Well today is World Aids Day according to the BBC website ‘The number of new cases of HIV in Northern Ireland rose by 20% last year’ and shows no sign of dying down. Approximately two people are diagnosed with HIV in Northern Ireland every week .... 104 people a year .... these are real people who are living and working around us, yet they largely go unnoticed.
In July this year I found out about two friends who had contracted HIV. One I found out about through chatting on Facebook one evening and the other I was in a doctors surgery with a friend as he heard the news. In the later, I witnessed the pain and the hurt first hand, I remember the tears streaming down his face as he realized he would have to go home and tell his family, that he would have to inform his partner and that ultimately he would have to put some of his career plans on hold. It was in that doctors waiting room that I came face-to-face with the reality of HIV Aids. Suddenly this wasn’t just something happening to children in the Third World, but it was happening to my friend.
There is still a large stigma around HIV in society today. One thinks backs to the days when Princess Diana first stepped out to show compassion and care to those suffering with the disease, the shock and the horror, the reaction as to whether or not the Princess of Wales should be doing such a thing - yet in those moments of meeting the sufferer and simply talking to them Diana transcended the cultural and society norms and was just there with people. Surely we as the church should be doing the same, reaching out to people whatever they are coming to terms with. Not locking ourselves away behind the gates being afraid to get are hands dirty or getting messy - but just be out there doing the Jesus thing with the people around us.
What can we do to change perception?? Well it begins by wearing a ribbon .... can lead to donating money, praying for a cure or even working with those who are directly affected.
Today let us as individuals and as a church say that we are HIV positive in terms of seeking an end to suffering.
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