Hope in a smile

A special program for severely disabled children in the Holy Land brings Jewish and Arab families together in a spirit of love and cooperation. As Tracey McClure discovers, the care of a group of Catholic sisters lights smiles on little faces and warms the hearts of age-old enemies….

TM:It was some two thousand years ago in a small village nestled in the hills west of Jerusalem –that two women met, their bellies swollen with new life- filled with a new hope for all mankind.

Gospel of Luke: “Mary set out at that time and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elisabeth”

In his Gospel, St. Luke tells us Mary hastened to the hill country of Judah – today the town of Ain Karem – to be with her cousin, Elisabeth who in her old age was with child…

Gospel of Luke: “now as soon as Elisabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child lept in her womb and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, ‘of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.’”

Not long after that encounter, Mary gave birth to the Lord Jesus in Bethlehem. Elisabeth gave birth to St. John in the village of Ain Karem.

Today, churches recalling the birthplace and desert wanderings of St. John the Baptist and a mosque dot the hillsides of Ain Karem - but few, if any, Arab Christians or Muslims live there. The land fell to the new state of Israel in the war of 1948.

But the Christian witness of these two mothers to life, love and sacrifice lives on today in a small community of Catholic sisters in Ain Karem who care for disabled Arab and Jewish children – bridging the bitterness and hatred of decades of conflict.

The Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul run a special home for physically and mentally disabled children in Ain Karem. The sisters, with an international team of volunteers, care for 60-70 children from the Jerusalem area but also from Arab Bedouin areas like Beit Sheba. Here, in the sisters’ loving care, Arab and Jewish families support and comfort each other in their grief and work in unison to defend their children’s rights and dignity.

Sr. Susan Sheehan is one of five sisters and dozens of volunteers who parent the children in Ain Karem. Their children are so severely handicapped that many cannot raise their heads much less walk or even eat by themselves. Theirs are children who many people today would say have no reason to live or should die because they are a burden on society. But to Sr. Susan and her team, these little lives are no burden. Her quandary is simply: can she do enough for them?

Listen as Tracey McClure tells her story: