Jean Vanier is a man of many accomplishments; he is a philosopher, author, and previously a teacher. Jean Vanier is also the founder of L"Arche, which is a community of people who suffer from intellectual disabilities. He is also the cofounder of Faith and Light, which is somewhat related to L"Arche. In his novel he states that " The process of becoming human occurred most profoundly for me when I started living with men and women with intellectual disabilities" (Vanier, 1). In his novel Becoming Human, Vanier, also speaks about five main areas in which are important in becoming human, however I will focus only on the outlined principals, belonging, the path of healing, and Forgiveness. He uses these aspects to define what he believes is truly important in being human. .
As mentioned L"Arche is an organization founded by Jean Vanier in 1946. This organization deals with having people with intellectual disabilities come together as one community. L"Arche is now a system of more than one hundred society's in thirty different countries. Jean Vanier is also the cofounder of "Faith and Light", which is similar to L"Arche, however brings people with disabilities together with their friends and family on "meeting nights". There are 1,300 Faith and Light communities in seventy-five different countries. "When you start living with people with disabilities, you begin to discover a whole lot of things about yourself" (Caregiver, 1). Jean Vanier was showed that "to be human is to be bonded together, each with our own weaknesses and strengths, because we need each other" (Caregiver, 1). In Jean Vanier's novel he mentions that people become "more" human when the begin opening up to people who are weaker that they are. Jean Vanier expresses that through working with these people at L"Arche he has experienced the joys of celebration, the feeling of love, the importance of psychology and psychiatry, and is able to understand how religion helps us open up to the world and helps us meet with God by doing so.
