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.Naleef-gedagte: …wie help jou om mens te word?
Ek lees vanoggend ’n aanhaling van die Iranese skryfster, Azar Nafisi wat sy in 2022 geskryf het. Dit klink of sy dit vanoggend kon geskryf het “My worry is that this polarization, along with more and more dependance on virtual reality, prevents us from connecting with other human beings and with the real world. This lack of connection dehumanizes not just others but also ourselves.” Loop ons ook die gevaar om ons menslikheid te verloor? Wat kan ons as die volgelinge van die God-wat-mens-word daaraan doen?
In ’n era van eksponensiële tegnologiese ontwikkeling en totale magsmisbruik, soos wat ons op die oomblik sien, loop ons die gevaar om onbewustelik deel te word van die kultuur van ontmensliking. Soos in alle gruweldade teen die mensdom deur die geskiedenis gebeur die dehumanising nie net met die slagoffers nie, maar ook met die boosdoeners en die omstanders van die ongelukstoneel. In hierdie era klink Jesus se uitnodiging “Geseënd is die wat arm van gees is, wat weerloos is, wat mens is, wat sag is, wat breek wanneer ander gebreek word…” klok-helder soos ’n doktersvoorskrif, maar totaal teen-intuïtief. Wat maak ons hiermee as ons nie regtig so “arm van gees” voel nie?
In plaas daarvan om my eie verwarde gedagtes op jou te kom neer stort, lees ons eerder ’n gedeelte uit Jean Vanier se boek “Becoming human” en vra eenvoudig ’n vraag aan die einde:
“Like all of us, I have my story. Mine began as a young person of thirteen when I journeyed from Canada to England and joined the Royal Naval College in 1942. It was the middle of the war with Nazi Germany, and I had decided to prepare myself to serve on warships. I spent eight years in the navy. I left the navy in 1950 searching for another road to peace. I went to live in a small Christian community near Paris. We worked manually, we pursued studies in philosophy and theology, and we prayed together.
Then in April 1964 I went to visit a holy priest — a man of God. He was chaplain to a small institution for people with intellectual disabilities. It was there I discovered the plight of men and women who had been put aside, looked down upon, sometimes laughed at or scorned. They were seen as misfits of nature, not as human beings.
Touched and hurt by the way so many were treated, I was able to buy a little house in a village north of Paris and to welcome two men with disabilities from a sad and violent institution. Philippe Seux and Raphael Simi had each had a viral disease when they were children. The result of their illnesses had left them with significant disabilities. They never went to school, and when their parents died they were put into this dismal asylum.
And so the first community of L’Arche was born. Today, forty-four years later, there are 134 such communities in thirty-five different countries. In these communities men and women with disabilities can develop in a spirit of freedom. We live together — those with disabilities and those who wish to have a deep and sometimes lasting relationship with them. We laugh and cry and sometimes fight with one another; we work, we celebrate life, and we pray together.
Believe it or not, it has been this life together that has helped me become more human. Those I have lived with have helped me to recognize and accept my own weaknesses and vulnerability. I no longer have to pretend I am strong or clever or better than others. I am like everybody else, with my fragilities and my gifts.”- Jean Vanier (uit: Becoming human)
Na-leef teks
“Gelukkig is die wat arm van gees is, want aan hulle behoort die koninkryk van God.” Matteus 5:3
Na-leef vraag
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Watter arm-van-gees mense moet jy nader aan beweeg sodat hulle jou kan help om mens te bly?