Christian Care of the 'Retarded'

By Stanley M. Hauerwas

"The retarded are the sign that all men have significance beyond what they can be for us-our friend, our playmate, our brother; each of us is precious and significant because his being is grounded in God's care. The retarded, the poor, the sick, are particularly intense forms of Gods call to every man through the other. God calls us to regard each other as significant as we each exist in him, as we are each God's gift to the other." The presence and necessary care of the retarded raise harder and deeper problems than the optimism necessary to sustain any humanism can entertain. These harder questions were best articulated for me by a young man through a song he sang during the reception of the eucharist at the University of Notre Dame. He bad written the song after a friend had shared his agony about learning to live with a retarded brother. It goes like this:

(For Rick)
I.I have a brother, forgotten child
I ask myself why? I get no answers.
Does anyone know, in God's name,
why Some are retarded?

Refrain
Give me strength to face the madness.
To be able to say there was some purpose.
Give me strength to face the madness.
Why? No it's happened.Why? No it's happened.

II.He's older than I,
I've always thought
We should have grown up together
Playing baseball, going swimming
Enjoying summer, like other brothers.

III. He does not know me, he can say nothing.
I have no reasons, but I love him.
We could have been friends, learned together
I only ask, where is he?
(Steve Campbell)

We are seldom able to ask the questions raised by this song; they remind us too much of the fragility and ambiguity of our existence.



Editor's note:
This article was written in the 1970's. Its language is of an another erea and some of the words are harsh to our ears. I am sure Prof. Hauerwas meant no indignity or undue disrepect by them but they do reflect the mind of the time, a mind that we are striving to overcome. We have come a long way but we have a million miles to travel still.

The rest of this essay can be accesssed here, Stanley M. Hauerwas