Dear pilgrims.
You are glad to find yourselves gathered in the Pope's house. And I too am very happy to welcome you. Together, we are experiencing some "heart to heart" moments, as at the Ark of Trosly-Breuil, as in the 67 Arks of the world. All of you who have some limitations in health or who so gently surround these young people with disabilities, have a priority place in my heart as a universal Pastor. Is this not how Jesus behaved? Isn't that how parents and educators here behave?
For a few moments I want to gather with you and contemplate Jesus with you. Reading the Gospel carefully, we are - almost on every page - amazed by the Lord's attitude in his dealings with people. He has a unique way - he has, I would say, the secret - of approaching people or letting them come to him. A unique way of conversing with them by listening to them and letting them express themselves. A unique way of freeing them or beginning to free them from their miseries: he progressively opens them up to something other than themselves, to other valid realities. One might say: Jesus liberates them through a progressive decentralisation from themselves.
Therefore, like you in the Ark communities, Jesus uses with respect and delicacy the human resources of closeness, of the gaze, of gestures, of silence, of dialogue. You can also - in this meditative perspective - examine at length his encounters with the first apostles, with Nicodemus, the guests at the wedding in Cana, the Samaritan woman, Zacchaeus, the Roman centurion, the blind man of Bethsaida or the one at the pool of Siloe, Martha and Mary of Bethany, the disciples of Emmaus, Thomas, the unbelieving apostle . . .
Jesus' relationship with his compatriots manifests in the highest degree his sense of dignity, of the sacred value of each person.
You are persuaded of the unprecedented richness of this revelation, which can only be divine. but we know, unfortunately, that too many people and too many leaders of peoples forget it. your arks are and can be, even more, a serene and vigorous demonstration of sacred respect, of patient attention, of possible human promotion, in favour of children and adolescents limited from birth by various handicaps. you contribute, without making noise, to the 'civilisation of love'.
Wholeheartedly, I encourage you to continue your educational and evangelically inspired work, carried out in an original and communitarian way, in the 67 Arche spread over several continents. I imagine that this community life is not without problems. Solving them once and for all will take time. But what is important is to live with your problems, renewing and affirming each day your will, your choice of respect, of listening, of tenderness, of forgiveness, of cooperation, of hope, of joy. Truly, this behaviour alleviates the problems, creating a climate of openness of spirit and heart among those with handicaps and fostering the growth of the personality of adults devoted body and soul to their service.
I fervently invoke on the group I have the joy of receiving, but also on all the Arks of the world, on their members and their leaders, and on their founder, Monsignor Jean Vanier, renewed graces of light and divine strength.
[Pope John Paul II, Address to the Arche Community 16 February 1984]
