My Broken Friend

My broken friend

Sitting in a wheelchair, encircled by a small group of six woman, one a religious, and myself, is Warren, a man of about forty, paralised, except for a rocking movement of his head and hands. He is able to look around and see a large crowd of more then four hundred, gathered for a Retreat, animated by Jean Vanier, founder of L’Arche and of Faith and Light, both communities with intellectually disabled people, in Merroo Centre, about an hour and a half by train from the centre of Sydney.
While listening in our sharing group and weaving our stories into a healing tapestry, I looked often at Warren. I was not able to read the mind of Warren but what I observed were the movements of his eyes, at times down and sad, or open and bright. I heard his groaning, his laughing, his crying. Why should he cry? Why did Jesus cry when he looked at Jerusalem and its people, or when he heard that his friend Lazarus was ill?
Why compare Warren with Jesus? Because Marilynne his caregiver told me that Warren often sees Jesus and that she sees Jesus in Warren. I agree. The image of Jesus is an icon of God. Jesus totally human, except sin but with all the brokennes of people, I recognised in Warren. Warren with his disability, his broken body, but also with his desire, his hope, his prayer for healing.
The theme of our retreat was "Our broken World: a Path to healing and Peace".
One of our favourite songs there, (favourite because I contributed part of it) composed by John Coleman, member of L’Arche Australia, was called "Broken".
Broken –all of us broken, all of us loved, chosen, each of us chosen, invited to life….Travel- each of us travel, companions together-walking the way; beauty, discovering beauty, lighting the darkness-surprising us all.
We traveled to Merroo, called a place of peace-giving water.
Where is peace? What is peace? Peace in the world, Iraq? Middle East? New Zealand? Our families? our hearts? We know that peace making is healing the broken world. Jean Vanier said, "Peace can only come when weaker members of society are made welcome". Warren is one of the weaker ones. His needs are exactly the same as mine (and yours): to be loved and to love, to make choices and develop their abilities. I believe that the L’Arche and the Faith & Light communities witness to the mysterious power in the heart of those who are weak. Warren, an icon of the weakness in our world, reminds me al the time that he is one of the "little ones", that God has chosen to reveal his mystery of love.
The " passion of Jesus" is such an icon, so is the cross, and the chalice, bread and wine; but the living icons are the broken people like Warren, like the suffering and the disabled, like parents of handicap children, displaced refuges, lonely and abandoned people. When I see in them the suffering Christ, and at the end of the road the risen Christ, then I experience a trickle of peace-making, a small sign of peace and hope. At the end of the road to Emmaus we see the breaking-down of a barrier, a wall that divides us, that holds us back is rediscovering our lost love.
When we risk the pain of the marginilised and come face-to-face with their grief and pain, when we invite them into our lives, we may receive the blessing of their friend Jesus. He will tell you that when he was vulnerable, you came to lift him up, when he was begging you for water, you gave him a cuppa.
At the end of our Retreat we were invited to wash each other feet, kneeling down and become a servant, like Jesus for his followers at the Last Supper. That example of Jesus I witnessed in our small sharing group with Warren. A very moving experience when his caregiver washed his hands (that is what he preferred) and dried them very gently, very tenderly. He, with help of caregiver, washed the hands of the girl next to him. She prayed over him, tenderly. In turn she washed my feet, bringing down the barrier of doubt, and make me see the loving, risen Christ, revealing the Holy.
In weakness our God is revealed, the wound must be opened before it will heal; when strangers are welcomed Jesus will be fed, revealing the Holy. The broken are invited to love, chosen to life.
All of us are invited to heal, invited to bring peace, chosen to life, to become an icon of Christ, like Warren.
I am very grateful to hold the hand of my broken friend Warren.
You will be too when holding the hand of a broken one.
Let me finish with a quote from Jean Vanier.
"If you and I seek today to live peace, to be peace-maker, to help create communities of peace, it is not just to seek success. If we find peace, live and work for peace, even if we see no tangible results, we can become fully human beings, walking together on the road of kindness, compassion, and peace. New hope is born".

John Heijnen April 2004 / August 2009