Jean Vanier: Fallen Saint

There are those moments when you always remember when you hear the news.  The first one that I remember is the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  I was being driven home from school by my brother.    There was also the first moon landing.  I was listening to the radio in bed laid low by some bug or other.  I’m sure you all have your own memorable moments in your life.

I experienced another moment which I am sure will be added to that category on Saturday.  I picked up a copy of the Saturday Globe and Mail as is my routine.  There at the top of the front page was the headline: Jean Vanier Implicated in sexual abuse of women.  The founder of the L’Arche movement with the saintly appearance and life and work came crashing down to earth from that very high pedestal which the world had placed him.  I read the account of this tragic fall to earth and the devastating effect that Jean Vanier’s action had on women under his spiritual influence.  It was an account which literally brought tears to my eyes. 

My personal connection and introduction to L’Arche happened when I sent a reading week in my theological studies at Huron University College.  I was invited to spend the time in residence at L’Arche Daybreak in Richmond Hill, Ontario.  My time there was a memorable one in which I had to opportunity to live and worship with the core members of the community and the staff.  I was and am profoundly moved by a place where all are people are treated as deserving of respect and are given the opportunity to live lives in which their humanity is fully recognized and lived out as fully as possible.

The profound good that was evident in that community has been multiplied many times over in the many L’Arche communities in many different countries.  The profound good that was begun and carried on by Jean Vanier in his writing and public speaking was acknowledged in many awards and honours including the Order of Canada and the naming of public buildings and general recognition and acclaim that was given by so many different sources, secular and religious. 

And yet, here we have the other, darker side of that person revealed in devastating detail.  We can only wonder how a man who did such good in the world that benefited so many also do the terrible acts which caused such harm?

This is a case which is more than someone believing the honours that were given him.  Here is someone who attained saint-like status in the world and was tempted to believe that he was a saint and consequently could do no wrong.  He is reported to have said, “But Jesus and myself, this is not two, but we are one.”   There is the implication that Jean Vanier was led astray by a “spiritual father “, Pere Thomas Phillippe.  Jean Vanier has died so he is no longer ale to give his account of events so we have to depend on the conclusions of the independent report commissioned by the L’Arche Foundation.

To look at what led to this most unfortunate situation we can see a man who became identified with God in the person of Jesus Christ.  In Jungian terms his ego became undifferentiated from the Image of God, the Self which is part of everyone.    It is a case in which the person believes that God is in service of the person and not the person in service of God.  When this happens, the consequences can be devastating as it was and is in this case.

The reality of who Jean Vanier apparently was should not take away from the great good that was begun by him and continues in the many L’Arche communities.  However, it is also a warning that when we place someone on a pedestal, we may find that it is too high for the person to remained grounded in the world as a child of God. 

Blessing on your journey. 

What Lies Beneath

Sunday, Lorna and I saw a most fascinating and disturbing movie - Jojo Rabbit - at the Hyland, the local review cinema in London.  This film is a dark satire on Germany at the end of World War Two when the defeat of the German army seemed inevitable.

 

Much of the plot is seen through the eyes of a 10-year-old boy, Jojo, who has an imaginary relationship with Adolf Hitler and who begins as an enthusiastic recruit to the local Hitler Youth.  The story of growing realization of the hero to the evils of Nazism turns on the discovery of a teenage Jewish girl, Elsa, hiding in the attic of his house.  As the relationship with Elsa develops, we see the growing realization on the part of Jojo that Jews are not inhuman beasts which Jojo has been taught they were. 

The representation of the Nazis in the plot, symbolized by Jojo’s imaginary Hitler, as inept, ineffectual buffoons al la Sargent Shultz of Hogan’s Heroes becomes increasingly darker throughout the movie until the true evil beneath that movement is revealed.  Even the cavalry of the U.S. army riding over the hill at the end of the movie has its dark side in the presence of the other ostensible saving force  - the Russian Army who do not operate on the noble principles of the U.S. forces which abide by the Geneva Convention and who are greeted by the residents of the as conquering heroes. 

The film was received very positively by the audience which broke out into spontaneous applause at the end - a somewhat rare occurrence in my experience.  I was not able to join in the enthusiastic response even though on one level I thought the movie deserved such a response.   My ambivalence puzzled me.  Initially I thought it was because I felt somewhat manipulated emotionally with the juxtaposition of the satirical representation of Nazism as ineffectual buffoons with the potential for evil which they practiced off stage.

On reflection, for me there are two questions which the movie raises.  First, is it wise to satirize evil – represented by Hitler and Nazism.  It has been done with limited success by the previously mentioned Hogan’s Heroes and more effectively by Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator.  There was also the Italian movie, Life is Beautiful, which won popular success but also criticism for satirizing the horrors of life and death in a concentration camp.

The other question is the use of satire to minimize the dangers of what lies beneath the populism of the crowd which can appear to be at best benign and at worst rife with bigotry and hate.  This was effectively portrayed in the movie with actual film footage of the response of the crowds at Hitler rallies in Germany.  It can be very easy to satirize the antics of a populous leader, of which there seem to be, unfortunately, many examples today.  But underneath that sometimes-laughable mask lurks the potential and reality of evil.  Laughter can be a satisfying weapon to use against overblown and oversensitive autocratic leaders.  But - I’m not quite sure if it is the most effective one.

Blessings on your journey

They Will Know We are Christians by our Love

This past Sunday my parish celebrated the new ministry of our new priest,  Rev. Sherry De Jonge by holding an Induction service.   At the service, the homily was delivered by the Rev. Dave Hewett, who was a classmate of mine in theology at Huron University College.

In his sermon, Dave made a number of very good points – it was an excellent sermon.  One which particularly moved me was that the church is not called to defeat the powers and principalities of this world, Christians are called to give the world an alternative to the way the world often works.  Jesus gave the world a loud and clear message that his kingdom is not of this world.  He did not call upon a host of angels to overthrow the Roman Empire which ruled the world that Jesus chose to be born into.  He showed the world a different and better way that the way offered by the Roman Empire or the Religious authorities in Jerusalem. 

Central to that message and example of Jesus Christ is love.  We, the followers of Jesus and the world were given this message in word and deed by the one we proclaim as our saviour.  We are to love God and to love our neighbours (all inclusively) as ourselves.  There is a hymn which was very popular in the 1960’s and was probably overdone in my church experience like a few other hymns such as Morning Has Broken or Lord of the Dance.  It was composed by Fr. Peter Scholtes and was based on John 13:35, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” It expresses this message very well and makes clear what Christians are called to do.  It is remains one of my favourite hymns despite its overuse back then:

We are one in the Spirit
We are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit
We are one in the Lord
And we pray that all unity
May one day be restored

And they'll know we are Christians
By our love, By our love
Yes, they'll know we are Christians
By our love

We will walk with each other
We will walk hand in hand
We will walk with each other
We will walk hand in hand
And together we'll spread the news
That God is in our land

We will work with each other
We will work side by side
We will work with each other
We will work side by side
And we'll guard each man's dignity
And save each man's pride

All praise to the Father
From whom all things come
And all praise to Christ Jesus His only son
And all praise to the Spirit
Who makes us one

Of course, this is one of the hardest things that people can do, whether they are Christians or not, to love our neighbours or enemies as Jesus also said.  It seems to go against our human nature or perhaps I should say our ego-based nature.  It may take a life-time of work and effort but it what we are called to do if we profess to be Christians.  One way I have found helpful in trying to love those who I find unlovable is to pray that God will help me to see them as God sees them.

Blessings on your journey. 

The Hour of the Wolf

Many of you will know that one of my spiritual guides is Richard Rohr.  I try to read his Daily Meditations https://cac.org/ regularly - if not quite every day.

One of the recent Daily Meditations spoke of the “hour of the wolf” which is that time when we seem to be most susceptible to our doubts and fears and our defenses are at their weakest. Rohr describes it this way,” in the middle of the night when I awake and cannot get back to sleep during what some call the “hour of the wolf,” between 3:00 and 6:00 a.m. when the psyche is most undefended. (Others simply call it “insomnia”!).”

For me that connected with the Aboriginal teaching of the two wolves which are in each of us - you could call it a proverb. 

An grandfather told his grandson: “My son, there is a battle between two wolves inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, inferiority, lies and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy and truth.”

The boy thought about it, and asked: “Grandfather, which wolf wins?”

The old man quietly replied: “The one you feed.”

In my experience the one which comes into my consciousness in that hour of the wolf is not the one that resonates joy and hope and love.  The night demons are all my regrets and incriminations which I have accumulated over my life and have not forgiven others or myself for.  Richard Rohr speaks of a way to feed the wolf within that will lead to peace and acceptance.  I quote Rohr at length here: 

First, “take God at face value, as God is. Accept God’s good graciousness, as you would a plain, simple soft compress when sick. Take hold of God and press God against your unhealthy self, just as you are.” 

Second, know how your mind and ego play their games: “Stop analyzing yourself or God. You can do without wasting so much of your energy deciding if something is good or bad, grace given or temperament driven, divine or human.” 

Third, be encouraged and “Offer up your simple naked being to the joyful being of God, for you two are one in grace, although separate by nature.” 

And finally: “Don’t focus on what you are, but simply that you are! How hopelessly stupid would a person have to be if they could not realize that they simply are.”  

Hold the soft warm compress of these loving words against your bodily self, bypass the mind and even the affections of the heart and forgo any analysis of what you are, or are not. 

“Simply that you are!” 

I like this practice because over time it can become an embodied experience of what we’ve been talking about this whole week: knowing and unknowing. By repeatedly placing whatever it is you think you “know” at that hour of the night under “the soft warm compress” of God’s loving presence, your own body becomes a place of relaxation and inner rest. You know that you don’t know, and you trust that you don’t need to know. You are simply in God’s loving care.  

May you have the blessing of peace on your journey.