Thoughts from Jean Vanier

Jean Vanier

Some might say that L’Arche is “a haven of peace.” In many respect this is true, as at the core of our communities there is the desire to experience authentic relationships. Experiencing a relationship takes time: time to look into someone’s eyes, to listen to others with all your heart, mind and body. True relationship transcends time, stress and movement and it goes beyond the tyranny of normalcy and things to do. Yes, L’Arche can be a haven of peace where we take the time to eat together and celebrate life. We slow down to the pace of the slowest. We walk slowly together.

All that is a marvellous ideal, but then there is the reality! There is housework, cooking, shopping, laundry, rules to follow, reports to write, a short- age of assistants, appointments with doctors and other professionals… and then the occasional fit of anger and conflicts in the home. There are visitors to welcome, neighbours to meet and of course, the ringing phone.

In her journal, Etty Hillesum talks about a night when she saw all suffering faces of the day flash through her mind, and she imagined all the horrors endured by her people. She says that one must take care not to let oneself become engulfed in anxiety, and adds that this requires training and a certain amount of discipline.

Father Thomas Philipp told the story of the Abbot of a contemplative monastery who noticed that the monks were becoming success-loving hard workers in the chores they had to do. His abbey was no longer a haven of silence and peace; it had become a beehive of monks obsessed with work. The Abbot decided that the church bell would be rung every hour. Every person had to stop, refocus and remain silent for a moment, and commune with God. To stop yourself from always being on the move and always wanting to do more, you have to accept help. Life for us is not just to succeed in our actions and be recognized for what we achieve and the power we hold. The deepest, most human joy is not in doing, but in the silence of presence and communion.

Etty Hillesum 1914-1943

Etty Hillesum writes “our sole moral obligation is to find in ourselves deep places of peace and to extend this to others until that peace radiates towards all. The more peace there is in human beings, the more there will also be in this turbulent world”. Peace is not the absence of war; it overcomes hate, fear, vengeance and contempt. It thrives in love, communion and reconciliation. Like many others at L’Arche and like those monks in the abbey, I need help to stop myself from getting into an activity that pulls me in too many directions always with things to do ("I am because I am doing something") or escaping into a dream world in order to fill my inner void. I need the bell to ring to remind me of what is essential to me: presence, relationship, someone to listen and humility towards reality; a time of communion and to stay within love. To become a haven of peace and not a beehive; to be a place of celebration where we celebrate unity and not a football game where one loses and the other wins, we must remember that the very core of all life at L’Arche is to respectfully listen to those with less than we have, to reveal their beauty and worth to others as well as to themselves, so that they may gain self-confidence.

L’Arche is not a football game but a celebration of unity where each person wins, sings and dances with others.