poor , he said, are crying out : "Do you believe in me, do you love me ?"
L'arche has 106 communities around the globe and faith and Light Groups in 70 countries. As Jean Vanier travels around the world, what is evident to him is "the brokenness of our world". Recently in Rwanda he met a young woman who told him that 70 members of her family had been killed. "Our world is a very painful one". he said "the slums are growing, families are breaking up".
The question is, where is our hope ? Are we just accepting conflict, separation ? The gap between rich and poor ? Broken families ?
We live in a world of amazing technology and amazing brokenness. "I suggest that if our world is a broken world, there are a lot of broken people. Because we are a broken people, there is a vast gap between rich and poor, satisfied and dissatisfied."
How can we bridge the gap today ?", he asked. "If the rich are fearful and the poor angry and depressed - it is because of our wounded hearts. We are capable of transformation and change."
Jean vanier referred to Helen, who was welcomed into a L'arche community in Manila. Helen was full of anguish and pain. At first the community had a lot of difficulty with Helen - she was completely apathetic, no anger, joy, laughter, no emotional life. Yet the community believed that if they kept talking to helen and touching her with love, she would come out from behind her prison walls.
Recently Jean Vanier had a postcard telling him that Helen is smiling more and more. She is coming out. There is a transformation.
"If Helen can be transformed in that way, maybe we can all be transformed and see each other as brothers and sisters. Why do we all close up behind our frontiers and enter into a vision of racism and other "ism's ?" he asked.
To love, said Vanier, is not to do things to people, it is to reveal something to people - that you are important, precious. That revelation, said Vanier, lies in the way that we listen to people, the way we hold their hand, the way we try to understand.
If we have been hurt, we learn to close up in ourselves - because love is too dangerous. "The incredible thing in all of us is that we can change, if we discover that we are loved."
Someone like Antonio can reveal to us the beauty of our hearts and our capacity to love people. "My hope in our broken world is people who have hearts," he said, "people who do not hide behind their power and their need to control.
My hope is those people who look at others without condemning or judging. My hope is little communities like L'arche - united by little people."