I've been in Lebanon with M. Odile Mathieu for a week now. It's hard to put into words everything I've witnessed.
Lebanon is perpetually at war. Soldiers are everywhere. You can imagine the fear people live with here: five years of bombardment and violence.
We leave for Paris tomorrow morning. There's a part of me that wants to escape this tension, this fear that hangs over everything. And another part that wants to stay, to remain with those who weep and suffer. It's difficult to preach trust to people living in a war zone and then simply leave them behind. It's difficult to speak of Jesus's nonviolence when you yourself are in danger of death.
In these days, we've made so many friends. Many would like to come to L'Arche or work with Fede e Luce.
Even though the situation seems hopeless, there are many people here who are committed, who trust in God, who fight for the poorest. Lebanon is a country that desperately needs small communities—places where Christians and Muslims can live and work together. Communities that seek neither wealth nor power. Communities that bear witness: that it's possible to live the Beatitudes, that culture need not divide what is essential in the human heart.
Pray for Lebanon. Pray for the world.
With my embrace,
Jean Vanier, 22 February 1980