Don't the weak call the strong to become more human—to transform their hunger for power and success into genuine relationship, listening, and compassion?
The path to peace opens when we place our gifts at the service of wisdom, goodness, and reconciliation.
For the followers of Jesus, the most vulnerable bring more than balance between the hunger for power and the longings of the heart, between strength and weakness. They reveal God's plan: they reveal the face of God.
God does not look at our power, our intellect, our abilities or expertise. God looks at the heart. The heart lies at the heart of the Church because God is heart.
How can a Christian who loves the body of Jesus—his risen body and his mystical body, the Church—forget the most vulnerable, those who cry out for presence, relationship, and friendship?
Among the strong and the competent, the vulnerable are the presence of Jesus. They ask us to set aside our theories, our ideologies, our intellect, and open our hearts to goodness and compassion.
The weak call Christians to build community with them, because they cannot do it alone. Vulnerability is a cry: "I need you." This cry is the foundation of every relationship with God.
- Jean Vanier, 2003