«The testimonies gathered in this issue (Ombre e Luci no. 5) call Christian communities to deepen their understanding—both theoretically and practically—of welcoming people with disabilities»
When I think about the relationship between the Christian community and people in difficulty, I find myself asking: "Who is really struggling? Who is uncomfortable?"
What happens is a strange reversal. People with disabilities, especially intellectual disabilities, are often serene, eager to participate in the life of the community, happy to be with others, to sing, to pray. Meanwhile, those who regularly attend Christian community are often awkward, suspicious, or even irritated by the behavior of people with disabilities and the problems they present.
The discomfort that seizes the Christian community when it encounters people with disabilities ends up affecting those people negatively—and above all, it causes deep suffering in their families.
We must, on one hand, humbly offer this discomfort to the Lord, and together ask faith to shed light on these poor human shadows of ours.
The certainty that God's Kingdom is open to all
Faith presents two fundamental principles that can open a fruitful path toward changed minds and concrete commitment.The certainty that God's Kingdom is open to all
The first principle is the certainty that God's Kingdom is open to all. All are called to the Gospel—to the good news of Jesus, sent by the Father for our salvation, who died and rose to give life to all. The destiny of every human being is to become a child of God in Jesus Christ, the only Son given by the Father to the world.
No one is excluded from this calling. Rather, those who are shut out from other sources of joy, from other human communities, from other riches, become the first, the favored, the privileged in encountering the joy of the Gospel, the communion of God's children, the treasures of the Kingdom. All of this becomes even clearer and more urgent when God's Kingdom begins to manifest itself in a person through the gift of Baptism.
We find it right to give Baptism even to people with physical and mental difficulties.
Now Baptism acts in them as a principle of life that seeks to expand into the eucharistic fullness of the sacramental journey and the charismatic fullness of the vocational journey.
Certainly, participation in community life, the celebration of the sacraments, and living out one's vocation present some particular challenges for people with disabilities.
In face of these challenges, the second principle must come into play. Faith draws us into communion with a people making its way toward the Kingdom. The journey is made together. Each of us must be able to count on the faith of our brothers and sisters, and must also know how to bear the faith of our brothers and sisters. Who among us, looking at our own life of faith, can neatly separate what comes from ourselves from what is given by family, education, and life lived with people full of faith?
In essence, the faith of people with intellectual disabilities represents a particular and significant instance of the universal law of communion in and through faith. It is a case where the personal dimensions of faith have a special need to be held and sustained by family and community dimensions.
Yet it would be incomplete to speak only of the support that the faith of our brothers and sisters offers to the faith of people with disabilities. There is also a richness that the faith of people with disabilities gives to the Christian community.
Faith is a participation in the victory of Christ's love over the evil in the world.
In people with disabilities and in those who live with them, Christ's love celebrates a victory with new and surprising dimensions.
The testimonies gathered in this issue are stirring proof of this.
They call Christian communities to deepen their understanding—both theoretically and practically—of welcoming people with disabilities. Above all, they call for a change of heart.
We imagine that these brothers and sisters in difficulty come knocking on our doors to ask for help, a smile, support. Then we discover they come bearing a gift.
—by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, 1984