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Connection
LEADERSHIP
People You Wish Would Never Die
4 FALL 2019
PRESBYTERIAN
presbyterian.ca
By the Rev. John Congram former editor of the Presbyterian Record magazine
As you move through life you meet people you feel live too long. When I was a minister of a church, if I was to be perfectly honest, I sometimes thought, but never articulated, that a few well-timed deaths in the congre- gation would make my life easier and the work of the congregation more ef- fective. On the other hand, you meet people you wish would never die.
For me, one of the latter was Jean Vanier. On May 7 of this year, Jean Vanier died at the age of 90. He was the son of Georges Vanier a former Governor General of Canada. Jean Vanier served in the Canadian navy during the 1950s. Becoming dissat- isfied he resigned and went to France where he studied and taught philoso- phy. In France he became a friend of a Roman Catholic priest named Thomas Philippe and through that friendship became aware of many people institutionalized with develop-
mental handicaps.
As a result of this experience Vanier
invited two men who had been insti- tutionalized to come and live with him in Trosly-Breuil, France. This became the basis of what we know as the first L’Arche community where people with disabilities live with those who care for them. Vanier believed that people with disabilities could be our teachers rather than being seen as burdens to society. Today there are L’Arche communities in 37 countries.
I met Vanier only once when he visited the L’Arche community in Richmond Hill, Ont. It had a lasting effect on me. Although he was over an hour late, the excitement and an- ticipation of the crowd remained at a high level. Apparently being late was not unusual for Vanier, who had constant demands on his time. And those who waited were not disap- pointed. It is difficult to describe his effect on the community as his pres- ence seemed to embrace the room while he also embraced the residents individually. He appeared in well-
Jean Vanier, Canadian Catholic philoso- pher, theologian and humanitarian who died May 7, 2019.
worn casual clothes, moving slowly among the welcoming throng, af- firming the worth of each person by
his very presence. This may sound blasphemous, but it was almost as if Jesus had been reincarnated in our midst.
Vanier was a deeply religious man. His writings are filled with references to the Bible and to Jesus. His foun- dational belief was that every human being is valuable whatever their con- dition. In that conviction, he reflects Jesus’ own basis for living in com- munity. But I wonder if we are willing or able to maintain this conviction in society today, let alone in our own lives. We have trouble implementing this belief, Vanier claims in his book Be Not Afraid, because as he puts it, in the “normal” there is so much fear. “We have so much fear of one another; we are afraid of meeting.” I cannot help but wonder whether it is this fear that keeps us from resolving some of the so-called “big issues” we’ve been wrestling with for years in the church.
I wonder too how Vanier’s basic conviction might impinge on our at- titudes regarding the huge refugee
problem in our world. Would govern- ments spend less money on ways to keep people out and more on ways to help them? Would we in Canada still complain about the relatively small number of refugees who cross our border?
And then there is the recent report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. We seem more interested in whether this should be described as a genocide rather than addressing our failure to take these women seri- ously. Too often society in general, including the police, viewed them primarily as drug users, prostitutes or alcoholics rather than as people of value.
The last word I reserve for Vanier himself from the well-worn pages of my copy of his book, Be Not Afraid. “But we can [still] say with hope, with confidence, with trust, Come, come Lord Jesus. And he will answer, Yes I am coming soon. Yes, I am coming for you who are yearning for love. Be not afraid to love.”
It’s important to plan for change
Continued from page 1
As the scriptures say—there is a time for every purpose under heaven. We may want to do what we’ve al- ways done, but maybe the time has come to do something new. Our fo- cus changes as we grow.
Lesson #3: We belong to one an- other and communication is critical Bees communicate with what is called the “waggle dance.” We’ve known for a long time that bees are master communicators. They’re not afraid to share with others when they’ve found something good— something that can benefit them all. They don’t hoard new-found treasure for themselves.
Communication is so important to us, too. So keep talking—claim your space, guide others. We are bound together on this journey. One bee is no bee; one person is no person. We
belong to each other in discovering and living out our vocation fully.
Lesson #4: It can be good to get a fresh start
When a colony grows too big, and there are too many bees for the hive, the colony usually splits into two halves. The old queen will leave and take a big part of the existing popu- lation with her. This is also known as swarming. Having found a new location, scout bees will lead the homeless colony there. They wait for unanimity among the bees when they choose their new home—they choose it together. Before the bees swarm, however, the original colony will produce several queen cells— and the larvae will be fed only royal jelly. That way, when the swarm takes flight, there will be a new queen to keep populating the original colo-
ny. They plan ahead!
Sometimes, after realizing that we
need a change, we’ll also start again. We will bring some of the things we’ve learned along with us and we will do some things in a new way. And that’s okay. It can be good to get a fresh start. But it’s also important to plan for change.
Lesson #5: Sometimes we all need to be fed
Beekeepers need to leave enough honey in the hives for their bees to live on, especially throughout the winter. The bees need it in order to survive. We need to acknowledge our need to be fed, too. An empty ves- sel can’t offer sustenance to anyone else—so don’t forget to refill your resources. Read scripture, pray and worship, and care for the gift that God made you to be to the world.
A queen bee laying eggs.
FEATURE (cont’d)
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