Pastoral Relationship with People with Intellectual ... - Theses

201The biblical and faith-based concept of ‘love of neighbour’ or, as Volffrom a liberationist perspective uniquely describes it, ‘Embrace’, 534undergirded by the suffering and crucified God. This God’s own intrinsic naturecalls us into community and unity with the excluded and oppressed by the givingof one’s self to the other. 535 From this theological perspective the act of genuinepastoral engagement with those who live with intellectual disabilities ininstitutions can be regarded as an act of community-making. Through the beingand the action of the giving of pastoral care to these people, expressed throughthe God-given love of neighbour, a sense of community, albeit imperfectlyexpressed, is present.Such an action of community-making requires commitment which ofitself derives from Jesus’ giving of himself to humanity expressed through hisincarnation, death and resurrection. Indeed the action of offering care to anotherreveals the incarnate reality of Jesus. As Segundo asserts, “Jesus seems to go sofar as to suggest that one cannot recognise Christ, and therefore come to knowGod, unless he or she is willing to start with a personal commitment to theoppressed." 536 This is essential to a pastorally-based theological understanding.The Word of God is revealed through lived, contextualised experience.In advocating for the force of a liberationist understanding of communitybeing absorbed into the Western ecclesial context Campbell asserts the need for aradically impartial interpretation of the Christian ethic of ‘love of neighbour.’ Heasserts,The truly unsettling aspects of this dimension of formation forpastoral care are as yet only to be guessed at, but they will befound when pastoral care rediscovers its communal identity and itsethical challenge to all human institutions. 537isFor Campbell, the ‘unsettling aspects’ referred to concern a fearlesspastoral vulnerability in which there is an unambiguous commitment to engagingin the fragility of life, including in the institutional context. 538534 Volf, Exclusion and Embrace.535 ibid., 47.536 Segundo, The Liberation of Theology, 81.537 Campbell, Professionalism and Pastoral Care, 94.538 ibid., 89.