I wrote about Autism Awareness Day falling on Good Friday and the Christian response over at Patheos. Here are the first words:
Today, we have two days seemingly in conflict. We commemorate the suffering and death of Our Lord. The secular world also has the annual world autism awareness day. I am a Christians first so obviously Good Friday is a focus but as I prayed today, I was struck by an odd connection to these two days.
Our Suffering
This Lent, I’ve been going through Henri Nouwen’s Show Me the Way: Daily Lenten Readings in my prayer. Today he notes the huge cross they brought out at L’Arche, then thinking of the sufferings of Jesus, he was struck by the sufferings of those around him. He mentions, “Jacques, who bears he marks of suffering in his face,” and “Edith in her wheelchair.” These were the members of L’Arche which is a community for the disabled and those who dedicate their life to care for them.
This reflection is a reminder of St. Paul in Colossians 1:24: “I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.” When we see the community come up to venerate the cross on Good Friday, we see all their different sufferings.
It made me think of our autistic sufferings. How often we suffer from misunderstandings, from sensory issues, from loneliness, and from an inability to understand or communicate in ways most humans consider normal. Our sufferings are often invisible to others.
We suffer those things with Jesus and can offer them up for the Church.
Read the rest over there.
