L’Arche-Trosly, Christmas 2004New Year 2005

During this Christmas season, so many people throughout the world are in grief, especially those affected by the earthquake and tidal wave in South Asia. An immense tragedy! It is difficult perhaps for us to rejoice whilst so many others are in pain. At the same time all this has created a wonderful movement of solidarity! But do we need such disasters in order for the world to wake up and for richer countries to share with poorer ones? This tsunami has shaken the world and reminds us of the other disaster in all our countries: the ever-widening gap between those who have and those who have not.

Christmas :the celebration of God who comes to visit us in the weakness and vulnerability of a child; God who comes to be with us, to share our joys and pain, so that we too can share our lives together as brothers and sisters in humanity. God comes to live a relationship of trust which awakens our hearts and transforms us into men and women of compassion. We become a sign of hope in the world.  The Word became flesh so that we could make the passage from being centred on ourselves to being centered on others, humbly but truthfully. It is not easy to love, to let down the barriers that close us up in ourselves and to reach out to others. As I grow older, I become more and more aware of my own fears and blockages, my difficulties in relationships. There is still a struggle in me between the desire to live simple relationships of communion with others and the need for power, to control others. And I realise that I am not going to change and acquire the inner freedom to love through my own efforts; my heart of stone needs to be transformed through the love of God, into a heart of flesh, a vulnerable heart, open to others.

I sense more and more how much L’Arche and Faith and Light are a treasure that God has entrusted to us. After reading the first year report of “Identity and Mission”, David Ford, a theologian and friend of L’Arche, told me and Christine McGrievy: “L’Arche is not only born of God and guided by God; L’Arche is the glory of God!” I like to think of each one of our communities also as the joy of God. Didn’t Jesus, quivering with joy in the Holy Spirit, proclaim:” I bless You, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever, and revealing them to little ones”. (Luke 10:21) God’s joy is not only because we welcome those who are often marginalised in our societies but also because our communities are places where they can live and grow in a personal relationship with God.

Yes, God became flesh, revealed himself, gave himself, as a friend to the weak and the poor, those who are not caught up in the desire for importance or for doing “big things”. Don’t we all have to become like little children in order to enter into the Kingdom of Love? Life in our communities can be a source of transformation only if we let ourselves be transformed. To become little, like a child, is not a question of sentimentality, of being sipid or of pretending to be incapable of doing anything of value. It is an awareness that by ourselves we are unable to become truly free. It is the audacity to believe that if we let God live and work in us, we can do beautiful things.

L’Arche and Faith and Light are a sign and a paradox. We are discovering more and more that those rejected by society because of their weakness and apparent uselessness, are a presence of God. If we welcome them, they gradually lead us out of the world of competition and the need to do big things, into a world of communion of hearts, a simple life of joy, doing little things with love. They become a path to peace. 

I want to thank each one for your Christmas greetings and for your concern and prayers for my health. These last four weeks have been filled with doctor’s appointments, a short stay in the hospital, rest and walks. I was sorry I had to cancel my trip to Honduras and miss seeing our people there. At my last appointment the doctor told me “Continue to live and to travel! There is no danger.” I still have a heart that beats too much due to my arythma. I have to be careful and slow down. But the cardiologist is taking good care of me and teaching me how to live with it. Isn’t that our spirituality, learning to live with our limits and weaknesses and to give thanks? So, as planned, after Christmas I will be giving a retreat in the Foyer de Charité de Tressaint (in Brittany) and on January 7th I will leave for Burkina Faso and a time of formation with delegates from all our communities in Africa.

During this Christmas season, I give thanks for each one of our communities of L’Arche and Faith and Light and for our friends. Let us be in solidarity with the communities close to the disaster areas and with all those communities which live day after day in vulnerable and insecure situations. Our way of living peace is small and humble, living and sharing with those who are weak and humble.  May this Christmas be truly a celebration of love and sharing for each one of us. May the New Year be a time of transformation for each one and for each of our communities and a time of consolation for those who are suffering. 

Love,

Jean

I am with the International Council of Faith and Light in this retreat house 30 kms  outside of Damascus. We are told that the prophet Elijah stayed in a cave near here, (see the First Book of Kings, ch 19), where he waited for the presence of God. God came but was not in the hurricane nor in the earth quake nor in the fire. God, the God of Tenderness and Compassion, was present in the gentle evening breeze.  It is good to be here on this little mountain and to sense the gentle presence of God in the quiet evening breeze.

I am impressed by the unity and wisdom of the International Council around  the Coordinator, Viviane Lepolain, the Vice Coordinator, Roy Moussali, Marie-Hélène Mathieu and Fr. Josef Larsen.  I am happy to be with the Council (even if I am not in all the meetings). My programme has been full. I had the joy of visiting “Al Safina”, the small l’Arche community in the old part of the city: to see those I have known from other visits, to meet the new members and to be with with the Board and friends. It is such a gift for me to witness the growth and deepening of our communities, especially this one in Damascus. 

I visited the main Mosque which is an amazing place of beauty and grandeur. Many people were there, sitting on rugs, talking or praying or reading the Koran; children playing quietly together. It was good to pray at the tomb of John the Baptist, that humble witness to Jesus, who is venerated by Moslems in this Mosque, and with so many men and women to ask God for peace: that the walls that separate cultures and religions might be lowered and that we, with all our differences, may learn how to dialogue with one another and live in communion.

The 38 Faith and Light communities in Syria are full of life: many young people sharing the joy and pain of people with disabilities and their parents. They are a mixture of Catholics and Orthodox, encouraged and supported by their respective bishops. They form a real family. It is beautiful to see how people who are weak can be a source of unity between churches. Peace and unity do not necessarily come from “the top”, but from “the bottom”, through those who are humble and call forth our hearts. I gave two short days of retreat for l’Arche and Faith and Light and their friends. I was touched by the pilgrimage to Homs with all the Faith and Light communities in Syria, (about a thousand people in all), the four bishops (2 Roman Catholics and 2 Orthodox) leading a procession. A real testimony to unity. I gave two public talks, in Damascus and in Alep, which brought together about 700 people each time, mainly Muslim. After my talk in Alep, the Mufti gave a testimony on how people with disabilities are a path to God.

In the desert, in the monastery of “Mar Moussa”

We have all come to “Mar Moussa”, in the middle of the desert. We had quite a walk through the mountains to get here. Roy helped me all along the way so that I wouldn’t fall! “Mar Moussa”, a monastery built on ancient ruins, is a new community of men and women, monks and religious sisters, who live, work and pray together, striving to be a place of dialogue and communion between Christians and Muslims. In the midst of so much fear in our world, where so many walls are being built between cultures and religions, the Holy Spirit is bringing to birth communities of peace. They do not make much noise nor the headlines; they are like gentle breezes, signs that love and peace are stronger than hatred and war.

I think a lot about “Il Poverello”, Francis of Assisi, while I am here. In the midst of the crusades, in 1213, Francis, with another Franciscan brother, crossed over the line between the two enemy armies, to visit the Sultan. Barefoot, with no money or food, like a beggar, Francis went to the Sultan in Damietta (Egypt). The two men truly met and appreciated each other. It was a gesture of peace in a world at war. In the Franciscan Rule of life, Francis urges his brothers, in their relationship with Moslems, to be like Jesus who came humbly to serve.

Retreat-pilgrimage to the Holy Land

Last June, I had the joy of making a retreat-pilgrimage following the footsteps of Jesus in the Holy Land, which is also a land of conflict and violence – as it was in the time of Jesus. There were about forty of us, an English speaking group, coming from l’Arche in Canada, the United, States, England and France. It was an important time for us, which began on the Mount of the Beatitudes, near Nazareth and ended at the St. Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Before separating, we celebrated the Eucharist of the Resurrection.  It was a time of deepening in our unity and in our vocation of Covenant in l’Arche. It always difficult to share in words an experience like that. We were especially touched by the immense pain and anguish people are living there. We listened to the personal stories of some people living this pain and yearning for peace: Rabbi Levi, in charge of a synagogue in Jerusalem; Little Sister Chiara, responsible for the Little Sisters of Jesus in Palestine; Abouna Raffic, a Palestinian priest; David Neuhaus s.j., a Jew and citizen of Israel; Jacqueline Sfeir, former board Président of the l’Arche community in Bethany that had to close. Kathy Baroody, from l’Arche, living near Bethlehem, was with the group all the time. Some of us visited the workshop she opened for 15 men and women, Christian and Moslem. We saw the new wall in construction, 8 meters high, which separates Israel from Palestine: a wall of pain. We saw and heard about so many painful situations that are difficult to talk about. Our world is so full of such places of suffering. How can we live in solidarity with these people? We want our communities to be places of peace, by our welcome of those who are different, and places of hope in a world where many have lost hope.

Ecumenical retreat in Northern Ireland

After that pilgrimage to the source of our faith, I gave a retreat in Northern Ireland, another place where two cultures have difficulty understanding one another and are in confrontation. Participants came from both cultures and from different churches. In Northern Ireland, in the midst of all the difficulties, people like Ruth Patterson, work day in and day out for peace, trying to help people to know one another, to lose their fear, and to begin to appreciate and forgive each other. That takes time! People have been so hurt!  Forgiveness does not come easily. Hatred and vengeance seem to come more naturally to us poor human beings who tend to close up in ourselves, behind the walls of “our group”. But through the prophet Ezekiel, God promises to send a new Spirit to change our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. We need the Holy Spirit so much today in order to see others, who are different, as a brother, a sister, a friend, and not as an enemy. We need the Holy Spirit in order to reach the deepest person of others, hidden behind the disability or underneath the label we stick on them. We need the Spirit of God in order to see the beauty and the light in others rather than all that is negative and wounded.

Pilgrimage to Lourdes on the 14^th,and 15^th of August

I was invited to participate in the Pope’s pilgrimage to Lourdes on August 14^th and 15th. I was asked to give short meditations on the Luminous mysteries of the rosary: the Baptism of Jesus, the Wedding Feast in Cana, Announcing the Kingdom, the Transfiguration of Jesus on Mt Thabor and the Eucharist. During that time I walked close to John Paull II.  I was moved by the seriousness of his disability, his speech difficulties due to Parkinson disease. One person told me after the pilgrimage: “It was too hard to watch him on the television. He should retire – or die – soon!”  How many times I have heard that said about people with disabilities. It is an attitude that humanly speaking is understandable!  It is hard to see and be close to people in pain. Through his physical poverty, the Pope reveals a mystery; he is a living symbol of the presence of God in weakness. Even more than by his words, through his fragile body, he is teaching us now the value of each human life; he is showing us a path towards holiness.  I was also touched by his humility and courage, the spark of life in his eyes, the way he accepts the humiliating reality of his condition today and his extreme tenderness. In all his weakness and old age, he calls us to tenderness. He is a sign of the glory of God who is manifested in and through his poverty and vulnerability.

Our societies exalt physical strength and beauty. But is that what it means to be human? Who, in fact, inspire us to become more human?  The beautiful and the powerful? Or, those who call forth what is deepest in us, the goodness and compassion in our hearts?

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L’Arche began forty years ago. I give thanks to Jesus for all those years of amazing, surprising, and unhoped-for gifts and fruits.  My heart is full of thanksgiving in a special way for Père Thomas who led me – and many of us – to the treasure of people with disabilities. He opened up a new path of spiritual life for us and accompanied many of us on this path for years. The whole community of l’Arche-Trosly will be going on pilgrimage to Lourdes October 30^th-November 4^th to celebrate our anniversary. 

I feel happy, even if sometimes I have less stamina and my legs feel like cotton! I had some rest and renewal in Orval in August. My joy is to be more present in my community and in my foyer “Le Val Fleuri”, but also to travel to announce Jesus and his good news, as in the retreats I gave in Prince George, B.C. and Erie, Pa. I am happy that I am no longer in the decision-making bodies of l’Arche and Faith and Light and I have great confidence in those who are called to carry responsibility today. My joy is to speak about l’Arche, Faith and Light, the beauty of people with disabilities, who, in all their vulnerability lead us to God. I am happy to continue my journey with Jesus and to pray with you with confidence for the future. Finally, I would like to thank each one for your greetings and prayers for my 76^th birthday. It is good to grow older and to be in communion with each other.