Birthdays
often seem to mark the repetition of an arbitrary date, but that is not
how Jean Vanier sees it. To him, birthdays are occasions to celebrate
the value and importance of each and every human person, especially
those who are "weaker, more fragile, more vulnerable." Today, he
himself turns 80.
Though Mr. Vanier has written movingly of his own aging and his
consciousness of becoming weaker, this birthday is also a time to
celebrate his strengths and accomplishments.
During the Second World War, as the 13-year-old son of a Canadian
diplomat (Georges Vanier, governor-general of Canada from 1959 to
1967), he decided, and was permitted, to start training for the Navy,
out of an apparent resolve to share the war's dangers as soon as he
could.
Later, he turned to another kind of sharing, as a friend and companion of the weak.
In 1964, living in a village in France with no definite profession,
he moved into a tiny house with hardly any plumbing, with two men with
cognitive disabilities. They named it L'Arche, using the French word
for Noah's Ark. L'Arche grew into an international community of houses
(including 29 in Canada) where disabled people live with others who
assist them, who are not thought of as health-care or social workers.
Mr. Vanier once seemed likely to become a Roman Catholic priest, but
L'Arche never became a Catholic institution. Mr. Vanier is a
considerable Christian thinker, and a call to holiness is manifest in
him - a call of a kind that his Church sometimes formally recognizes as
sainthood.
Briefly, Mr. Vanier taught philosophy in a Canadian university; for
a long time he returned to Canada every year, and his continuing
connection to his native country is b.
His early scholarship in Aristotle remains alive in him, too, even
though compassion was not important to that philosopher. But friendship
is at the core of Aristotle's ethics, and Mr. Vanier has lived
friendship with the disabled. At the same time, Christ's washing of his
disciples' feet is his model for what he calls "the scandal of
service." And beyond Christianity, Mahatma Gandhi and non-violence have
a large place in his thought.
Mr. Vanier's modest but bold initiative in 1964 has led to a network
of 135 communities in 36 countries, to which he has travelled
indefatigably.
Alfred Nobel's will calls for the honouring of those who have
greatly contributed to fraternity among human beings across the world.
It is 51 years since a Canadian, Lester Pearson, won the Nobel Peace
Prize. Canadians in particular should warmly endorse Jean Vanier, for
his peacemaking, ecumenism and humanitarianism, as an eminently
deserving recipient of the Peace Prize.