Disabled Student Reaches Harvard

Joe Ford is a sopho­more at Har­vard, one of the top uni­ver­si­ties in the coun­try.  Only 10% of all appli­cants make it into Har­vard.  As you will read, Joe’s odds were much tougher.  This les­son will demon­strate how the virtue of per­se­ver­ance pre­pared Joe for suc­cess and how the virtue of love inspired his fam­ily to help him achieve it.

Part I: Joe’s Per­se­ver­ance.  

When Joe was born on Sep­tem­ber 5, 1983, the doc­tors gave him a 1% chance of liv­ing.  A lack of oxy­gen dur­ing birth caused exces­sive brain dam­age.  Diag­nosed with quad­ri­plegic cere­bral palsy, Joe lacks con­trol of most of his mus­cles.  He received his first wheel­chair before he was two years old.  

Joe has always tried hard to apply the tal­ents that God gave him.  Despite his phys­i­cal lim­i­ta­tions, Joe has the heart of a lion.  While most kids with severe dis­abil­i­ties attended special-​​needs schools, Joe worked to earn a place at a chal­leng­ing Lan­guage Arts Acad­emy.  In high school, he obtained an intern­ship at a law firm, doing research on dis­abil­ity law.  This gave him the desire to attend col­lege and pos­si­bly pur­sue a career in law.  He set his sights on Har­vard, and stud­ied hard enough to make it, scor­ing higher than 95% of all high school seniors on the Scholas­tic Apti­tude Test (SAT).

Every day, Joe faces new chal­lenges, but he never gives up.  We all know how dif­fi­cult learn­ing can be some­times; but imag­ine the incred­i­ble chal­lenge of learn­ing if you could not hold a pen­cil or type on a key­board!  This is the harsh real­ity for Joe, whose lack of mus­cle con­trol makes such basic tasks extremely dif­fi­cult.  Last year, Joe spent nine hours tak­ing a phi­los­o­phy exam at Har­vard that other stu­dents com­pleted in three hours.

Some­times we might pre­fer to have oth­ers do things for us, espe­cially things we don’t really want to do our­selves.  Some­times we are con­vinced that a chal­lenge before us is just too hard.  When dis­cour­aged, we can think Joe and his chal­lenges.  For Joe, even the sim­plest task, like but­ton­ing a shirt or tying a shoe, is very dif­fi­cult.  In order to func­tion, he must prac­tice per­se­ver­ance, the habit of try­ing hard despite obsta­cles.  Per­se­ver­ing does not mean that we always suc­ceed, but that we always try our best, even through obsta­cles. 

Part II:  Fam­ily Love Brings Out the Best in Us

Joe’s amaz­ing per­se­ver­ance is in part the result of his own will to suc­ceed; but it is also the fruit of his family’s gen­er­ous out­pour­ing of love.  Joe’s broth­ers and sis­ters often car­ried him on their backs, or brought him in a wagon to play with friends.  They changed the rules of games like base­ball to allow Joe to par­tic­i­pate, even allow­ing him to crawl to first base.  Joe’s brother Michael taught him how to play chess, and now Joe is an excel­lent player.  Another of Joe’s broth­ers, Liam, believes that by being included in so many of the family’s activ­i­ties, Joe has devel­oped the self-​​confidence to par­tic­i­pate in reg­u­lar activ­i­ties like any­one else. 

The Ford fam­ily pro­vides a beau­ti­ful exam­ple of uncon­di­tional love.  Joe’s fam­ily put his needs before their own because of their great love for him.  Christ calls us to show this kind of love to every­one we meet, espe­cially to those in need.  This show of love does not hap­pen auto­mat­i­cally.  any great virtue, char­ity does not hap­pen just by mak­ing a deci­sion once, but by actions that are done many times. Char­ity is a deci­sion that has to be con­stantly renewed and put into prac­tice. We would all like to become a great bas­ket­ball player by prac­tic­ing only once, but we know it doesn’t hap­pen that way.  Like great­ness in sports, char­ity takes con­stant prac­tice. We get bet­ter at it with effort.

The fam­ily is a per­fect arena for prac­tic­ing char­ity.  It is the first school of demand­ing, uncon­di­tional love that brings out the best in us.  Fam­ily life teaches us to be unselfish and respect­ful of each person’s dig­nity.  True joy in a fam­ily comes from work­ing together as a team.  Pope John Paul II reminds us that “to main­tain a joy­ful fam­ily requires much from both the par­ents and the chil­dren. Each mem­ber of the fam­ily has to become, in a spe­cial way, the ser­vant of the oth­ers.”  The more we help our fam­ily, the bet­ter we can help oth­ers in need.

Com­pas­sion

Before we can help any­one in need, we must place our­selves in his or her sit­u­a­tion.  Under­stand­ing some­one else’s trou­bles with a desire to help them is the virtue of com­pas­sion.  We are inspired to be com­pas­sion­ate by remem­ber­ing that God made us in his own image and like­ness (Gen. 1:26).  We are all united to God with a spe­cial dig­nity and love.  God’s love for us is so great that he came to earth, in the per­son Jesus Christ, to share in our suf­fer­ing.  “He took upon him­self our infir­mi­ties, he bore our sick­ness” (Mt 8:17; Is 53:4).  Christ under­stands every hard­ship that we expe­ri­ence.  We should think about oth­ers’ hard­ships as well.

At first, Joe’s fam­ily did not know how to help him.  His mother held fast to the hope that he would get bet­ter.  Refus­ing to believe what the doc­tors told her about Joe’s con­di­tion, she brought him to phys­i­cal ther­apy, swim­ming lessons, and even horse­back rid­ing lessons so that his phys­i­cal abil­i­ties could improve.  Real­iz­ing that Joe likely would not be cured, his mother then shifted her focus to help­ing Joe live a ful­fill­ing life with his dis­abil­i­ties.  She worked hard to help him develop the abil­i­ties that God had given him.  Once she under­stood his sit­u­a­tion, she could bet­ter help him.

Our par­ents’ love for us lets them see great­ness in us that we do not even see our­selves.  Their love comes from God, who has given us all a poten­tial for great­ness through the sacra­ment of bap­tism.  God sees a poten­tial saint, a poten­tial hero, in each of us. Christ believed in our great­ness even when we were crip­pled by sin. He died for us to bring out the saint and hero in each one of us.  We become this hero when we, like Christ, help bring out the best in others.

Joe strug­gles with his dis­abil­ity just as we all strug­gle with our own imper­fec­tions.  Those who are phys­i­cally or men­tally dis­abled serve as a vis­i­ble sign of our duties to one another.  Such peo­ple are rich in human­ity and deserv­ing of all the dig­nity and love that we hope for.  Dis­abil­ity is not a pun­ish­ment; it is a priv­i­lege, which God allows as an oppor­tu­nity for us to love one another as he loves us.

Bible Blurbs

 “He who endures to the end shall be saved.” Matthew 10:22

 “Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.” James 1:12

 “There­fore, since we are sur­rounded by so great a cloud of wit­nesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with per­se­ver­ance the  that is set before us, look­ing to Jesus, the pio­neer and per­fecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despis­ing the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews12:1

 “I have fought the good fight; I have fin­ished the race; I have kept the faith.” St. Paul  

Par­al­lel Holy Heroes

Blessed Anto­nia Mesina (1919-​​1935) 

Anto­nia was born in Sar­dinia, the second-​​born of ten chil­dren.  Her mother, Grazia, devel­oped a heart con­di­tion that required her to stay in bed most of the time. Anto­nia left school to take care of the whole fam­ily.  She was in third grade at the time!  Her mother often called Anto­nia “the flower of my life” and claimed that Anto­nia “never once went against me”. An obe­di­ent and brave lit­tle girl, she cared for her broth­ers and sis­ters as if she were already an adult. She cooked, cleaned, washed clothes, changed dia­pers, car­ried water, and gath­ered wood.  At the same time, Anto­nia was active in a Catholic youth group and helped many of her friends grow in their faith.  She gave up many per­sonal plea­sures and sac­ri­ficed her wants for the needs of her fam­ily and friends.

BLESSED HERMAN THE CRIPPLE (1013-​​1054) 

Her­man was born with a facial defor­mity, cere­bral palsy, and spina bifida. His par­ents were too poor to tke care of him, so they gave him to a Bene­dic­tine abbey nearby.  Her­man became a monk him­self and stud­ied hard.  Despite his phys­i­cal con­di­tion, Her­man was a genius.  He stud­ied and wrote on astron­omy, the­ol­ogy, math, his­tory, poetry, Ara­bic, Greek, and Latin. He also built musi­cal instru­ments and astro­nom­i­cal equip­ment. Even­tu­ally, Her­man went blind and had to give up his aca­d­e­mic writ­ing. He began com­pos­ing poetry and became the most famous reli­gious poet of his day.  He wrote the prayer Salve Regina (Hail Holy Queen), which we often recite as part of the Rosary.

Vocab­u­lary

Quadriplegic-​​ com­plete paral­y­sis from the neck down

Cere­bral Palsy-​​ a mal­func­tion of the motor cen­ters in the brain due to dam­age of the tis­sue (usu­ally before or dur­ing birth) that results in lack of mus­cu­lar coor­di­na­tion such as move­ment and speech 

Perseverance-​​ try­ing hard and con­tin­u­ously despite obstacles

Uncon­di­tional Love- gen­uine con­cern and respect given freely to oth­ers with­out motive of self-​​interest; uncon­di­tional love is the love of God: a lim­it­less, change­less love that embraces every­one and does not need to be earned.

Dignity-​​ qual­ity of being wor­thy of esteem or respect

Compassion-​​ plac­ing our­selves in another’s sit­u­a­tion with a desire to help

Dis­cus­sion Questions:

1. Did you know that 1 in 5 Amer­i­cans has some form of dis­abil­ity?  1 in 10 has a severe dis­abil­ity.  What do you think con­sti­tutes a dis­abil­ity?  Do you, or any­one in your fam­ily, have a dis­abil­ity of any kind?  How many peo­ple do you know with a disability?

2. What spe­cific actions and atti­tudes of Joe’s fam­ily helped him to develop con­fi­dence and trust in him­self and others?

3. Pope John Paul II calls the fam­ily “the first school of social virtues.”  What does this mean?  How do you prac­tice per­se­ver­ance and sac­ri­fice in your fam­ily?

4. In what ways do your par­ents make sac­ri­fices for you?  What sac­ri­fices can you make for them and for the rest of your fam­ily?

5. How is God’s love for us reflected in peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties?

6. Which sacra­ments call us to prac­tice per­se­ver­ance and uncon­di­tional love?

Per­sonal Reflection/​Journal Writing

1. Write about a time when you have not been able to accom­plish some­thing that you wanted to be able to do?  What got in the way?  How did the obsta­cle make you feel?  Did you give up or did you try harder?  Why?  What do you think that says about your per­son­al­ity?  If you tried harder, did you even­tu­ally suc­ceed?  What helped you keep going?  Did oth­ers encour­age you to try or to stop try­ing?  How did that affect you? the exam­ple of any­one help you to keep going?

2. Write a descrip­tive para­graph about your day from the point of view of some­one in a wheel­chair.  Con­sider what you would do dif­fer­ently and how you would go about doing it.

3. Write about a time when you needed help from some­one in your fam­ily.  It could be some­thing small, like a home­work assign­ment, or some­thing sig­nif­i­cant, like a per­sonal sit­u­a­tion.  Did you ask for help or was it offered freely?  What was the out­come? 

4. Write about a time when you helped some­one else in great need.  What did you sac­ri­fice to help?  How effec­tive were your actions?

5. List some aspects of our soci­ety that devalue human life.  Is every aspect of life sacred in our coun­try?  What are some issues threat­en­ing the dig­nity of life?

6. Should we treat peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties dif­fer­ently?  How should they be treated?

Res­o­lu­tion Ideas

1. Find a char­ity that pro­vides edu­ca­tion for under­priv­i­leged or dis­abled stu­dents.  Help sup­port the char­ity in some tan­gi­ble way. 

2. Many babies are aborted because they are diag­nosed in the womb with dis­abil­i­ties.  This is an offense to the dig­nity of all life, which many peo­ple, espe­cially Catholics, are try­ing to stop.  Find a pro-​​life orga­ni­za­tion in your areas and see how you or your class can help.  You might also sup­port a local adop­tion agency that places unwanted chil­dren in lov­ing families.

Extended Learn­ing

1. What are the cor­po­ral works of mercy?  List them, and for each one give a con­crete exam­ple of how you and your fam­ily and/​or class­mates could accom­plish it.

2. Stu­dents may research a per­son with a phys­i­cal dis­abil­ity who has per­se­vered and accom­plished great things.  It can be some­one they know or some­one they read about (the link to Spe­cial Olympics has a “meet the ath­letes” sec­tion.) Stu­dents should then write a short biog­ra­phy of the per­son, includ­ing details of the person’s dis­abil­ity and how he or she has over­come difficulties.

3. Research web­sites about saints.  Present a report on a saint who over­came a dis­abil­ity or helped oth­ers with disabilities.

 

 

Related Web­sites

National Fed­er­a­tion for Catholic Youth Min­istry – Youth for Dis­abil­i­ties: Resources for Min­istry http://www.nfcym.org/v3/resources/disabilities.html

Catholic World Mis­sion— Mano Amiga pro­gram offers excep­tional edu­ca­tion for poor chil­dren in Mex­ico: http://www.catholicworldmission.org/

Pro-​​Life Activ­i­ties— var­i­ous pro-​​life resources from the U.S. Con­fer­ence of Catholic Bish­ops: http://www.usccb.org/prolife/

National Dis­abled Stu­dents Union:  http://www.disabledstudents.org/

Spe­cial Olympics:  http://www.specialolympics.org/

Chil­dren with Dis­abil­i­ties:  http://www.childrenwithdisabilities.ncjrs.org/