Which are the good gifts?

Recently, I wrote about how the Golden Rule doesn’t always clarify for people how they should treat people with disabilities The main reason that’s true is that people can experience fear and disgust when they encounter people with disabilities. It’s not an intentional choice, like name-calling, but rather a reaction that’s learned, like slowing down when we encounter yellow traffic signs.

The effects of that learned caution on people with disabilities are worth examining closely. One effect is that people with disabilities learn to be ashamed of themselves and their bodies. Neither for able-bodied to be people to be afraid nor for disabled people to be ashamed is the best outcome, but these two emotional reactions show what’s at stake in our interdependence. The possibility for each person to know their body is good is available to us–” [b]ody and soul, I am marvelously made!” encourages Psalm 139 (The Message).

There are 200 different kinds of cells in the human body. Within those cells, there are 20 different types of organelles and structures. An adult man may lose 96 million cells in one minute. This is the context within which being disabled is a natural part of life. As all of us work on accepting the nature of our bodies, both disabled and (temporarily) able, we work against the fear and disgust that we learned even before we agreed to the lesson.

Although of the messages that disabled bodies bring to world is that all bodies are good, the benefit to able-bodied people is even more than that. It is by working together, not as a favor or a burden, but as collaboration that able-bodied people have the potential to assist in bringing about abundant inclusion. There isn’t anyone who would say, at least out loud, that disabled people don’t bring gifts to Beloved Community. But there are plenty of people willing to live that way, as though what disabled people bring to community isn’t enough for them to be invested together with it.

The Book of Matthew includes a story of Jesus  talking about the arrival of the Beloved Community. Jesus told a story of investment: Beloved Community is like a business person going on a trip who gave their servants money to invest while they are gone. One got $5000 another $2000, and a third $1000. Because that third person had a small amount to invest, they were scared to lose it and buried it in the ground. What happened when the business person came back? The third investor who took no chances and made no profit got in trouble and had to give their money to the one who risked the most.

A spiritual community that does not invest in access and inclusion is like third investor; they bury those gifts and do nothing with them to benefit the Beloved. Fear is real; shame is real. And we are called to more than those. We are called to joyful and mutual investment than will bring about the world we want to see.