麻豆社

Good morning. The older I get the more conscious I am of the gap between what I say and what I do. I have ideals but I am not living up to them - I am too selfish, too cowardly.

People who do dare to put thought into action are sometimes called living saints - a phrase applied to Jean Vanier, the Canadian theologian who has died at the age of 90. When he was a young man, Vanier walked away from a naval career to, in his words, 鈥渇ollow Jesus鈥�. In 1964 he visited a facility in France for those with intellectual disabilities and was disturbed by what he found: 80 men living in two bleak dorms, their only occupation was walking around in circles. Vanier bought a house nearby and invited two of the men to live with him. This was first Ark or L鈥橝rche community. Today, there are more than 140 of them in 35 countries.

Vanier was not just a very nice man: he had a religious motivation. As the 麻豆社鈥檚 Martin Bashir noted, he devoted his life to the 鈥渦pside down economics鈥� of Christianity, which teaches that in the Kingdom of Heaven 鈥渢he last shall be first and the first last鈥�. People with disabilities were once pushed to the margins, but Vanier wanted to place them at the very heart of society. Crucially, this went further than political advocacy: Vanier wanted to put people with intellectual disabilities at the heart of his own life, too. He wanted to live with them, know them and be changed by them 鈥� because when two people meet they are both affected by the encounter.

The Dutch priest Henri Nouwen, who chose to live in a L鈥橝rche community, described the humbling effect his fellow residents had on him: 鈥淚f they express love for you,鈥� he said, 鈥渢hen it comes from God. It鈥檚 not because you accomplished anything.鈥� They forced him to let go of his egotistical self 鈥� 鈥渢he self that can do things, show things, prove things, build things鈥� 鈥� and become instead a vulnerable human being stripped down to his essentials, a person who is loved and gives love in return.

This, to me, is a pretty good definition of the kind of life worth living. It鈥檚 useless for me to sit around aspiring to be good; I鈥檝e got to meet people and *do* good. Vanier suggested beginning by visiting someone we know is lonely. He warned: 鈥淧eople will say 鈥榖ut that is nothing鈥欌�� but it is also everything.鈥� He said: 鈥淚t all begins with small things.鈥�

Show less