As preached by Brother Luke
Holy Wisdom Church
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit.
A few weeks ago
I read a news report that was very disheartening for me. Many of you may have
also seen it. It was about Jean Vanier who founded L’Arche, an organization
that established communities around the world to care for the disabled. His
story was a beautiful one. After serving in the Canadian military, he retired
in 1950 and devoted himself to “following Jesus” as he said. He wrote about
community life and the spiritual life including a wonderful meditation on the
Gospel of John. He died last year at the age of 90. But in February of this
year, it was reported that he sexually abused 6 women in the town of Trosly, France,
between 1970 and 2005. He apparently learned these ways from his spiritual
father Thomas Phillipe [d. 1993], whose own sexual misconduct in the same town
was investigated in 2014. Such behavior is particularly distressing when we
discover that it was done by someone held in high esteem. Feelings of anger,
betrayal, disgust, bewilderment, and dismay inevitably well up in our hearts as
we try to process such a revelation.
Over these
weeks of Great Lent I have wrestled with this incident and its broader implications.
If we are called to love as God loves, then how does God see this? How do we
understand God’s love in light of such behavior? What does the church give us
to help us deal with our feelings around this? The Church gives us the cross
[show it]. This is not jewelry or a token to show membership in some club. The
Cross is the instrument of our salvation which takes us down into the abyss and
out again. We die with Christ so that we might live in Christ. These images
from our baptism are also the destination of this Lenten Season: Christ’s death
on the Cross, burial, and resurrection.
This story of real-life encompasses two types of tragedy for those directly involved. The
first is the harm done to those 6 women. The extent to which their lives were
forever damaged by this experience. The cross for them is the path they seek
for healing. The many people: medical professionals, spiritual directors,
friends, support groups, and other caregivers, who may be able to help them,
are the extension of God’s love for them. Their situation is analogous to what
the world is going through now with the COVID-19 pandemic. Lives being turned
upside down and death coming to loved ones in ways that seem beyond human power
to contain. And yet this tragedy draws from us remarkable examples of selfless
giving that mirrors the love of God. This is putting on the cross of Christ.
The other
tragedy is Jean Vanier who died before these revelations were made known. He
escaped the opprobrium that would have come his way in life, but he also lost
the chance to come to terms with what he had done and make amends to those he
harmed. And now his reputation will be forever damaged by his personal
failings. All the good he did is tarnished. But not necessarily in God’s eyes.
Does God still
love Jean Vanier and the good he stood for, and can I also? The cross has taken
us down into the abyss. How do we get out of that abyss? Another Gospel lesson
may help here. The woman caught in sin. We need to be careful about this story.
The danger is to focus on the particular sin and forget that her sin is only a
symbol of all our sins. After the confrontation with her accusers, Jesus asks
her to look around to see if anyone has condemned her. He tells her to notice
that those who had condemned her ultimately left the scene realizing that they
too had sinned. Jesus says to her that
he does not condemn her nor did any of those who had brought her to him. So, he
tells her to go and sin no more.
Jesus message
to us is that God is not interested in condemnation but rather in healing and
forgiveness. Isn’t that a primary message of Lent, this year and every year?
Repent then go and sin no more. It is not about condemnation. It is also not
about denial. Jesus didn’t say that she had not sinned, he did not condone her
actions. He said she was forgiven. This is the same for Jean Vanier and indeed
all of us. There is no denial of the sin nor diminishment of the hurtful
consequences of it. Rather, God wants us to learn, to grow and to heal in order
to lead a better life. As I heard from an Orthodox clergyman in Europe 50 years
ago: “If God can forgive, how can we do any less?” Make that our cross.
Glory be to Jesus Christ!
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