Looking beyond

Openness to others

I am continuing to put up excerpts from Jean Vanier’s “Community and Growth” every now and then.

I love working with Fusion, and I love the heart of what we are about.

In this section though, Vanier explores what it means for communities like Fusion to mature.

Vanier looks at the challenge for communities to increasingly become open to the gift of “the other””:

It is fairly natural and perhaps even necessary that a new community is taken up with its own originality and tends to idealise itself. If it didn’t believe itself to be unique, perhaps it would never have been founded at all. It’s like a love, which always starts by idealisation of the other: a baby is always the most gorgeous in the world to its parents, and a bride is always the most beautiful in the world to her husband. With time, both parents and married couples become more realistic; perhaps too they become more committed, more faithful and more loving.

It is understandable that a new community should be turned in on itself, strongly conscious of its qualities and originality, and giving thanks for these. At the start of a marriage, a couple has to take time to forge its unity, this isn’t egoism, but a necessary stage in growth. With time, the community must stand back a little to discover the beauty and particular gifts others, as well as its own limitations. Once it has found its own identity and discovered how the Holy Spirit is guiding it, must be very attentive to the manifestation of the Spirit in others. It should not believe that it is the only community to have the privilege of being inspired by the Holy Spirit; it should listen to what the Spirit is saying to others. This will enable it to rediscover its own gifts and mission and encourage it to be more faithful to them. This in turn will enable it to discover its place in the Church and in humanity as a whole. If it’s not attentive, the community risks missing a decisive turning point in its own growth.

One of the signs of life in a community is the creation of links with others. An inward-looking community will die of suffocation. Living communities are linked to others, making up a huge reservoir of love for the world. And as only the one Spirit inspires and gives life, communities being born or reborn will be alike without ever even knowing each other; the seeds the Spirit sows across the world, like prophetic signs for tomorrow, have  a common source. It is a sign of maturity for a community to bind itself in friendship with others; it knows its own identity, so doesn’t need to make comparisons. It loves even the differences which distinguish it, because each community has its own gift which must flourish. These communities are complimentary; they need each other. They are all branches of that unique community with is the Church, the mystical body of Christ. He is the vine of which the communities are branches.