Disability

Discussion Overview:

Faced with a man who had been blind from birth, the disciples ask Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned this man or his parents, that he should have been born blind?” (John 9.2) The disciples see sin as the cause of blindness, the cause of disability.

“’Neither he nor his parents sinned’, Jesus answered, ‘he was born blind so that the works of God might be revealed in him’” (Jn. 9.3). These words of Jesus reveal that disability and embodiment are a fertile field for theological, philosophical, and anthropological reflections concerning human dignity.

This is what Fr. Lambert Nieme and Professor Patrick Devlieger, from Louvain in Belgium, will address. They will examine not only the way Jesus faces disability but also the ethical implications of His actions toward those who live with disability. Is human dignity different by nature for people if they are disabled? It is one of the questions that guide the discussion.