When Dr. Stanley Hauerwas spoke last year at Fontbonne University in St. Louis, he spoke about disability. Professor of theological ethics at the Divinity School of Duke University, he said the term itself is problematic; that we should label other people “disabled” all the while assuming that we are 100% able. The term “vulnerable” is no better.
Dr. Hauerwas said prevailing societal attitudes toward suffering are terribly flawed. “We now want to believe that whatever besets us is purposeless. And so we ask physicians to relieve us.” “We must eliminate suffering,” popular thinking goes, “to get on with being human.” So we look at suffering as a medical problem to be eliminated, and thereby we open the door to a terrifying totalitarianism. Dr. Hauerwas said, “Today people believe an inadequately trained priest cannot harm you but an inadequately trained physician can.” That’s scary.
To imagine that suffering has no purpose leads us away from love, from giving of ourselves to others in community. “Suffering,” he said, “is God-given as an outreach to God’s love.” So whatever’s going on in your life, you can have a blessed today!
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