Lourdes: The joy of gathering

Transcription

1 Lourdes: The joy of gathering JEAN VANIER: Enter into the Kingdom like a little child. GHISLAIN DU CHÉNÉ: Julie, who has Down syndrome, says to each one of her four brothers: You re my favourite brother. In 1971, Jean Vanier, founder of l Arche, and Marie-Hélène Mathieu, from the Office Chrétien des Handicapés, organized the first Faith and Light pilgrimage to Lourdes. There was a palpable feeling among the nearly 12,000 participants, 4,000 of them suffering from a mental handicap, a feeling of happiness at coming together. To mark the 40 th anniversary of that first gathering, the organizers have decided to launch 40 pilgrimages throughout the world all with a single goal to tear down barriers and create an open, joyful Church. Dual interview with Jean Vanier and Ghislain du Chéné, international coordinator of Faith and Light. 1

2 BR: What does Lourdes mean to you? Jean Vanier: Lourdes is a town for the poor, a town where Faith and Light was born and where, every 10 years, we have come together again. From the four corners of the earth people travel in search of healing, in search of peace. They hope to be recognized and find God. The experience of Lourdes is an extraordinary one. The words of Bernadette touch me particularly when she describes her meeting with the Virgin Mary saying: The lady recognized me as someone with value in her eyes. Ghislain du Chéné: When Lourdes is mentioned, I think of a mother whose witness was filmed during the first Faith and Light gathering there. Pushing her handicapped daughter s wheelchair, she said: 10 years ago I made a pilgrimage here to ask that my daughter smile. My prayer has been answered. I came back to Lourdes to give thanks and also to ask that other pilgrims may have this same smile. 2

3 Words of hope For the opening of the Faith and Light pilgrimage, Jean Vanier and Ghislain du Chéné eagerly answered the many questions asked by journalists gathered for that occasion. Fioretti: The world of disability Jean Vanier: It was a friend of mine, a chaplain in a home who guided my steps into this world, and I became deeply aware of the oppression that people with a developmental disability suffer. I saw what they experienced, locked away in institutions, cut off from society. I felt their suffering and that of those around them. Slowly, the l Arche community was set up in order to offer a place for life and for sharing. Today there are nearly 150 communities throughout the world. What makes me happiest? Living for almost the last 50 years in my community and seeing Faith and Light develop after organizing their first pilgrimage to Lourdes in We are born to grow and also to die. We all have strengths and weaknesses. For people with a disability, happiness comes down to something very simple. It is a crying out to commune with other people. 3 Ghislain du Chéné: In 1988, after four boys, our family grew with the arrival of Julie, who has Down syndrome. A few years earlier, in 1983, we had gone on a retreat with Jean Vanier. Everything that we had heard during those few days came back to us. Julie was only a year old when we joined Faith and Light.

4 This community helped us live life with our daughter. We didn t want to put a label on Julie s handicap so that our children could simply grow up and develop the most natural bonds of affection. We didn t want to focus on the term Down s which her brothers wouldn t have understood anyway. We simply explained that Julie was weaker than others, that they needed to be careful with her. And then it was up to us to be transformed. Julie is the perfect witness for that when she says to each one of her brothers that he is her favorite brother! About Untouchables Jean Vanier: how can we not be struck by how successful the film The Intouchables was? Let us ask what we can learn from it. This is the story of two people, one is a quadriplegic and the other has just gotten out of prison. These are two extreme situations, physical poverty and social poverty. But together, we can tear down barriers. People who see the film wonder, can this happen in our everyday lives? Can things change? Is it possible to live together? Every instant we must ask ourselves how we can place joy at the heart of all our gatherings. 4

5 We need one another Jean Vanier: Saint Paul says that each one of us forms the body of the Church; the frailest parts and the weakest parts are absolutely necessary for it to work. We must make the Church together [ ] If we push aside what is weak in ourselves, we are rejecting our own humanity. Our humanity does not come through in our effectiveness, in what we are capable of building, but in the fruitfulness of our meetings with others. We must place sharing at the center of our lives. The beauty of people with a developmental disability is expressed in their whole being, in their whole hearts. Let us remember that Jesus who gave us the keys to the Kingdom said to us that we must be like the little child. Ghislain du Chéné: When my mother passed away, she weighed hardly more than 30 kg. My daughter Julie, 24 years old and with Down syndrome, was by her bedside and she never minded about how she looked physically. She was together with her, just like always. With the weakness and the poverty that each one of them carried, the only thing that mattered was being truly present. Creating places of hope Jean Vanier: We must fight against the values of rivalry and competition that so often mark our societies. Soon, the number of weak people will be greater than the number of people in the active population. Fragility is at the heart of existence. Elderly people, the ill, those who have suffered car accidents, the unemployed they all experience this situation in their daily lives. We have to create places of hope, places where we can come together. The greatest tragedy is feeling that we have been brushed aside. We should seek to build a 5

6 more human society. Jesus said If you prepare a banquet, do not invite your friends or rich neighbours open you table to the lame, the poor, the blind. Therein lies the secret to happiness. How can we meet that challenge? By creating beautiful things, together with each other. We are not alone. Let us open our hearts to one another. Let us live hope. Interview conducted by Béatrice Rouquet 6