Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
We Remain Human

We Remain Human

Last updated on: October 11, 2017 at 3:31 pm by Mary Pezzulo

We Remain Human 2017-10-11T15:31:31-04:00 Mary Pezzulo

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

cosmetics-1063134_640

My friend Anna is beautiful. She’s always posting selfies of her new makeup experiments– makeup is her hobby. Nobody needs makeup to be beautiful, but Anna knows how to look beautiful in makeup. She coordinates different vibrant lip and eye colors to match her whimsical clothes; she recently dyed her hair purple for even more color. She’s got a whole album of selfies on her facebook, posing with different combinations of lipstick and eyeshadow, a whole gallery of rainbow-adorned faces with bright hair.

Awhile back, she posted a selfie while breastfeeding her son on the toilet.

Anna has Chron’s disease, an autoimmune condition that inflames and scars the digestive tract. She’s in pain most of the time; her children are used to toddling into the bathroom to be nursed, because she spends so much of the day in there. Her condition also causes fatigue and mental health symptoms, among other things. Weeks ago, she was in the hospital with possible sepsis. Right now she’s surviving on painkillers because the insurance company has forced her to delay her intravenous medication.

Makeup is one of the ways she copes. It’s something to do for fun when she’s sick, and something that shows her that her body is beautiful.

Last month, Anna mailed me a box of makeup for my own. She included a note. “Chronic illness sucks, but hopefully this will make it a little easier.”

And it does. On bad CFS and Fibro days, I like to take a bath and put on a full face of makeup that matches my pajamas. I take a selfie before I go back to bed. My pillow is covered in smudges, but I feel beautiful.

The other day, another friend of mine, Matt, posted a selfie of his own, on a hand-pedaled recumbent bike. Matt has Friedrich’s ataxia. It’s a rare, hereditary disease that damages the nervous system while leaving the cognitive functions intact. Right now there’s no cure. Friedrich’s Ataxia has robbed him of his ability to walk. He has to speak carefully to be understood. Worse things could happen down the road; FA can destroy the sense of hearing or sight. But I don’t like to think about that. He’s one of the funniest and most joyful people I know. I don’t want to think of things being harder for him than they are.

“For too long I have been ashamed of any pictures that make me ‘look handicapped,'” he said. “Only by saying Voldemort’s name can he lose his power…this is me trying to stay active on my recumbent hand-cycle.”

Here I’ve been afraid to even think about Matt’s condition, as if thinking too hard would summon Voldemort, but Matt’s been posting pictures and saying its name.

The most frightening thing about people, is that we break. Our bodies break. It may not have happened to you, yet, but it will. I’ve heard someone describe the human person as “A ghost piloting a meat-covered skeleton.” The reality is far worse than a meat-covered skeleton. It feels more like we’re ghosts piloting a diverse array of eccentric-looking spacecrafts each performing a slow-motion self-destruct. Our ships are falling apart. Someday, they’re going to die completely and eject our naked ghosts into space. For now, though, we’re trapped inside, and it hurts. Bodies hurt. For some of us, bodies hurt all the time. For some, bodies slow down to comical speeds, or walk with a humiliating gait. Some can’t walk at all. Immune systems go haywire and start eating healthy tissue. Joints swell up. Brains don’t function as they should. Senses shut down. We break.

The most beautiful thing about people, is that we remain human when we break. We breastfeed on the toilet in horrible pain. We say the name of our terrifying condition and we find a bike we can ride. We leave makeup smears on pillows. We reach out to one another. We share selfies, and compliment each other. We comfort and encourage our sick friends. We send packages and notes. We paint rainbows on our faces to remind ourselves that we are beautiful.

And we are beautiful.

We are so much more than ghosts in disintegrating vessels. We’re people– spirits embodied, creatures of the fallen earth with the icon of Heaven stamped onto our being. I don’t think God meant us to suffer as we do, but somehow it came to pass anyway. And so He filled suffering with His grace. In our pain, in our disability, in our conditions we’re afraid to even name, we are filled with grace. I see the icons of Christ– the courage, the endurance, the self-sacrifice of Christ– more clearly in my disabled or chronically ill friends than I do in anyone else.

We break, and we remain human.

This is a mystery I could ponder forever.

chronic fatigue syndrome

Previous Post

October 10, 2017

A Reader Asks: Is the Eucharist Cannibalism?

Next Post

October 13, 2017 Everyone's Talking About NFP: Are You Listening?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion Abuse Advent America American Christianity angel angels Annunciation Appalachia apparition apparition chaser apparition chasers apparition culture art art review babies baby baby Jesus Bad Lip Reading bad statue contest bath beauty Bible story blog blogkeeping blood book review Brandon Sanderson breastfeeding bus Catholic catholic conspiracy alarmism Catholic Oppositional Disorder Charismatic Renewal Charlie the Cat chastity Christ Christian idenitity Christianity and Judaism Chronic Illness clean clothing COD piece comedy compassion conscience conspiracy theory conversion cop-on-black violence Crucifixion cry of the poor culture Daesh Daily Saints death death penalty devotional diaconate diaper diapers dirty disability Donald Trump Dorothy Day dream drugs Eastern Catholicism Eastern Christianity education election election update Elsewhere on Patheos empathy environment Fear feminism film review fish flashback fluffy buns food Franciscan University of Steubenville Friendship Room fun Gabriel gardening gospel hair-splitting Heaven hell heresy Hillary Clinton history Holly the Witch Holy Spirit holy war Homeschooling homosexuality horror human dignity humor Icon idol immigrants infection inter-religious dialogue Interpretation of Scripture Islam Jesus Jihad Joseph joy laity and lay vocations lamb dinner laundry lent lgbtq literature love manners Mary Medicine and Science Meditation mercy mess milk misogyny Missouri monasticism monster motherhood mourn with those mourn movies movis music mystery nature neurodiversity New Pro-Life Movement news nonsense nostalgia O antiphons obituary objectification Ohio Valley Ordinary Time ordination Ordo Amoris parable paradox Passover peanut butter personal beliefs pets philosophy Planet Charismatic poetry politics polls poop Pope Francis Pope Leo power in the Church prayer prayer request prayers preferential option for non-violence president presidential election priest primary private revelation pro-life prophecy Public face of Catholicism Pure Flix Q and A race racism random rape rape. sexuality reader's request Reckoners refugee religious trauma ressurrection Right to life Saints saints and celebrations same-sex same-sex marriage satire scandal secular feasts seder Seven Joys Seven Last Words sex sexual ethics sexuality silencing six months skid row slavery social justice Speculative fiction spiritual abuse spoon stain story suffering suffrage suffragette Sunday Gospel temple Tenebrae Responsories Terror the exorcist The Friendship Room The New Pro-Life Movement Things I Learned on the Internet tin cup traffic true story tv review Uncategorized USCCB vice and temptation violence Virtue virtue and vice war Way of the Cross whimsy whole life women's ordination work of mercy Year A

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was the oldest person in the Bible?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Abraham Methuselah Adam Noah