«I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do» (Lk. 10, 21-22).
I have repeated these words in my heart many times. After the parents made their request, I began accompanying a group of young people in Mazara—all of them intellectually disabled—on a journey of faith in preparation for the sacraments of Eucharist and Confirmation.
I want to be clear about something: the parents' request matters.
I have always told families, and I continue to say, that just as they «carry» these young people at the physical level—worrying about whether they are warm enough, fed, cared for—because the young people cannot manage these things alone, so too must they «carry» them at the level of faith. In a word: the family must commit to walking with them. The request for a sacrament must spring from the faith we received in Baptism. Faith is what makes us ask for the sacrament. Without it, what is the point of distributing them at all?
I have been asked to share my experience with you. I will say at once: I am not inclined to write about what I do. It seems too simple. But I will do it precisely because of that simplicity—our meetings were made of small gestures of affection, rooted in welcoming these young people exactly as they are. That simplicity allowed the Word of God to be perceived in their «small» yet great hearts.
The Lord truly uses useless instruments, so that the Power of his Word might triumph and confound the rich and the wise (see St. Paul). But let me tell you about our meetings.
I used a biblical catechesis. I wanted to bring the young people to knowledge of:
1) Jesus, Son of God and our brother
2) the fact that we are brothers and sisters in Jesus and therefore belong to one Father who is Love and Forgiveness
I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the great and the wise and have made them known to the little ones
3) Mary, Mother of Jesus and our Mother.
I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the great and the wise and have made them known to the little onesThis may sound difficult to you, but it was not. I thought of Jesus walking the roads of Galilee, speaking with ordinary people and fishermen—the Apostles, who were often rough—and how he used simple words and examples from their daily lives. I used the same method.
One day, while the young people were coloring pictures from Jean Vanier's album (illustrated by the Little Sisters), particularly the one showing Mary visiting Elizabeth, I asked them who those two women were. I had already told them the story of the Annunciation.
One of them said:
— «It's the Madonna going to visit her cousin».
— «And why is she going? What is she doing there?»
Gaspare answered right away:
— «To tell her cousin that she is expecting Jesus».
— «And then?»
— «To help her, because her cousin was waiting for John».
It was beautiful. Did the Madonna not go precisely for this reason? To bring Jesus in a spirit of praise and service?
They understood the parable of the sower wonderfully. I gathered their various responses as they drew and answered my questions:
— «What does the farmer do before sowing?»
— «Pull out the weeds... the rocks...»
One finally said:
— «He prepares the earth... makes it beautiful so it can receive the seed».
Just so: the Word of God is the seed, and our heart is the earth.
I also used this parable to prepare them for Confession. They themselves said that the rocks, the weeds, the thorns were all the times they had been «mean»—had thrown tantrums, quarreled, and so on.
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Then I spoke to them about God's forgiveness. I found this topic rather difficult, since resistance to forgiveness is something we all carry, especially in certain environments. I usually stimulate the young people by asking questions about events of the day or things they have seen on television. Around that time, there had been a story in the news about a child in Bari whose mother had thrown him in a trash bin. One of them told me about it immediately, and I asked:
— «But what should we do? Should we forgive this mother, yes or no?» No one answered. They were coloring a picture of Jesus on the cross. Gaetano shook his head and said: «No, no, that's not right...»
— «But did Jesus forgive, yes or no?»
— «Yes, Jesus did».
— «A mother might forget her own child someday, but does Jesus forget us?»
And Gaetano said:
— «No, no, Jesus never forgets, because we are «his little ones»».
Tell me—is there not reason to say: «I praise you, Father...»? And are these not the words of Isaiah (49,15), spoken in today's language: «Even if a mother should forget you, I will never forget you»? And again: «Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me» (Ps. 27).
The presence of Jesus as a living person in the Eucharist. This truth moved our young people deeply. To explain it, I used the language of signs and spoke about light. By talking with them, drawing on examples from their own homes and calling them by name, I asked whether the light in their houses stayed on all the time.
They told me themselves: when no one is home, the light is off. When people are in the house, you see the light.
We went to the church nearby. I showed them the lamp burning next to the tabernacle. After a short prayer where each of them greeted Jesus in their own way, everyone expressed themselves according to their abilities. All of them said that in that door—the Tabernacle—Jesus was alive and risen. But in a truly exceptional way, Elisabeth understood it. Without anyone asking her anything, in a loud voice, pointing at the tabernacle, she said—and kept repeating it: «Jesus is alive».
This cry from Elisabeth's mouth (she had severe intellectual disability) was a true message for me: each of us, in our own place and in the vocation where we find ourselves, must follow Jesus as a living person.
The simplicity of our meetings, made of small gestures of affection, rooted in welcoming these young people exactly as they are
The simplicity of our meetings, made of small gestures of affection, rooted in welcoming these young people exactly as they areThe language of signs, as I said, is very important, especially for our young people. One day Gaetano was sulking. Nothing interested him. So I turned to the whole group—five young people—and said: «Today Gaetano has no light». The others started saying: «He's turned off...»
Gaetano seemed not to be listening, but these simple words made him jump in his chair. He immediately started coloring and, delighted, said: «What are you talking about? The light off? No, no, I'm not turned off!» Coming back to the Eucharist: some priests were a bit uncertain about welcoming these young people to receive it. They said they needed some kind of «test»—a phrase or sign showing the young people understood the importance of the sacrament. So I dialogued extensively with them. I drew pictures—with them—of Jesus instituting the Eucharist, Jesus breaking bread with the Apostles. I even showed them slides on «the story of the grain of wheat», explaining the whole process: growth, grinding, the making of bread that feeds every man and woman, the manufacture of the host which, through the priest, becomes Jesus, the bread of life. Then I asked:
— «When you receive the host, is it like eating a sandwich? Can you spit it out? Hold it in your hand or put it on the bench?»
All of them, with one voice and with their whole body, said:
— «No, no, because it is Jesus».
Another priest told me that for young people with intellectual disability, Baptism is enough; they do not need the other sacraments. That is partly true. Yet after Baptism, we must grow in faith and mature. We are all responsible for this process of maturation (see the Base Document, Chapter 3). So why not try? Of course this «effort» requires sacrifice, dedication, time, because it must be personalized.
Others, by contrast, accept these young people with excessive zeal, giving them the sacraments without any preparation at all.
From my experience, I find it wrong to deprive these young people of this growth in faith, this knowledge of Jesus through events, by handing on to them the Word of God, which is «Spirit and life» (Jn. 6, 63). Is this not Jesus' desire? His final words in the Gospel of Mark, when he sends the apostles to preach the Gospel without borders?
«Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature» (Mk. 16, 15).
In our first lessons, I asked the young people: «Who made Mazara? Who made the sea (we live near the port)? Who made Campobello, Marsala?» I named other distant cities and asked who had made the world. The answer was: «Garibaldi».
Perhaps someone would laugh. But it made me think deeply. It showed me the responsibility of those called «healthy»—families, educators—about what they pass on to these young people. It was wonderful when they understood that God had made everything: he gave them life, made this gift to every person, because God loves everyone. So we named the white people, the rich, the poor, people of color (in our case, Tunisians). Speaking of these things, by God's grace, I managed to help them memorize some prayers and phrases from the Psalms. For instance: «God made all this... Is God great or small?»
«God is great,» they all answered together.
«Shall we say it all together then? O Lord, our God, how great is your name over all the earth!»
We repeated this phrase at every meeting, and their hearts poured out a litany, like «praises of the Most High»: «O Lord our God, how great you are... how strong you are!... How beautiful you are!»
The Hail Mary came the same way—by guessing, through question and answer:
— «When the Angel went to Mary, what did he say to her? Hello?... Good morning?...»
— «No!» the young people said together.
— «Then how did he greet her?»
— «Hail, O Mary!»
— «Let us greet her then together: Hail Mary, full of grace...»
With Mary, who reminds us of the mystery of our salvation, I end this simple and fraternal sharing. May she, the star of evangelization, accompany us on this journey of life, bringing about always more encounters with her Jesus—the Way, the Truth, the Life.
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I hope I have passed on to you not what I did, but the account of the Lord's wonders, told through the responses of these «little ones»! Certainly, great attention is required from those who accompany these young people. An attention that must be an incarnation, a selfless gift of oneself—in a word, much Love—so that we can sense what they are trying to tell us through their different ways of expressing themselves. You have to be on the same wavelength.
I have many other things I could share with you about this experience of faith with them, but perhaps I have already gone on too long. Let us praise the Lord for the wonders that he alone, generation after generation, accomplishes in the heart of every person. Let us praise him, because the Lord is good, and his love for us is eternal!
- Anna Maria Conte, Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, 1988