DLT eBook Club - How The Bible Can Help Us Understand.

Illness, Disability and Caring

By Bernadette Meaden

DAY THREE

Hello, and welcome to the latest instalment of the DLT eBook Club, a virtual book study group from Darton, Longman and Todd designed to help us connect, interact, read and reflect together during this time of social distancing and self-isolation.

This week’s featured book is Illness, Caring and Disability by Bernadette Meaden, the latest release in our How the Bible Can Help Us Understand series. Bernadette has selected a short extract from her book for each day of this week, from Monday to Friday, and added some questions at the end to prompt further reflection and discussion.

Please feel free to post your thoughts in response to each day’s extract in the comments below, or where we have posted the link on Facebook (@dltbooks) and Twitter (@dlt_books).

It is not essential to have read the full book in order to take part in the DLT eBook Club, but we hope it might make you want to do so. Look out also for our new eBook site, www.dltebooks.com, from where you can buy this week’s featured book and many others, all at half price until further notice.

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How the Bible Can Help Us Understand: Illness, Caring and Disability by Bernadette Meaden will be released in print in the summer, but you can download the eBook now from DLT, or from Amazon for Kindle.

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Day Three

Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, ‘We have seen the Lord,’ but he answered, ‘Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails and put my finger in the mark of the nails, and my hand into his side, I will not believe.’ Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were closed, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas replied, ‘My Lord and my God!’   

John 20:24-29

When Thomas wanted proof that Jesus was who he said he was, he did not ask Jesus to perform a miracle and show his power. It was the marks of suffering which Thomas accepted as proof of Jesus’s authenticity, and thus his authority. In our ordinary lives we too can find that when people have been through suffering it makes them more qualified to speak on certain subjects, and so in a sense gives them more authority. 

Bill Braviner is a vicar in the Church of England who has struggled with significant anxiety and depression. In a book he co-authored, Pilgrims in the Dark, he writes that one of the things which helped him when he was at a very low point in his life was watching the film The Passion of the Christ.

One Easter Saturday, when he was too ill to attend a church service, Bill took the DVD down from the shelf and started to watch. He found himself weeping as he saw Jesus being rejected and mocked, feeling a profound sense of connection with his suffering. Then, in the brief resurrection scene, he saw, and really appreciated for the first time, that the risen Jesus still bore his wounds. Something began to change for him, and over a period of weeks he continued to think about the film.

Bill writes:

I knew that watching The Passion of the Christ had been significant, and that there was something profound in that very short resurrection scene. It was when I was reading some of the gospel passages about Jesus’ resurrection appearances that realisation dawned regarding what was so significant: it was that Jesus was risen with his wounds. To be wounded, damaged, scarred, beaten up by life – these were things Jesus took into his resurrection, into the heart of God. Suddenly, something in my heart and head went ‘bang!’ and I realised I was acceptable. I realised that this great failing of mine, this crumbling and falling and woundedness, this anxiety and depression and mental dis-ease, this was all stuff that Jesus had wrapped up into that resurrection, and I needn’t  be ashamed of these wounds, or fearful of them. I could bear them in resurrection life. That was profoundly healing.  

Bill remains a vicar and is now disability officer for Durham diocese. Together with two friends he went on to found the group ‘Disability and Jesus’, which aims to ensure that people with an illness or disability are not only accepted or included in the church but are welcomed into positions of influence and leadership. Their motto is ‘A church without disabled people is a disabled church’ as they feel strongly that the churches are currently missing out on the gifts of many people with experience of illness and disability. The other co-founders of the group are Dave Lucas, an access auditor and low-vision awareness trainer who is himself blind, and Katie Tupling, who has cerebral palsy, is vicar of two parishes in the Sheffield Diocese and is also the diocesan disability officer. Bill, Dave and Katie can speak with authority on matters of disability, because of their experience.

When this authority is disregarded or simply overlooked, preventable problems inevitably occur. For instance, when the design for a new memorial to the Peterloo Massacre was unveiled in Manchester, wheelchair users and others with mobility problems were shocked. The design was of a mound or hill with concentric steps, which people can walk up to a flat top. The intention was that it would be a communal space, people could climb, stand, and sit on it together. But that would not be possible for many disabled people, as there was no disabled access. A monument to people who had suffered and died struggling for democracy and basic rights had been designed in a way that excluded a section of the population which is still struggling for equality. Immediately there were protests, the designer was sincerely apologetic and promised a redesign. But how much better could it have been if disabled people had been consulted from the start? If the designers had tapped into the authority of disabled people, the problem could have been avoided. And of course, while this was a highly symbolic project, it was not going to have a major impact on anyone’s quality of life. When housing, public buildings and transport infrastructure are designed without the authoritative input of disabled people, the results can be seriously detrimental.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown, many people now have more experience of difficulties and frustrations. Do you think we will learn from this experience? Do you want the world and the UK to go back to ‘normal’ or would you like to see changes – and if so, what changes would you like to see?

ALSO AVAILABLE IN THE SERIES

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