A Wisdom so Beautiful

By Brian Smith

I marvel at some men and women who have suffered sometimes severe illnesses or handicaps, but who have gradually come to accept and embrace them. Several years ago I was invited to Montreal to meet men and women with physical handicaps. I had been asked to talk to them but when I met them I felt unable to speak until I had listened to them. I asked them to tell me their stories and how they had suffered. Each one explained the bitterness they had experienced. One said, "I had polio when I was seventeen. To begin with, my school friends supported me. Gradually, they stopped visiting me. Now I have no friends." One after another they talked about their pain and their anger with society. Then one woman with polio spoke up, "How can we criticize people in society for not accepting us if we fail to accept them in their non-acceptance of us?" Suffering had brought her to a wisdom so beautiful. She radiated love.

- Jean Vanier, Our Journey Home, p. 164