Bullying is an exercise of power by people whose own fears are projected onto others. Bullies are cowards, not only by picking on someone who is vulnerable, who can't hurt them back, but by running away from their own fears, and denying their own weakness by all this pretended strength. Bullies require the tolerance of others to get away with what they do. So when bullies get to work on someone there is an immediate challenge to those who witness it - be a bystander or be an advocate. By your silence allow another to suffer or by your words and actions intervene, intercede, interfere, in any case respond in support of the person bullied.
That's what happened at a Middle School Basketball game when a few members of the crowd started picking on a cheer leader who has Down Syndrome. You can read about it here. When a few tall teenagers call time out to confront the bullies, and protect the dignity and give confidence to their victim, something good and redemptive has happened.
I read this the day after the news of Jean Vanier having won the Templeton Prize. Few people have done more to affirm, uphold and champion the worth and dignity of each human being than Jean Vanier. Through his vision of communities where inclusion is the norm, love is the ethos, cherishing of each other is a shared presupposition, and people with disabilities are welcomed as people and invited to be full participants and shareholders in all the decisions and relationships that make community what it is - through that vision he has transformed thousands of lives.
And the transformation is multilateral. Those who come to care find themselves cared for; those who are being looked after become the carers of their carers. Yes, it is like that, a reciprocal exchange of shalom, a pervasive commitment to yes and affirmation, a consistent and persistent faithfulness in living together within and through the tensions of community. Here is Vanier's description of his own vision at its best:
Community is the place where each person grwos toward interior freedom. It is the place where individual conscience, unionwith God, awareness of love and capacity for gift and gratuity all grow. Community can never take precedence over individuals. In fact , its beauty and unity come from the radiance of each individual conscience, in its light, truth, love and free union with others. (Community and Growth, p 31)
This is a man who believes love is a gift, not a possession. A community is not there for itself but to serve a greater purpose, as a witness, a gift, to the poor, to humanity, to God. Vanier exemplifies that spirituality which is active, takes responsibility, is willingly accountable, but which grows out of contemplative prayer and making time and space within ourselves for God to touch and heal us by grace, to embrace and restore us by mercy, and to call us again to our deepest loves.
All of this grew out of Vanier's initial experiment of buying a cottage and inviting two or three people with learning disabilities and mental health issues to come and live together with him and a few others. Thus was born L'Arche, and the beginning of a network of refuge and restoration that now spans the world. Vanier's Catholic faith is not incidental to this - it is the essential core out of which he lives and dreams of rich life for others. The Templeton Prize recognises his achievement; characteristic of Vanier, he recognises the achievements of those thousands of people who live out their lives in commitment to communities where human beings are enabled, encouraged, supported and ultimately invited to flourish.
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