s spirituality of l'arche: part six...

NOTE: I began this series of written reflections two weeks ago in the hope that I might summarize the essence of Jean Vanier's small but essential book, The Heart of L'Arche: a Spirituality for Every Day. I wanted to refresh my own understanding of Vanier's insights as well as articulate the practices involved in embracing a spirituality of L'Arche. Spiritual practices - what were once called disciplines, a rule of life, or intentional activities to help individuals and communities reorder their vision, feelings, habits and understanding of how God works in the world - change the way we think. They train us to see beyond the obvious, learn from our wounds, and live our everyday lives with greater joy, trust, and compassion. Spiritual practices are both a life standard - a statement of our most treasured values and goals - as well as a set of clearly defined activities that enrich, challenge, constrain, change and nourish our habits so that incrementally we become our best selves. St. Paul encouraged us to give our everyday, ordinary, walking around lives to the cause of Christ in Romans 12:

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (The Message)

In this closing post I will suggest the practices shaped by "a spirituality rooted in the church" that Vanier celebrates. Please know that L'Arche believes that a variety of religious traditions move their followers towards faith, hope and love. Vanier is authentically inclusive. He also celebrates the unique wisdom of his own Christian heritage. If you have questions, concerns or comments, please send me a note. I value all open and tender communication.

+

The Mystery of the Church

I recently returned from being a part of a family celebration welcoming our one year old granddaughter into the community of faith. Two practices were honored during the liturgy that give shape and form to the way of Jesus: a restatement of what was once called "salvation history" (our story as disclosed in the Bible) and vows made by the community. Our story from the Scriptures went like this:  

We thank you, God, for the gift of creation called forth by your Word. Before the earth had shape and form, your Spirit moved over the waters. Out of the waters of the deep, you formed the firmament and brought forth the earth to sustain all life. In the time of Moses, your people passed the Red Sea waters from slavery to freedom and crossed the flowing waters of the Jordan river to enter the promised land. In time you sent Jesus Christ who was nurtured in the water of Mary’s womb. Jesus was baptized by John at the river Jordan and became living water to the woman at the Samaritan well. He washed the feet of his disciples and sent them forth to baptize all nations by water and the Holy Spirit.

This condensation of the Bible affirms that from the beginning God's purpose in creation was to bring to birth love and order. It also notes that in both the Old and New Testaments there is a core truth: the Spirit of God has been active in nature and history since the start of time. We see God in the activity of Moses and the prophets as well as in the lives of Jesus, Mary and the apostles. This is what our sacred story - salvation history - accomplishes: words to better discern how God's purposes are being made flesh in real time and a lens through which we too can see the holy taking shape in our lives. It gives us a world view. A way of making sense of our experiences. The vows of this ceremony likewise focus our attention: we promise God and one another to both love this new child and guide her/him into a life of faith. We vow to be present in the flesh as well as in our prayers. We pledge to give God, the gathered faithful and the new child lives shaped by honesty, sacrificial love, truth and tenderness. Our lives are to incarnate - make flesh - the words of our faith tradition in our age just as Jesus did in his own.

In the final chapter of Vanier's primer on the spiritual practices of L'Arche, he speaks of how the Scriptures shape the story of L'Arche in time and how we make those truths flesh. "The Bible shows us how much God cares for people. It allows us to know the love of God revealed in Jesus, the Word made flesh."

All biblical history - from the time of Genesis through Abraham, Moses and all the prophets until the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles at the beginning of the church - reveals a God who watches over humanity and longs to lead us to inner freedom and peace. Biblical history is also the history of a people who fear God, who allow themselves to be seduced by riches and pride, who turn away from the love and power God wants to show them in order that they can be transformed and become instruments (of God's) peace and love. (Further) the gospel shows us that the poor, the weak and the marginalized have a special place in God's heart. Just as God called Moses to free the people from slavery, so God calls and sends assistants to L'Arche to welcome whose who are oppressed and suffering rejections because of their intellectual disabilities. God opens the hearts of assistants to the cry and the anguish of these fragile people. The mystery is that these people - with all their fragility and weakness - transform assistants, evangelize them, and call them into the heart of the gospel and the heart of God. (p. 76)

Vanier received a vision from the story of God's people in the Bible. It includes a world view shaped by God's love that shaped the community of L'Arche. This is one way a spirituality shaped by the church matters at L'Arche: we are given eyes to see and ears to hear some of the ways God is at work in the world. Our stories of faith remind us that we have not been abandoned to our own confusion or anxiety. We are not left alone with only our limited abilities. By faith, trust and small acts of compassion, we are united with God just as like Jesus. The gospel of St. John puts it like this when Jesus tells his disciples:

Don’t let (my absence) throw you. You trust God, don’t you? Trust me. There is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home. If that weren't so, would I have told you that I’m on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I’m on my way to get your room ready, I’ll come back and get you so you can live where I live. And you already know the road I’m taking... I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life... If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him. You’ve even seen him... The words that I speak to you aren't mere words. I don’t just make them up on my own. The Father who resides in me crafts each word into a divine act. Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me... If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. (Those who don't know me don't) have eyes to see him and don't know what to look for. But you know Spirit already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you! (John 14, The Message)

Implicit in the way of L'Arche, therefore, is a regular reflection on Scripture as interpreted through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It is not the only tool for acquiring eyes to see, of course; but it has been foundational for L'Arche. Sharing Scripture and learning to use it in discernment is one practice given to L'Arche in a spirituality shaped by the church. You can see it manifest in the use of the liturgical calendar to shape our shared celebrations. It guides the words spoken in community prayer. And it informs what it means to be God's people together in community. "How easy it is in our communities," Vanier writes, "to be so caught up in the daily routine that one forgets that people with disabilities are a sign of God's presence... it is easy to forget what is most essential: the communion, the covenant we have been given in Jesus."

Our possessions and our bodies, instead ob being instruments of grace and communion with Jesus, take up all our attention. We rely on our own power or become caught up in our own angers and depressions, rather than relying on Jesus. Rather than building a community founded on the weal - a sign of the love of God - we create a little institution in search of security and recognition. The work of God can very easily be choked, the signs of God extinguished. To bear witness to the gospel, L'Arche needs to drink from the source of life flowing from the church.
(p. 78)

Another practice L'Arche borrows from the church involves playing a part in the

healing of neighborhoods. Embracing the joys and sorrows of those who live next to us - caring for the land, working for justice and peace, being a loving sister or brother to our neighbors - is part of how L'Arche "is integrated into the parishes and local churches."

We need to work hard so that they become beautiful, alive, living fully the riches within them. We need to take our places in local churches, to be open and, through our lives together, bear witness to the fact that love is possible and that a person who suffers from an intellectual disability has a gift to offer others. We need to receive with wonder the gifts of others and be in communion with different religious authorities.
(p. 78)

A third practice born of a spirituality rooted in the church concerns the variety of ways people engage in "the inward journey." Not every one prays the same way. Some of us need solitude. Others blossom through journaling. Some practice walking meditation. Or praying the liturgical hours. Or yoga. Or drumming. "All at whatever stage they are on in their journey are encouraged to open themselves to others by living a life of fraternity, sharing, welcome, generosity and forgiveness. Diversity is a treasure." Just as there are different spiritualities in the church - Benedictine, Franciscan, Quaker, Lutheran, etc. - so too within L'Arche. Also, there are L'Arche homes in Muslim and Hindu cities. There are Roman Catholic, Reformed and Anglican communities, too. Vanier writes that "L'Arche has been increasingly drawn into God's plan for unity: the unity of all human beings and of all Christians."

The vocation to unity is demanding. It demands a certain maturity of heart to be able to welcome and respect others in their particular journey of faith, and to discover that, beneath our differences, much unites us. This is possible only if we are firmly anchored in the love og God and meet each one's heart with respect and love. It also implies that our spirituality be well anchored in good theology. We need to understand what God is calling us to be and to live. (p. 80)

The foundational practice that L'Arche embraces from the church, however, is a calling to love. St. Paul articulated this love as more than a feeling and much more than a passing fancy in I Corinthians 13:

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled. When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good. We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us! (The Message)

Vanier tells us towards the end of his primer that "it takes a long time to discover unity in ourselves so that we can be a source of unity for others; to welcome our wounds so that we can welcome those of others."

It takes a long time to drop our masks and accept ourselves as we are with all of our limitations, so that we can accept others. To carry on walking down this road, we need to be attentive to God's call and Jesus' promises and to make choices that bring with them the acceptance of loss... If we are to grow in love and remain faithful to Jesus hidden in the poor, and faithful to this vocation to unity, we need a certain discipline. Like athletes who want to win, we need to find the right way to look after ourselves. We cannot remain faithful unless we are nourished spiritually and intellectually; we need the strength of the Holy Spirit, we need the Eucharist, we need to share and help each other in community, but above all we need that nourishment that comes from people who are vulnerable and loving. We need to benefit from the help that spiritual masters through the ages have offered to lead us towards God. There are many pitfalls on the way. We need wise accompaniment. (pp. 81-82)

The practices of a spirituality rooted in the church at L'Arche include: 1) a story and world view that helps us see God's love in action; 2) a trust that just as God was present in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, God is with us in times of trial and rejoicing, too; 3) an acceptance of a diversity of spiritual resources to nourish the personal journey inward; 4) a commitment to caring for our neighbors and their well-being; and 5) a dedication to love that empowers us to mature in humility over time.

Jean Vanier has carefully articulated what he has learned, experienced and lived in his small book: The Heart of L'Arche - A Spirituality for Every Day. I have tried to synthesize his reflections in this series so that I might deepen my own commitment to living into the practices of the community. As he writes in the conclusion: "At L'Arche we wish to follow Jesus on this path of littleness, humility and trust. We believe that this path is a path of liberation and joy."

The spirituality of L'Arche is a way of love and friendship with people who are poor and weak. We are called, in Jesus' name, to live with them in a community life that is humble and poor. In eating (together) we discover the beatitude promised by Jesus: "When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind - and you will be blessed." (Luke 14: 14) (Vanier, p. 86)

The spirituality is simple. It is also challenging and thoroughly counter-cultural.

We have learned how we are transformed by weakness. But we are in a culture that believes we are transformed by power. And the tension between weakness and power is in us all... The culture of the United States is a culture of success and of power and of upward mobility. You can see this even in the church in that it's seen as a "promotion" to be named a cardinal. I see it as a demotion! I mean, who would ever want to be a cardinal? (There is) a whole new vision of who God is, a vision of the littleness of God, the weakness of God. God is the most excluded one. Nobody wants (that) God. Oh, yes, we'll always talk about the God of power who is on our side. But a vulnerable God, a fragile God, a God who weeps? (Jean Vanier, U.S. Catholic Vol 71, No. 8, August 2006)

Counter-cultural - and tender, small and open-hearted. In a commentary re: his understanding of gospel according to St. John, Vanier wrote: "the Gospel of John has helped me to give meaning to the "foolishness" of our lives. We need spirituality, spirit, priorities, motivation, and nourishment in order to live every day what appears to many as meaningless. We need also an anthropology and a theology which put words on what we are living."

The Word of God in John allows (us) to enter the places of darkness and anguish within ourselves so that we may enter into transformation. Maybe it is not possible to really enter into the full meaning of the Word of God without living anguish and yearning for transformation through the Spirit of God. (Vanier, Towards Transformational Reading of Scripture, https://www.cardus.ca/comment/article/towards-transformational-reading-of-scripture/)

Vanier has come to name the unique charism of L'Arche in a way that evokes the other great spiritual traditions of the Christian Church: the desert mothers and fathers, the way of Benedict and Francis as well as the Catholic Worker. He speaks of L'Arche as a new form of family with its own set of practices:

L'Arche is a family created and sustained by God. Being a family means sharing one spirit, one vision and one spirituality. This is particularly true of a family created by a response to a call from God, without the natural bonds of flesh and blood. A spirituality is a way of life that implies choices and a particular ordering of priorities. The gospel is the source of Christian spirituality, but there are many ways of living out the gospel. Throughout history, according to the needs of particular ages and cultures, the Holy Spirit has called forth men and women to create new families and to bear witness to the love of God, the resurrection of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

• The mystery of Jesus calls us to a table fellowship that breaks down barriers, welcomes the most vulnerable among us and invites us to open our hearts to a tender way of living. 
• The mystery of the poor shows us God's plan for healing the wounds of the world: shared acts of vulnerability unite rich and poor as equals. 
• The mystery of community allows ordinary events like cooking, cleaning, laughter and chores to become holy ground where we face our wounds, practice forgiveness and engage in the hard work of tender acceptance. 
• The mystery of a God who walks with us shows us how from the beginning God has been using all of life - our celebrations as well as our failures - to lead us closer to God and God's love. 
• And the mystery of a spirituality rooted in the church gives us a story to help us see better grasp how God's grace is at work in our ordinary lives.

In life, in death, in life beyond death: we are not alone. Thank be to God (United Church of Canada Affirmation of Faith.)