Global Pandemics and Hope

 Nine years ago on World AIDS Day, I wrote these words:

The world was frightened by an epidemic that was spreading quickly.

We watched as science tried to keep pace with a disease we couldn't control.

April 22, 1984, the CDC's Dr. Mason reported, "I believe we have the cause of AIDS." The very next day, the US Health & Human Services Secretary reported, "We hope to have a vaccine ready for testing in about 2 years."

As we all know, it wasn't that simple.

It still isn't.

Nine years ago today I didn't know the word Pandemic.  I didn't know how it was different from Epidemic.

Oh how times have changed! 

This is the first pandemic to impact many of us. 

But it isn't truly the first pandemic of our lifetimes.

Several someones I know have HIV.  I would be willing to bet someone you know does, too.  It took decades of research and death before we learned how to slow it down.  There was no vaccine in the promised 2 years.  There is still no vaccine for a disease that is almost 40 years old.

My beloved HIV positive people and their loved ones spent years hoping to survive long enough for the science to catch up.  They didn’t wait 9, 10, 12, or 18 months.  They waited, they learned how to protect themselves and those they loved.  They kept the faith, hoping against hope that the cavalry was coming for them.  But when it came, it was only a treatment and not a cure, it was highly expensive, often not covered by health insurance, and came with shame and judgment. 

 Too many of the world's people have died from AIDS.

Too many people for whom the cavalry did not come.

And yet, across the world people continue to hold onto hope that someday they will be able to get treatments.  That maybe - yet still - perhaps there will be a vaccine.

World AIDS Day is about remembrance.

It's about hope.

It's about perseverance.

For 39 years the world has held onto hope that we would be able to eradicate this disease.

One year ago a new virus was discovered in Wuhan, China.  Today, there is not a country in this world that hasn't been impacted by it.  COVID-19 is a commonplace word globally now.  And the cavalry is coming.  The vaccines are on the way; treatments are improving every day; and there is hope that we may be able to make this virus as impotent as "the common cold."

But we are far from out of the woods.

Today, on World AIDS Day, my prayer is that we will be able to look to our siblings worldwide living with HIV and AIDS, coexisting with two viruses seeking to end their lives.  I pray that we would take a lesson from them about living with hope.

We don’t get it right 100% of the time.  We all make mistakes; we all get tired; we all long for a life before COVID-19 began.  We drop our resolve and someone else pays the price.  But we know what it takes to keep this season of waiting from getting any darker.  We know what we need to do: we need to persevere for a few more months.  May this Advent season be marked by our compassion for one another.  May this be the year where Advent is shaped by our willingness to sacrifice.  We may give up that which we love: family gatherings, holiday parties, hugs, but we will gain so much more.

For in the darkness, a light breaks forth.

After centuries of waiting, 

on a night in a little town in Judea, 

the cry of an infant broke through the noise of a stable.

Hope.

Hope was born that night.

Hope was born again in me this week.

May it be born again in you today.

Amen.