Abp. Chaput: "de Lubac knew that optimism and hope are very different creatures."

From the opening of an essay, "Disability: A Thread for Weaving Joy", by Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., adapted from an address delivered this past weekend at the Cardinal O'Connor Conference on Life:

The great French Jesuit Henri de Lubac once wrote, "Suffering is the thread from which the stuff of joy is woven. Never will the optimist know joy." Those seem like strange words, especially for Americans. We Americans take progress as an article of faith. And faith in progress demands a spirit of optimism.

But Father de Lubac knew that optimism and hope are very different creatures. In real life, bad things happen. Progress is not assured, and things that claim to be "progress" can sometimes be wicked and murderous instead. We can slip backward as a nation just as easily as we can advance. This is why optimism—and all the political slogans that go with it—are so often a cheat. Real hope and real joy are precious. They have a price. They emerge from the experience of suffering, which is made noble and given meaning by faith in a loving God.

A number of my friends have children with disabilities. Their problems range from cerebral palsy to Turner's syndrome to Trisomy 18, which is extremely serious. But I want to focus on one fairly common genetic disability to make my point. I'm referring to Trisomy 21, or Down syndrome.

Down syndrome is not a disease. It's a genetic disorder with a variety of symptoms. Therapy can ease the burden of those symptoms, but Down syndrome is permanent. There's no cure. People with Down syndrome have mild to moderate developmental delays. They have low to middling cognitive function. They also tend to have a uniquely Down syndrome "look"—a flat facial profile, almond-shaped eyes, a small nose, short neck, thick stature, and a small mouth which often causes the tongue to protrude and interferes with clear speech. People with Down syndrome also tend to have low muscle tone. This can affect their posture, breathing, and speech.

Read the entire piece on the Public Discourse site.

The de Lubac quote is from the volume, Paradoxes of Faith (Ignatius Press, 1987; orig. 1948), a "collection of profound aphorisms and reflections that are the fruit of de Lubac's study over the course of his life on the themes of Christianity. They are rich and thought-provoking gems, spiritual aphorisms, and meditative reflections that express the freshness, and tensions of the spiritual life." Both it and the collection, More Paradoxes, are nice introductions to the depth and breadth of de Lubac's thought.