This book is dedicated to young people and to all those whose young and open hearts urgently seek signs of healing—the mending of a broken unity, the unity of all God's children. It is a rereading of the Gospel for today's men and women, in the face of the great problems that shake humanity: the struggles and sufferings of individuals, the divisions between groups, nations, and races. Convinced that something broken lies within us and among us, and that its fragments can be restored to wholeness, Jean Vanier invites us to walk the path Jesus showed us—in words that are simple and moving.
These are words to read and meditate on in quiet, alone or in a group. They overflow with love and ring with concrete wisdom and practical insight. They touch on family, love between man and woman, raising children, life in the Church, life in community. They remind us of the always urgent and liberating meaning of Jesus's life and his presence among us.
The ancient and ever-new commandment is Love: "Love one another as I have loved you." In a chapter titled "God's Plan"—one of the most beautiful and thought-provoking passages in his book—Jean Vanier writes:
"To love is to open your heart to others, to listen to them, to value them, to see their beauty and their worth, to deeply desire that they live and grow.
To love is to give our lives for others.
It is to forgive and to be compassionate.
But we cannot love this way alone.
This is why Jesus tells us he came to take away the fear that locks us into ourselves and into our group, hiding our vulnerability and our loneliness." He continues: "It is everyone's calling: to live in communion with one another, to build true relationships filled with love, to be makers of peace and reconciliation."
When we exclude from our world even a single person—because they are different, because they are the "enemy"—unity breaks apart, and we ourselves remain broken. Jean Vanier, with his language always so poetic and always so concrete, shows us that it is possible to restore a fractured world to wholeness.
- Natalia Livi, 1990