Saturday 22 April 2023

Background

As a person who lives with multiple disabilities, and who tries to aid the Church in the inclusion and fair treatment of people with disabilities, this passage really hits close to home and illustrates the different approaches to disability that the disciples and Jesus took.

In the world, there is a distinction between helping a person living with a disability because it is the right thing to do, and doing it because it makes you look good, which is known as tokenism. I love Jesus’ approach because he treats the person as a human, and seeks permission to heal them either directly or indirectly, always asking for permission (see John 5:1-15), whereas the disciples do not ask for such permission for their healings. Please don’t misunderstand me, the passage does show that the person’s quality of life was being adversely affected by his disability but the approach taken by the disciples illustrates to me that the disciples were doing this for show rather than for the good of the person.

However, this passage shows the humanity of the disciples: they make mistakes like the rest of us, what matters is what we do afterwards.

To Ponder:

• How can you learn about the difficulties people living with disabilities go through on a daily basis?
• Are all disabilities bad?
• Has there been a point in your life where you’ve made a mistake and turned it into a learning point?

PrayerLoving and caring God, today we pray for all those living with disabilities around the world. We pray for their accomplishments, their abilities and their experiences. We also pray for their wellbeing in times of difficulty and ask you to guide us in how we help our siblings in Christ. Amen.

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