Bhaire (AsiaNews) – Beth-Beth Lehem, a home for people with mental disabilities in the southern state of Karnataka, is looking forward to the birth of the Baby Jesus “with hope and trepidation”. This is what Fr Salvador Gomes Coutinho, its founder, told AsiaNews: “This is a home for mentally challenged people but above all it is a place where the suffering ofBethanyends and the healing ofBethlehembegins”.
Fr Coutinho said: “This small house is not too different from the manger where Christ was born. It is made of bamboo and has few rooms, just what is needed. The bath facilities are outside. Without a doubt, our best room is the small chapel blessed on 3 December by the bishop of Karwar, Mgr William D’Mello.”
Every morning, the five house residents – Javed, 21, Raju, 13, Kalpesh, 15, Salim, 14 and Pandit, 64 – go to the chapel to pray. Here, “they listen to a story of the history of salvation. Then, throughout the day, they discuss the story and each one finds echoes of his life there.”After evening prayers, “the story, which has become part of their day, is performed: they can’t wait formidnightmass, when they will be part of a live crib.”
In the smallvillageofKarwar, where the house is situated, these five people “have lived the story of Christmas, right from the beginning, when there was ‘no room at the inn’ for them. All were abandoned by their families or sent away from institutions and other places where they lived.”
On 11 December, Fr Coutinho told them the story about the star that led the men to the stable. Javed, in tears, said: “Father, that star was very similar to the one that brought me to this house. I will make an enormous star that may lead others like me to this place.”
In the afternoon, they went to the forest to cut bamboo trees to create a big star. Each wanted to cut his own that he then brought back to the house.
In the house of Beth-Beth Lehem “we try to tend to and look after our residents but above all, we teach them to face the challenges of today’s society. Christmas is a time full of love and hope and their journey towards health may start and finish here.”
