In God’s eyes

A small Italian village in the depths of the Emilian countryside, a few steps from the parish church: here are the homes and workshops of “The Rainbow” Community, near Bologna, which cares for adults with mental handicaps. Some live in the Community’s structures; others only come to serve in its workshops, where everyone works with total dedication and with appreciable results. The guests of the Community are assisted by educators, volunteers and local families, who live a life of sharing and mutual enrichment. JEAN VANIER , founder of the “L’Arche”, the community for the mentally impaired founded in France in 1964 and now present in 34 countries of the world, was himself present at the inauguration of a new home and workshop in the village on Saturday, 16 June. We present some passages from his address. LISTENING TO OUR NEIGHBOUR. “I have the privilege of living with many people who can’t speak, but who express themselves with their body, their eyes, their smile, and even with their brief eruptions of anger. In our world, however, we must try to understand each other, and that’s our community’s aim: to express in our actions that we have a need for each other. L’Arche – the Ark – wishes to be a sign, but it’s not enough to limit ourselves to applauding ‘signs’: rather, we need to ask ourselves what each of us can do to make our world one in which we listen to each other. The “L’Arche” communities wish to listen to those who are most vulnerable, and to help each to develop his/her own talents. Each person is important, each child, each man or woman, whatever be their capacities and their limitations. Being attentive to each of them, welcoming them, respecting them and entering into relation with them means putting the Gospel into practice. I remember, in Paris, the episode of a handicapped child who was preparing to receive his first communion. The ceremony took place, and at its end the boy’s family organized a little party. His uncle, on greeting the boy’s mother, said: ‘What a wonderful celebration!’. And he added, pointing to the little boy: ‘The only sad thing is that he was unable to understand anything’. The boy had overheard the whole of this conversation; with tears in his eyes he turned to his mother and remarked: ‘Don’t worry, mum. Jesus loves me just as I am’. Each of us is precious in God’s eyes, and this the child had perfectly understood”. FREE FROM FEARS. “There are many fears in our world: people fear each other. We build walls around our hearts; we judge and condemn, but have difficulty in forgiving. How is it possible, under these conditions, to look at the other person, someone who is different, and discover our brother or sister in that person, someone important in our eyes? We must free ourselves from our fears, prejudices and compulsions that lead us to oppose winners and losers. We must free ourselves from those cultural influences that urge us to individualism. We must promote, instead, a collective responsibility that cannot be delegated to the State and its institutions, but that involves each one of us. Welcoming the person who is different is an indispensable step in peacemaking. I remember, some years ago, I stayed in a village in Northern Serbia, equally divided between Catholics and Orthodox. The Catholics had their church, their school, their bakery, their garage. So too did the Orthodox. I asked them if there was any dialogue between the members of the two confessions, and they replied: ‘Yes, we don’t have war’. But there are forms of conduct that prepare for war”. LIVING SIDE BY SIDE. “By forming part of the same family we mutually support each other, and more easily help our neighbour to develop his/her own talents. The harmony between talent and spirituality is very important in the ‘L’Arche’. Each is competent in a particular field, whether in the kitchen, or in the workshops. There are, however, disabled persons who are handicapped in their relations, and who have difficulty in showing what they can do, of expressing themselves: we want to help them to free themselves from these fears. That’s the spirituality that inspires us: living the Gospel not for vulnerable people, but together with them, side by side with them. Moreover, an essential element of our experience is the dialogue between the community and the modern world, with its lifestyles. We must penetrate its lifestyles, enable them to discover what the ‘L’Arche’ is, and how it helps people to grow in self-esteem and independence, by living in fullness the spirituality of the Gospel, while at the same time remaining open to the members of other religious faiths. We have Moslem and Hindu communities that live together. Ecumenical and interfaith dialogue is vital if we want to build a better world, a world that is dominated not by fear but by trust”.