Let him go up!
‘People are healed and become more human as they enter into
real relationships with others.’ These are the words of Jean Vanier, the
founder of communities for people with intellectual disabilities and those who
live with them, who this week has been awarded the Templeton Prize. Jean is 86
now and has spent his life discovering, and helping others discover, ways of
breaking down barriers between people – especially between the ‘strong’ and the
‘weak.’ Over the years he has developed a universal heart that includes all
people and longs to see people embrace and listen to each other.
He learnt this the hard way, by deciding to open a house and
welcome two profoundly intellectually handicapped people to live with him. At
first he thought he was helping them but he soon discovered that they were
doing far more for him. He had been in the navy and a university lecturer and
was competent in practical and academic matters. But he says he was
impoverished in the ways of the heart. His two companions opened up in him
whole areas of his being that he had kept hidden and of which he was
frightened. He discovered he had the potential for hatred and violence and
Raphaël and Philippe, his companions, revealed to him his own darkness. They
did this not in words but in responding to his offer of friendship, of
relationship, by being blunt, honest and open, things that were natural for
them.
As his work grew and people came to join him and then found
other communities, he helped them to come in touch with their own suppressed
inner selves. The result was an inner freedom and an ability to relate to
people whom otherwise they would have shunned. Jean believes this is a simple
message that can break down barriers between ‘enemies’ – be they Muslims and
Christians, rich and poor, healthy and sick and so forth; all the divisions we
know exist in our world.
The Jews experienced this in a way. They were in desolation
in exile, especially when they realised they had blown it and it was their own
fault that calamity had come on them. God saw their misery and, through the
pagan king Cyrus, restored them to their inheritance. Cyrus says, ‘God has
ordered me to build him a temple in Jerusalem and whoever there is among you of
his people, let him go up and build it!’ To ‘go up’ is to go from where I am
now to another place. It is to leave a place that is familiar and go to
somewhere new with all the anxiety that might involve. That was what Jean did
when he started living with Raphaël and Philippe.
Jesus’ whole life was a ‘going up.’ Going up to Jerusalem
was not just an ordinary journey. Jerusalem was the place where he would achieve
his purpose. It was there that he was ‘lifted up’ on the cross so that
‘everyone who believes may have life.’ We go up with him every time we rise and
move from our familiar secure home and go out to others who are different from
us. This is the message of Lent and Easter. It is the message of Jean Vanier
and it is the message that gives each of us new life.
15 March 2015 Lent
Sunday 4 B
2 Chronicles 36:14-23 Ephesians
2:4-10 John
3:14-21
