Working for the full inclusion of all children,
youth, and adults with disabilities in our society.

Community and Forgiveness
By Jean Vanier
(founder of I'Arche, an international network of
communities for those with disabilities)

To have a mission means to give life, to heal, and to liberate. It is to permit people to grow to freedom. When Jesus sends people off, he sends them to liberate and to heal others. That is the good news. And we can become people of liberation and of healing because we ourselves are walking along that road toward inner healing and inner liberation. Jesus calls his disciples to bear much fruit. "If you bear much fruit, you shall be my disciples, and bring glory to the Father." To bear fruit is to bring life to people. Not to judge, not to condemn, but to forgive. It is to remove our neighbor's burden. Remember those last words of Christ: "Father, forgive." Essentially, a community is based on forgiveness and signs of forgiveness. It is not a group of people condemning or judging outsiders; it is not a people of violence. It is a people who trust that if their hearts are given to God, he will defend them.

Trusting people are vulnerable and can be easily crushed, as Jesus was crushed. A community which trusts in God rather than in the righteousness of its "cause" can always be crushed, but from that crushing will come resurrection. There is a hidden strength in being vulnerable, open, and non-violent, in being a people of the resurrection, knowing that we are loved and that God is guiding us, in all our fragility and littleness. We are not a people who think we are better. We are not elite. We are people who are poor, but who have been drawn together by God and put their trust in God. That is what a kingdom community is about: a community that knows it has been called by God in all its poverty and weakness and that God is love.

We are a Eucharistic people which means that we are a people of thanksgiving, people who realize that we are prodigal sons and daughters. We are not called to judge or to condemn but to be instruments of life, to give life, and to receive life. To be called together in community is an incredible gift.

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