Review: The Miracle, The Message, The Story

The ‘rich’ look upon the ‘poor’ and weak as problems
to be resolved, according to their own vision, refusing
to enter into a dialogue of trust with those who are
oppressed and in distress.  They will not listen to them.

So begins this book of Jean Vanier’s life, and his respect for people with disabilities.

In 1964 Jean began the first l’Arche (the Ark) home just north of Paris.  He invited three rejected people to leave the institution “where they had been living in disgrace and make their home with him.”  Wanting to do good, “he had no idea at the time that those people would ‘do good’ to him.”

One of the unique elements of l’Arche communities is that administrators there are not employees, working 8-hour shifts to care for those in need; the administrators live with them, becoming family with them.  In living with them, they see not just their limitations, but their value and contributions to the community.  They come not just to care for them, but to love and be loved.  Henri Nouwen spent 11 years in l’Arche; his books reflect what he learned living there:  in providing a home for the developmentally disabled, he found a home for himself.

Today, through hundreds of Faith and Light and l’Arche communities around the world, Jean noted that “thousands of mothers and fathers were beginning to dance and laugh with their children.”  These were the children who were once laughed at by their peers, and then hidden from the world’s cruelties by their parents.  They once had lived sad, lonely lives.  Now, in these communities they really come alive.  (I recently joined the board of an organization which helps the developmentally disabled live in homes, in community.  And I attended the organization’s 50^th anniversary celebration, and yes, I saw the disabled and their parents laugh and sing and dance --- it was a most beautiful, blessed thing to behold.)

The Miracle, The Message, The Story goes into great depth in describing the problems Vanier faced in different cities, in different countries, in different religions, and in different cultures.  There were starts, stumbles, and even some failures.  The work of love is not an easy thing.  Some might read this book and become bored with the seemingly endless problems --- but it is not a book only celebrating success, but celebrating too of the work required to get there.

I had read and reviewed the much shorter book, Signs, which spoke to the message Vanier discerned from his life’s work:  we will find Jesus and His message more in the poor and the marginalized than we will in the rich and cultured.  In reading Signs, it seemed a hard message to accept.  This book seems to indicate that “yes, it IS a hard message --- you have to work hard to get it.”  It is a life’s work.

When I read Signs I asked myself:  “Who can live this way?”  When I read The Miracle, The Message, The Story I recalled:  “And the gate is narrow…”