On being healed

I received yet another heartbreaking email from a person with a disability who tells me she went home and wept after someone in her congregation told her she is disabled because she sinned. I hear these stories and shudder because this kind of "punishment/sin" myth around disability has lingered for far too long in our society. I also want to scream to people that there are as many, if not more, miserable and unhappy people who are not disabled as there are people who are disabled.

The reality is that the words we say at Mass about being healed- Just say the word and I shall be healed- are not to be taken as limited to physical cures, but are about spiritual healing. Spiritual healing can not always be seen.

I like to read writings by Mark Smith, who authors many online articles and runs the very useful Wheelchair Junkie site, through which he assists many people with their mobility needs. It's a powerful, positive mission this young man is on: his writings hold people with disabilities to account and not everyone likes that. For example, in a recent post, It Gets You There , he wrote about how one sees one's wheelchair - as a tool or as a limit - is up to the person and shared how he sees his wheelchair as a way to do things in life, to get places. His philosophy is a far cry from the far too often limiting stereotypes surrounding people with disabilities in our society.

We all need healing, but it's not about our bodies. It's about our attitudes, our outlook, our "take" on things. We all know that two people in the same exact situation don't respond the same way. I've met quadriplegics who are happier than someone with a corn on his/her foot who hobbles away from a car with a handicap placard saying "Woe is me".

This is also true of many other things in life, not just disability. I meet people doing their jobs who are being paid minimum wage who are happier than those making hundreds of thousands dollars a year. Being rich or poor doesn't equate to being healed, either. We could list all the variations among humans and it would have nothing to do with being healed because healing is about spiritual well being.

God has healed me over and over again. As a Catholic, when I say Just say the word and I shall be healed, I ask God to heal me spiritually, to cleanse me of my sins, to guide me toward His Will, so that my own will doesn't cause me to trip over myself or others. I would be nowhere without God's healing, but I never pray those words literally for a physical cure.

Why not? I have quadriplegia. I've accepted that. And that matter is entirely out of my hands. The energy I have needs to go toward being positive and using the tools I have to help others.

Does it present challenges? Yes and I try to write honestly about those here. But in and of itself, being disabled is not the biggest challenge. The biggest challenge is trying to overcome the attitudes of those who only see the disability, not the person.

Those who think people with disabilities are disabled because they have sinned. They are, indeed, the ones who need to be healed.