The least of these...

One thing that I appreciate about the Roman Catholic Church is its strong commitment to life and the value of those who society considers as lesser. From the fighting for the rights of the unborn, to the valuing of those with mental and physical disabilities.

I grew up in the Reformed tradition which stressed the value of the intellectual pursuit of God. Christian maturity was measured in our articulation of theology and doctrine. Unfortunately this didn't give much of a place to the mentally handicapped. I remember one lady in our congregation who loved Jesus with all that she was but had the intellect of a child. She was always viewed with suspicion and treated as a bit of an outcast. However, in the Catholic tradition I see how people like her are celebrated and actually held up as examples that we should all learn from.

I can give so many examples from the Bay Area diocese that has a monthly mass for its mentally challenged adults, to my friend's brother with down syndrome who serves as an acolyte in his home parish, to the tireless work of Catholic priests on behalf of the unborn.

Today I had the privilege of stopping at the National Shrine for Our Lady of Guadalupe in Sacramento. I was passing by and felt the need to stop in, not realizing what it was other than it was a Catholic Church. I spent a beautiful time praying before the Blessed Sacrament. And then I got to meet a gentleman who volunteers his time to care for the building. His son was there, sitting in a wheelchair. He reminded me of my cousin who has Cerebral Palsy. This man, about my age, comes to the church every morning in his wheelchair with the key where someone else helps him to open up the church. This man, who cannot feed himself is used by God in a way that few of us are.

This church has been a testimony and a ministry to those who society views as defective. From its former rector and auxiliary bishop of Sacramento who had to memorize the liturgy because he couldn't read the missal due to his visual handicap, to the memorial to the unborn outside the chapel's doors, to this man who can't hold a job but dedicates himself to opening the church each day and watching over its doors.

Perhaps we are the defective ones. We allow our intellectual pride to eclipse the ways of the Spirit. We rely too much on our own abilities as we don't need to depend on others. And in this glorification of our independence we lose sight of how God created us for communion with Him. Perhaps we need to learn from the least of these as they hold something that we don't understand.