"...suffer...and be rejected"
- JEAN VANIER
Through baptism, each person's heart belongs to God.
Some people however, are called to manifest this gift of their belonging in a special way and through a particular way of life. The Gospels seem to reveal to us another aspect of consecration: the mystery of the poor consecrated to God through the sacred "oils" of pain, rejection, and weakness. When Paul says that God has chosen the weak, the foolish, and the rejected, or when Jesus, in Matthew's Gospel, describes the Kingdom of God as a wedding feast to which all the poor, the lame, the sick, and the blind are invited, they confirm that the weak have a preferential place in the heart of God.
Jesus himself was rejected and outcast; he identifies with the rejected, the outcasts. Is that not the Gospel's new order that replaces the old? We in L'Arche are beginning to touch something of the mystery that people like Saint Vincent de Paul grasped when he said: "The poor are our teachers."
This does not mean that exclusion or rejection are in accordance with God's will. On the contrary! They are the fruits of sin and hardness of heart. The Gospel shows, however that God welcomes in a special way those whom society rejects.
This is Meaghen Gonzalez, Editor of CERC. I hope you appreciated this piece. We curate these articles especially for believers like you.
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Acknowledgement
Jean Vanier. "...suffer...and be rejected." from The Heart of L'Arche: A Spirituality for Every Day (New York, The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1995).
Reprinted with permission.
The Author
Jean Vanier, is the founder of the international movement of L'Arche communities, where people who have developmental disabilities and the friends who assist them create homes and share life together. Jean Vanier is the author of many books, including Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus through the Gospel of John, From Brokenness to Community,Our Life Together: A Memoir in Letters, Becoming Human, Finding Peace, Seeing Beyond Depression, The Scandal of Service: Jesus Washes Our Feet, and Jesus, The Gift of Love.