Disabled Student Reaches Harvard November 2003Joe Ford is a sophomore at Harvard, one of the top universities in the country. Only 10% of all applicants make it into Harvard. As you will read, Joe's odds were much tougher. This lesson will demonstrate how the virtue of perseverance prepared Joe for success and how the virtue of love inspired his family to help him achieve it. Part I: Joe's Perseverance.When Joe was born on September 5, 1983, the doctors gave him a 1% chance of living. A lack of oxygen during birth caused excessive brain damage. Diagnosed with quadriplegic cerebral palsy, Joe lacks control of most of his muscles. He received his first wheelchair before he was two years old. Joe has always tried hard to apply the talents that God gave him. Despite his physical limitations, Joe has the heart of a lion. While most kids with severe disabilities attended special-needs schools, Joe worked to earn a place at a challenging Language Arts Academy. In high school, he obtained an internship at a law firm, doing research on disability law. This gave him the desire to attend college and possibly pursue a career in law. He set his sights on Harvard, and studied hard enough to make it, scoring higher than 95% of all high school seniors on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Every day, Joe faces new challenges, but he never gives up. We all know how difficult learning can be sometimes; but imagine the incredible challenge of learning if you could not hold a pencil or type on a keyboard! This is the harsh reality for Joe, whose lack of muscle control makes such basic tasks extremely difficult. Last year, Joe spent nine hours taking a philosophy exam at Harvard that other students completed in three hours. Sometimes we might prefer to have others do things for us, especially things we don't really want to do ourselves. Sometimes we are convinced that a challenge before us is just too hard. When discouraged, we can think Joe and his challenges. For Joe, even the simplest task, like buttoning a shirt or tying a shoe, is very difficult. In order to function, he must practice perseverance , the habit of trying hard despite obstacles. Persevering does not mean that we always succeed, but that we always try our best, even through obstacles. Part II: Family Love Brings Out the Best in UsJoe's amazing perseverance is in part the result of his own will to succeed; but it is also the fruit of his family's generous outpouring of love. Joe's brothers and sisters often carried him on their backs, or brought him in a wagon to play with friends. They changed the rules of games like baseball to allow Joe to participate, even allowing him to crawl to first base. Joe's brother Michael taught him how to play chess, and now Joe is an excellent player. Another of Joe's brothers, Liam, believes that by being included in so many of the family's activities, Joe has developed the self-confidence to participate in regular activities like anyone else. The Ford family provides a beautiful example of unconditional love. Joe's family put his needs before their own because of their great love for him. Christ calls us to show this kind of love to everyone we meet, especially to those in need. This show of love does not happen automatically. Like any great virtue, charity does not happen just by making a decision once, but by actions that are done many times. Charity is a decision that has to be constantly renewed and put into practice. We would all like to become a great basketball player by practicing only once, but we know it doesn't happen that way. Like greatness in sports, charity takes constant practice. We get better at it with effort. The family is a perfect arena for practicing charity. It is the first school of demanding, unconditional love that brings out the best in us. Family life teaches us to be unselfish and respectful of each person's dignity. True joy in a family comes from working together as a team. Pope John Paul II reminds us that " to maintain a joyful family requires much from both the parents and the children. Each member of the family has to become, in a special way, the servant of the others." The more we help our family, the better we can help others in need. Compassion Before we can help anyone in need, we must place ourselves in his or her situation. Understanding someone else's troubles with a desire to help them is the virtue of compassion . We are inspired to be compassionate by remembering that God made us in his own image and likeness (Gen. 1:26). We are all united to God with a special dignity and love. God's love for us is so great that he came to earth, in the person Jesus Christ, to share in our suffering. "He took upon himself our infirmities, he bore our sickness" (Mt 8:17; Is 53:4). Christ understands every hardship that we experience. We should think about others' hardships as well. At first, Joe's family did not know how to help him. His mother held fast to the hope that he would get better. Refusing to believe what the doctors told her about Joe's condition, she brought him to physical therapy, swimming lessons, and even horseback riding lessons so that his physical abilities could improve. Realizing that Joe likely would not be cured, his mother then shifted her focus to helping Joe live a fulfilling life with his disabilities. She worked hard to help him develop the abilities that God had given him. Once she understood his situation, she could better help him. Our parents' love for us lets them see greatness in us that we do not even see ourselves. Their love comes from God, who has given us all a potential for greatness through the sacrament of baptism. God sees a potential saint, a potential hero, in each of us. Christ believed in our greatness even when we were crippled by sin. He died for us to bring out the saint and hero in each one of us. We become this hero when we, like Christ, help bring out the best in others. Joe struggles with his disability just as we all struggle with our own imperfections. Those who are physically or mentally disabled serve as a visible sign of our duties to one another. Such people are rich in humanity and deserving of all the dignity and love that we hope for. Disability is not a punishment; it is a privilege, which God allows as an opportunity for us to love one another as he loves us.
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