Special needs children and disabled people are among the most beautiful people among us. While they don’t always fit the cliché description of physical beauty, anyone who has gotten a hug from someone with Down syndrome or who has seen the smile of someone with severe cerebral palsy will tell you that there are few things more beautiful than the innocent, pure love that is expressed by those whom society too often casts aside.
God has blessed our Earth with tons of beauty. From sunsets, to waterfalls, to mountaintops, he has blessed us with abundant pleasure. But there’s a certain level of beauty that we are able to enjoy from each other that outshines even the most charming landscapes on Earth. As St. Thomas Aquinas pointed out, God is the ultimate definition of positive expression. As such, there is nothing more beautiful than God, and since He declares that human beings were created in his likeness, there is nothing more beautiful than human beings.
We can feel that in our nature. But God didn’t specify that skinny blonde women or tall, dark, handsome men were made most in his image. No, we are all born in his image. And what matters to God is the same as what should matter to us: Above all else, love.
At last year’s Values Voters Summit, Senator Rick Santorum gave a remarkable testimony about his daughter, Bella, who is four years old and has Trisomy 18. The Senator told the crowd that of all of his seven children, she has taught them the most. She was always smiling, always loving, and had an innocent nature that was impossible to change.
“She is pure love,” Santorum said. “While some in society would call her disabled, she is the most able among us and she is the center of our family.”
Senator Santorum was exactly right. Too often, members of our society believe that disabled people are a dispensable part of our community. Of all babies that are prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome, only 10% are given the chance to live. Outside of the womb, there are many people who think that special education funding is a waste, that there is no real place in society for special needs people. Even the most well-meaning people in the world often believe that while we should love disabled people, they have little to offer the world.
As usual, society’s view is a bit warped from God’s view. Not only does God say that we are made in his image, he says that we are formed in the womb as part of His divine plan, with hope and a future. God doesn’t make mistakes. The fact that God has a plan for each of us is not reliant on our ability to see that plan, and his plan for disabled people is most definitely not reliant on society’s ability to fathom the plan.
When I was a little kid, disabled people scared me. There was a self conscious fear that I would do something wrong around them to cause an outburst or a scene, and there was a deeper fear that they would do something to make me uncomfortable. Luckily, this fear was diminished during my U-12 season of AAU basketball.
The new star player for our team had an older brother who suffered from severe cerebral palsy. He was confined to a wheel chair and was unable to talk at all. While many of his communicative skills were lacking, you could look into his eyes and see his loving soul. While Michael could speak no words through his mouth, his eyes were full of pure love whenever he looked at his mother, father, or brothers. When my team would win a game, he was always at the center of the celebration. Whenever any of us 12-year-olds would walk past him, we’d always say hello and give him a tap on the arm. His face would light up every single time. While most of us thought of ourselves as too cool to walk next to our mothers in the grocery store, no one was above being nice to Michael. He enjoyed the basketball games as much as any other family members, and would even let out an occasional snort or laugh while the opposing team was shooting free throws.
When Michael passed away in 2006, none of us felt as though we lost someone who was any less a person than any of us. No, we felt as though we lost a close friend – a member of our extended family. All along, we never viewed Michael based on what he was unable to do. Rather, we loved Michael because of what he could do: Laugh, smile, and love. Michael was beautiful.
God had a plan for Michael. Michael’s disabilities didn’t inhibit his ability to teach us and to impact our lives. No, Michael was able to express more to his family and friends than any of us could ever dream to express. While Michael’s physical ailments prevented him from standing, nothing prevented his soul from living out his Earthly life to the fullest.
As is the case with any premature death, Michael’s passing caused me to ask God our simplest and most frequent question: “Why?”
The answer to the question could be found in the way Michael lived. If I were God, I would probably make each person look very similar, each of us fitting the physical descriptions of beauty that we are accustomed to.
But Michael’s life -and the lives of millions of disabled people across the world - show why playing Supreme Ruler of the Universe is far above my pay grade. God understands this universe a lot better than any of us do. And if it were left to us, our superficial plans and our physical definitions of beauty would be the driving force in our world. But God knows what he is doing. He knows that the beauty in each of us lies not in our hair color, eye color, or the length of our legs. More than anywhere else, beauty lies in our souls.
As Senator Santorum points out, those who society calls “disabled” have the easiest ability to see the beauty in God’s Earth and have the best ability to find love in the world around them. If the rest of us are lucky, we can find that beauty and love, too. It starts by looking at them.
Chris Crawford is a junior at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. studying Political Science. He is in love with the pro-life cause, and can often be found energizing his peers to be similarly in love with and excited about it. He blogs at Catholic Branches.
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