Living with AIDS

Greetings,

December 1 was World AIDS Day

In our Advent Wreath opening prayer we said in part:

“on this World AIDS Day,

as we light a candle in the evergreen circle of life,

we are reminded, as well,

of another circle—the “circle of friends” that supports,

with love and caretaking, those struggling with HIV/AIDS.

Bless us as we light this candle, a reminder of the coming of Christ;

Bless also the caretakers, family members and companions

who are the embodiment of Christ’s love

in the midst of a pandemic.”

Every year at this time I cannot help but think of all of my friends and acquaintances who are HIV positive, who have AIDS or who have died.  I remember the Johns Hopkins seminar so many years ago where a clergy friend described the death of his daughter from AIDS - the first real contact I had with the disease.  I remember my first AIDS funeral - a beloved church musician whom none of the congregation knew to be gay.  I remember in the early days, when fear was still the norm, the dying gay bar owner who in his hospital bed a few days before his death cried that for months he had not felt the touch of human flesh - only rubber and latex gloves.  Holding his hand in my ungloved hand, rubbing his arm, wiping the tears from his eyes may have been one of the most important things I have ever had the privilege of doing.  I remember going to a home and sitting with someone as he got his blood test report - Positive for HIV.  He collapsed in my lap and I held him like a baby as he cried for the better part of an hour.  (I actually thought of the long gone years when I held Brenda this way.)  I remember that one of his most anguished cries was that the members of his church would now  “think I’m a bad person, but I’m not.” 

As the funerals pile up, as virtually every family comes under the shadow of this death, many people with extensive and expensive medications are able to live longer with the disease.  For a while the increase in new cases declined, but it is now on the rise again in this country.  A new generation of young people has grown up, becoming sexually active, using illicit drugs/needles, that does not know the terrible impact AIDS had upon our county in the 1980s.  Despite the education efforts (failures) at schools, they do not grasp the reality that “safe sex” - practicing some form of birth control, does not prevent sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS.  As the disease spreads around the world, especially in Africa, and now in China, the numbers dying daily are truly horrible. 

So, I found myself at another AIDS Day, with only limited hope—the researchers tell us a “cure” is on the way, but even if the magic bullet is found, who will be able to afford it, here, much less in the Third World.  Actually all I have is faith that in God’s mercy and our determined, increased efforts the cure will come for all people.  And faith that by God’s grace, those who struggle as victims and care givers will find their needed strength and peace.

These thoughts lead me to today’s Advent meditation, a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier.

The Joy of Giving

Somehow, not only for Christmas

But all the long year through,

The joy that you give to others

Is the joy that comes back to you;

And the more you spend in blessing

The poor and lonely and sad,

The more of your heart’s possessing

Returns to make you glad.

Yours & His,

DED