Some people come into the world just to teach us how to be more human.
"I truly believe that the handicapped and mentally challenged people around us are all angels sent from heaven to help show us the way here on Earth."
A gal in my parish is the grandmother of a child whose parents knew he would be born born with multiple disablities. She has helped her daughter and son-in-law in every possible way taking care of this grand-son. He is now 20, by the way, though the grandmother knows she will still probably outlive this frail-but-tough, pitiable but mighty-fine boy.
She says that he (Raymond) has also become the nucleus of a small but valiant, crying, laughing, caring community. She wonders out loud if that's what such children are "for": to serve as the nuclei of caring communities.
She also said to me, "When society looks at a sonogram of a baby with a genetic disease, the real question is not 'Is he really human in every sense of the word?' but 'Are we?'"