The value of the weak

Washington Post editor Ruth Marcus recently argued in an op-ed that if she had been pregnant with a Down syndrome baby, she would have aborted the child. “That was not the child I wanted,” Marcus wrote. “You can call me selfish, or worse, but I am in good company. The evidence is clear that most women confronted with the same unhappy alternative would make the same decision.” She’s right that the majority of women, if they learn their baby has Down syndrome, abort.

Come find a reminder of the humanity and value of those with Down syndrome (or any other disability) in Summer in the Forest, a documentary about the worldwide L’Arche communities for those with disabilities. L’Arche communities are casual homes where people live and work to build “mutually transforming relationships” among the disabled and those without disabilities. The film follows a few disabled individuals in the original L’Arche community in Trosly-Breuil, France, but focuses chiefly on founder Jean Vanier.

Vanier, a Canadian, is a Mother Teresa figure for L’Arche residents, and the camera follows him as he sits in a room with a boy in a wheelchair who can’t talk or move and showers love on him, telling him how beautiful he is. Director Randall Wright, though, doesn’t explore Vanier’s Catholicism, the whole inspiration behind the operation. The L’Arche movement deeply influenced Catholic theologian Henri Nouwen, a connection Wright also leaves unmentioned.

“What is it to be a human being?” asks Vanier. “Is it power?” Vanier’s lifelong thesis is that the weak of the world teach us what it is to be truly human. The film is worthwhile for the simple summer barbecue at the end, where you see the joy of the L’Arche residents, being in each other’s company, being with their families, eating, and playing.

Standing to the side in that scene is a resident with Down syndrome who has taken on a responsibility brimming with irony, given the violence toward those with his condition: He is patrolling the perimeter of the home during the barbecue to make sure everyone is safe.