February is the month when we remember the sick and all those living with disabilities, and this year we want to draw inspiration from a woman who did not let herself be held back by what seemed like a difficult fate: Margaret of Città di Castello.
The saint was born in Metola (PU) blind, with spinal problems and a shorter right leg. Her parents took her to Città di Castello, to the tomb of a friar who had died in the reputation of sanctity, to ask for a miracle, but when the girl was not healed, they left her there… This would be only the first of many abandonments and rejections awaiting her.
And yet Margaret is a saint. An example of Christian life for all God’s people.
How could a “discard” of society become an example to follow?
Margaret’s life is full of twists and unexpected events, but the common thread linking them all is made of love, acceptance and service.
Destined to live on the margins of society and history, Margaret developed, through faith, a wisdom that enabled her to know God in depth.
The Middle Ages in which Margaret lived were different from those we are accustomed to imagining; they were capable of transforming a disabled woman into a representative figure of an ecclesial and civil community and of remembering her among its illustrious citizens.
Margaret fulfilled herself because she loved God wholeheartedly; she endured her impairments not with resignation, but with love; she followed Jesus, carrying her extremely heavy cross each day and becoming ever more like him.
Margaret loved the Crucified Christ and, consequently, those crucified like her. She was able to absorb life’s blows and, allowing herself to be loved by the Father and embracing Jesus crucified, she loved, comforted and helped, as she knew and was able, all those who, wounded like her in body or heart, needed her.
Margaret teaches that disability and illness do not prevent us from loving, from being loved, or from the possibility of doing good and living life to the fullest.
In disability, including disability and illness, there is a calling to be discovered in order to make life a masterpiece.
With Margaret, we can say that the only true disability that can undermine the possibility of discovering the beauty of life is that of a heart closed in on itself: “In a historical context such as ours, where ‘winning’ models linked to beauty, health, wealth and power dominate, the image of Margaret, a ‘loser’ in the eyes of the world, breaks away from established standards to evoke an inverted system of values, where the dignity of the person, of every person, whether poor, sick or disabled, comes first” (Pope Francis).
