Pastoral Relationship with People with Intellectual ... - Theses

211It may be all these things, or possibly something else altogether simpler,or more profound.I simply do not know, and I never will. And perhaps if the likes of Barry,Angela, Eileen, Nicole, Mario, Janet, Rodney and Howard could articulate clearlythey may not be able to tell me because their experience is beyond words, or toopersonal. But there are questions I feel compelled to consider.Does my reliance on the value of words, their power to communicate,inhibit me from appreciating the power of communication through less cerebralforms? Am I thus limited in my capacity to accept the power of ritual action andsymbol to speak deeply to one’s soul and spirit?To what extent has my Protestant faith tradition, which highly values the(spoken) Word of God and which historically has sometimes regarded physicalsymbols as idols, caused me to undermine the ritual means of worship that thesepeople appear to value highly? I have been taught to preach, to convey a messagethat evokes a rationally-conceived response and outcome. This could well preventme from valuing the experience of worship through symbol and ritual wheremeaning and value can be observed to act upon people at a spiritual levelcompletely apart from rationally-preconceived outcomes.And what of the God who reaches out to and expresses love to thesepeople through the sacrament of communion, who defines worth in terms ofunconditional acceptance, not intellectual achievement. Indeed, this sacramentand the God who is worshipped and received through it, define worth not in termsof human aspiration or merit, but in terms of a God who affirms their createdvalue solely and wholly in terms of being made in the image of God.I also see this sacrament and the nature of its reception, describing a holyGod who is not received as proposition or dogma, but who is accepted asmystery, awe, beyond understanding. 560 The people with intellectual impairmentwho have received this sacrament this day are not concerned with the truths ofthe sacramental theology espoused through the Communion liturgy. They arehere to embrace the import of the sacramental moment and to absorb the momentwith the human faculties at their disposal.560 Steere, David. Spiritual Presence in Psychotherapy: A Guide for Caregivers. (New York& London: Brunner-Routledge, 1997), 179-183.