Seven words—the signs we must learn to recognize in today's life—guide us through: Humiliations, Educations, Transformations, Authority, Community, Vulnerability, Mystery. These are the stations of the journey Vanier invites us to undertake with open hearts.
On each of these seven words, foundational to every human life, comes a powerful call to change. Humiliation—whatever form it takes—need not crush us or push us away. Instead, it can lead us to the "sacrament of encounter," where we see the other through the eyes of Jesus. Education, we learn, centers on awakening personal conscience, which alone brings true freedom and frees us from fear and the need to save face. And so I let myself be transformed. I feel recognized by the other for who I truly am, not for who I wish to be.
Vanier's reflection on authority is particularly striking. Authority must exercise itself as a "good power" that awakens conscience and welcomes those it leads into communion, into a place of mutual listening.
The final three meditations—Community, Vulnerability, Mystery—take us to the heart of Jean Vanier's essential teaching. To live together in joy is to discover that the meeting of strength and weakness creates belonging, an art of living together where the poor are always the source and catalyst for change. This is the new evangelization.
It is hard to say which of these seven meditations matters most. They weave into one another, drawing forth the basic truths we need to relearn: how to live together in peace—men and women, young and old, rich and poor, believer and skeptic alike. Jesus is for all.
Mariangela Bertolini, 2012