Pastoral Relationship with People with Intellectual ... - Theses

59question of inclusion in the human family, then, is not a matter ofexpressed functional capacities, but descent by birth. 106Similarly to Augustine, Thomas Aquinas upholds that all human beingsare born in the image of God. All are whole in terms of their created soul, and intheir essential aptitude for knowledge and love of God. 107For Aquinas, the rationality of the human being is not derived fromindividual cognitive capacity. The soul’s rationality is located in the image ofGod in the human being. 108Within his ‘theology of bodily weakness’ Aquinas does not see cognitiveimpairment impeding a person’s capacity for relationship with God. In Christ,restorative grace is received by baptism, through which all are made members ofthe Body of Christ. Through this all human beings find hope in the promise ofbodily resurrection. 109Christian ethicist Amy Hall describes Julian of Norwich as “... intensifyingand maternalizing ... the account of grace of Thomas Aquinas, by describingChrist’s blood as that which feeds, nourishes, joins, and transforms us.” 110Writing as a woman amidst a highly patriarchal society, and as one who soughtwhat may be termed today as a ‘disability identity’ with the suffering Jesus, shediscovers Christ’s heart for the poor and the outcast. 111 Through the example ofChrist’s Passion, “ ‘we should bear our sufferings gladly and lightly ...’ ” 112 Suchidentity suggests that it is through the suffering of the needy that they, rather thanthe powerful, who receive the greatest mercy. 113For some, the legendary story of reformer Martin Luther suggesting atwelve-year-old boy from Dessau, presumed to be suffering with Prader-WilliSyndrome, should be suffocated, raises the question of what benefit he can106 ibid., 72.107 Romero, Miguel. "Aquinas on the Corporis Infirmitas: Broken Flesh and the Grammar ofGrace." In Disability in the Christian Tradition: A Reader, edited by Brian Brock and JohnSwinton, 101-51. Grand Rapids & Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company,2012,, 103.108 ibid., 105.109 ibid., 123.110 Hall, Amy. "A Ravishing and Restful Sight: Seeing with Julian of Norwich." In Disabilityin the Christian Tradition: A Reader, edited by Brian Brock and John Swinton, 152-215.Grand Rapids & Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2012, 154.111 Brock, "Introduction,” 14.112 Hall. "A Ravishing and Restful Sight,” 182. Here, the author is citing Julian in Revelationsof Divine Love.113 ibid., 159.