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15 and said, “Lord, have mercy on my
son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly; he often falls
into the fire and often into the water. 16 And I brought him
to your disciples, but they could not cure him.”
It was a great
experience for me to be with the children of Asha Bhavan,
Pathanapuram,Kerala, an institution of the Mar Thoma Church.
for the differently abled children, for ten days as part of the VBS
in 1996. Those days helped me to greatly understand the ability and
the dignity of the people who are physically challenged. Those days
with the children, who have their own special skills, also taught
me great lessons about mutual dependency in the community life.
This passage describes the struggles and pain of a young man who
was physically challenged. His father brought him, first, to the
disciples and then, to Jesus. Jesus, after rebuking the disciples
for their lack of faith, healed the young man. Jesus’ words and
action to heal the young man throw light into the responsibility of
the believing community towards the differently abled people.
The people,
during Jesus' time, considered ‘disability’ or
sickness a result of sin, a curse or God’s
Punishment (John 9:2). Hence they treated those people as ‘objects’
and did not consider them as dignified persons. But Jesus saw in
him a wonderful vision of God’s salvific works. Bible always
portrays that weaknesses are the best opportunities to experience
the power of God. Moses and St. Paul are best examples for this.
Today, as a believing
community we need to have the attitude of Jesus towards these
people. We should make every effort to uphold the dignity of these
people. We need to create the spaces that accept and include these
people. As Dr. K. C. Abraham said, we have created at least three
barriers against these people: architectural barriers, attitudinal
barriers and liturgical barriers. We need to take bold steps
to overcome these barriers, to accept and include the differently
abled people and to help them lead a life with dignity and honor.
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