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Monica Stewart (Assistant Chaplain at Grampian University Hospitals in Aberdeen) was a member of the organising committee which brought Jean Vanier to Aberdeen

Jean Vanier 
at L'Arche, Inverness

SACH  Soundings
 No 9 March 2002

Jean Vanier visits Aberdeen 25-27 January 2002

Jean Vanier looked a little dishevelled when he arrived at the door of Queen’s Cross Church, Aberdeen at 7.20 that Friday evening in January. Otherwise there was nothing to suggest that he was late, that the journey from Edinburgh airport had taken 4 hours in the snow and that he was due to begin his talk in 10 minutes. His smile seemed to fill the doorway.
The question which Vanier began to address in the first of his talks -and the theme for the weekend - was, how are we to become more human. A puzzling question? Surely I am human, what I really want to know is how to become successful, prosperous, recognised. It’s difficult not to be caught up in the punishing drive towards ever greater competence and efficiency but, says Vanier, this has a disabling effect on our relationships and it is in our relationships with others and with God that we become truly human. 
Vanier (founder of l’Arche and Faith and Light) has spent the past 37 years living in community with people with learning difficulties and it is here that he has begun to learn what it is to be more human. It is here that he has discovered his own brokenness and discovered, too, that those who can heal him are the very people rejected by society. Vanier talks with warmth and humour about his journey and about some of the people who have been significant along the way. There is nothing sentimental about Vanier and about the life he describes. He talks of pain and of having to confront his own violence. His openness and honesty allow us to look at our own fears, our own brokenness and as we do so we take the first step towards healing.
It was exciting to worship ecumenically with over 900 others at the Music Hall on the Sunday morning. The story of the Good Samaritan was brought alive by a mime and Vanier’s address was both simple and profound. Don’t ask yourself what will happen to you if you stop to help your neighbour in distress; rather ask yourself what will happen to your neighbour if you don’t. 
For me one of the highlights of the weekend was the youth event on the Sunday afternoon. Having gone along partly out of a sense of duty I was surprised by how moving I found it. It was great to see Queen’s Cross buzzing with young folk and to hear the place filled with loud music. Vanier likes being in the company of young people and makes a point of meeting with them wherever he goes. It says a lot for him that he is able to hold the attention of an audience of teenagers: he does it by simply being himself. 
Jean Vanier has that gift of making you feel as though he is addressing you and you alone, not an audience of several hundred. You’d have loved him, he says of Antonio, as though he was speaking directly to you. He is softly spoken and as he talks he shares something of himself, something of his own vulnerability and compassion. Again it’s as though he’s sharing them with you personally. In No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod one of the characters says, All of us are better when we’re loved. Jean Vanier made me feel loved and valued and perhaps that is why I felt better after spending a weekend in his company.
If relationship is at the heart of chaplaincy -and I believe it is -then we would do well to listen to Vanier. With his words ringing in my ears and his smile imprinted on my mind I returned to work on Monday morning with renewed energy and vision.

Monica Stewart