This is the third segment taken and adapted from an address I delivered in 2004 to a Life Issues Conference sponsored by the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey.
Part 3
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The previous entries were the bad news, now for the Good News. God is a God of love. He is love and he wants us to be reflectors of His love. He wants to forgive and purify us. He wants us to include everyone. We are asked to move beyond superficial comfort of the afflicted and disabled to enter their world, which may involve feeling their anguish or grief. I will not try to fool you. This has enormous internal risks because we are all afraid of the poverty within our own hearts. What do I mean by poverty of hearts? (I speak of the metaphorical heart.)Human shortcomings
We all have cruelty of the heart. We all have inner darkness and inner violence. There are limits to our ability to love and embrace the worth of others or trust our own capacity for inner growth. We may be consumed by pride or self-conceit. It is hard to embrace and love people who are spastic, ugly, those who drool or dirty themselves. Everyone wants to turn away from sickness and death. (That is why euthanasia and assisted suicide can be so attractive.) It's much easier to live in a beautiful world with beautiful people rather than face a less beautiful world, as it really is, and try to give it beauty.
Christ's higher calling
America is called to defend the vulnerable, not only by virtue of your rock-solid American heritage rooted in Anglo-America common law but by the principles behind the great vision of your Founders. But your Christianity takes you further. Christ speaks to the heart o
f man, even today, calling us beyond defense of the vulnerable, to embrace and befriend the sick, the handicapped, the immigrant and the old. Why? Because that is what He, the Master, would do. Christ said, "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have love you. (Jn.15.12). We do not love one another my killing each other. Jesus said that if we love Him we should keep His commandments (Jn.14.15). And Jesus gave us the heart of His commandment when a lawyer asked Him what was the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus answered:"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hand all the Law and the prophets." (Matt. 22:37-40.)
Human Family
Now, if
we really do love our Lord and if we really do love our neighbor as ourselves, we will ache with compassion for humanity. We must ask ourselves if we want to enjoy a sense of belonging? Do we want to be included in the living process? Do we want to have friends? If the answer is Yes, then that's how we must behave toward others. And that includes the disabled, the incurably ill … the genetically flawed. You see, your Nation's heritage expects you to welcome strangers, but your Christianity calls you to love others as you yourself want to be loved. You must include others as you want to be included. You must befriend those who are excluded as you would want to be if you were excluded. You must treat others as you yourself would want to be treated.
Followers of Christ are called to open up and befriend the disabled, the sick or marginalized of society. After all, that's what He would do. Jesus calls us from seeking affirmation to affirming the worth of others. Can you move from needing to be understood to seeking to understand other image bearers of God? Even those who are unlovely? We are called to include them as part of the human family. And being part of the human family affords everyone certain unalienable rights and responsibilities. It's threatening to your personal sense of security and safety to befriend the disabled, sick or dying. I know that! I used to be able-bodied and healthy.
Risks of Befriending Handicapped and Disabled
When I was able-bodied and healthy, I was afraid to befriend profoundly disabled people because it touched on fears deep within me of suffering and discomfort. To do so reminded me of my own mortality. I was afraid that a person with a severe disability might engulf me with their anguish. I was afraid that because of their isolation and loneliness they might cling to me with a desperate iron-grip. I had a circle of friends and family. I feared that if I introduced a severely handicapped person into that circle of friends they might push away my new disabled friend, and me too. Disabilities have a strong stigma and I was afraid it might rub off on me. Fear has been terrible motivation in my life.
If you open yourself to befriending the disabled, the sick or dying, the homeless, the immigrant, the woman in crisis pregnancy, you may find it uncomfortable and threatening. If you befriend the disabled or handicapped, you may make other people feel challenged to do the same thing. They may push you away and become aggressive. Why? Because befriending the severely handicapped reminds people of their own mortality and can bring them face to face with their own inner darkness and their own inner handicaps.
we really do love our Lord and if we really do love our neighbor as ourselves, we will ache with compassion for humanity. We must ask ourselves if we want to enjoy a sense of belonging? Do we want to be included in the living process? Do we want to have friends? If the answer is Yes, then that's how we must behave toward others. And that includes the disabled, the incurably ill … the genetically flawed. You see, your Nation's heritage expects you to welcome strangers, but your Christianity calls you to love others as you yourself want to be loved. You must include others as you want to be included. You must befriend those who are excluded as you would want to be if you were excluded. You must treat others as you yourself would want to be treated.Followers of Christ are called to open up and befriend the disabled, the sick or marginalized of society. After all, that's what He would do. Jesus calls us from seeking affirmation to affirming the worth of others. Can you move from needing to be understood to seeking to understand other image bearers of God? Even those who are unlovely? We are called to include them as part of the human family. And being part of the human family affords everyone certain unalienable rights and responsibilities. It's threatening to your personal sense of security and safety to befriend the disabled, sick or dying. I know that! I used to be able-bodied and healthy.
Risks of Befriending Handicapped and Disabled
When I was able-bodied and healthy, I was afraid to befriend profoundly disabled people because it touched on fears deep within me of suffering and discomfort. To do so reminded me of my own mortality. I was afraid that a person with a severe disability might engulf me with their anguish. I was afraid that because of their isolation and loneliness they might cling to me with a desperate iron-grip. I had a circle of friends and family. I feared that if I introduced a severely handicapped person into that circle of friends they might push away my new disabled friend, and me too. Disabilities have a strong stigma and I was afraid it might rub off on me. Fear has been terrible motivation in my life.
If you open yourself to befriending the disabled, the sick or dying, the homeless, the immigrant, the woman in crisis pregnancy, you may find it uncomfortable and threatening. If you befriend the disabled or handicapped, you may make other people feel challenged to do the same thing. They may push you away and become aggressive. Why? Because befriending the severely handicapped reminds people of their own mortality and can bring them face to face with their own inner darkness and their own inner handicaps.
My own failings
Shamefully, I must confess my own inner darkness: I am a coward. I am two-faced: On one hand I am a disability activist across North America, championing the cause of inclusion and embracing all the human family, . . . yet my own heart-poverty reveals itself in my terror of quadriplegia and nursing homes. I avoid auxiliary hospitals like a plague. I see my future and myself in those people. That is my heart-poverty because when it is my turn to live in a nursing home, I hope others will not behave toward me as I do by turning my back of those in nursing homes. It is my terror and yet I do not comfort or embrace those living my nightmare. I want to escape from my own weakness and the weaknesses of others.
Mark Pickup
This message was made into a television program that has aired on EWTN across North America under the title To be, or not to be ... the Human Family. To order a copy of this program for $14.95 plus shipping (VHS only) send me an email at MPickup@shaw.ca
This message was made into a television program that has aired on EWTN across North America under the title To be, or not to be ... the Human Family. To order a copy of this program for $14.95 plus shipping (VHS only) send me an email at MPickup@shaw.ca
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