I work for L’Arche, an international network that brings together people with and without intellectual disabilities to live in community with one another.

There’s an old L’Arche story from the 1980s about a person with a disability named Jean Claude. Jean Claude and some friends from his community in France were visiting the Holy Land on pilgrimage. They were to land in Tel Aviv. At the time tensions were high, so there were many armed guards at the airport. As the L’Arche friends got off the plane onto the tarmac, Jean Claude started walking towards the armed guards.

The caretakers with him were extremely nervous because they saw the big machine guns. They were worried about what would happen.

Nonetheless, Jean Claude ran towards one of the guards, and when he got close, he pushed the gun aside and extended his hand in greeting.

The assistants saw the guard’s gun and were afraid. Jean Claude saw the guard’s humanity and wanted to be his friend.

By Tim Moore from D365