Letter of Jean Vanier to his friends - January 2010

19/01/2010

Dear friends,

I like this time of Christmas. God becomes flesh. He becomes small to teach us to love and to be open to those who are suffering and who are in difficulty. Of course God is in our world but he waits silently for us to turn to him and call him to our help. In the book of the Apocalypse we read that God stands at the door and knocks. If anyone hears and opens the door, God will come in and eat with them. In the Biblical sense, eating with someone means becoming their friend. God wants to make us his friends. But there can be no love or friendship without freedom. If we turn God away, he still waits for us to open the door to him. God is a prisoner of our freedom. The God of compassion cannot exercise his compassion in the world without going through our intelligence, wisdom, capacities and heart. God is not a God of violence but rather a God who invites and who waits with love to give his love to everyone. Read...