Rev. Fr. Francis Ikhianosime
See Aids above all as only one of the symptoms of a gravely sick society: as a challenge to radical conversion, to a whole-person approach to healing, and to a compassionate relationship with the sick and those at risk. All this must, however be viewed in the larger context of other threats to human health.
-Bernard Haring
That HIV/AIDS is no less than a global health disaster is a fact that is no longer in question. The challenges that HIV and AIDS have left in many circles are those that can no longer be left to silence. The threat of AIDS is already indicative of an unhealthy society. The sufferers of AIDS apart from the trauma of having an incurable illness, society's approach to these people have remained a question begging a redress. Society has sometimes unfairly stigmatized these people and the church where they are supposed to take solace has not adequately woken up to her responsibility to the sick. This leaves us with numerous challenges: the community challenge, the medical challenge, challenge for the family, pastoral challenges and the like. Our concern in this work is to outline the pastoral obligations HIV/AIDS pose for the Church. Thus, considered in the entire frame, pastoral care demands an approach to radical conversion of a sick-society, an approach to healing and to a compassionate relationship to victims of such.
The healing of the sick was an essential part of Jesus' ministry. In fact, it could be said that Jesus' ministry was purely to the sick. In healing the blind, the lame and even Jesus' teaching of the scriptures was curing the sickness of the mind. Therefore, the Church's apostolate apart from her evangelizing obligation, the care for the sick constitutes an essential part of her ministry. That the care for the sick is essential to the Church's evangelizing missions is evident in the sacraments. Anointing of the sick and what is known as viaticum, were the two dimensions this mission was directed towards.
The pastoral care for the sick in earliest times was circumscribed to viaticum, that is, the administration of the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist to those who are about to die. Later development in this apostolate saw that not only those who are about to die need help alone but also generally the sick. This saw the development and renaming of this sacrament to Anointing of the sick, thereby, withdrawing it from the one-ended dimension of preparation for death. Anointing of the sick thus, came to accommodate prayers and anointing of the infirm and aged, to remit sin and to make known the prayerful solicitude of the entire Church of those beset by illness or advanced age. This sacrament which generally covers the umbrella of anointing of the sick is what pastoral care of the sick attends to now.
Pastoral care thus now accommodate all kinds of care proper to the sick, since sickness is not only limited to the bedridden alone. It is therefore the obligation of pastoral care to identify all those who are infirm within the community and first by way of counseling make them see their condition not as an isolated one which is merely by a fault of theirs but also as a way of showing the healing power of God and His grace which is still active in humanity. It also now accommodates the practical challenges of love, compassion and care which were part of Jesus' approach to the sick. In pastoral care to the sick, Jesus elicited faith on the part of the infirmed and by that wrought miracle. Thus, pastoral care quarters also the task of eliciting faith and dispersing fear on the part of the sick, in this case, those with HIV/AIDS which is merely by a fault of theirs but also as a way of showing the healing power of God and His grace which is still active in humanity. It also now accommodates the practical challenges of love, compassion and care which were part of Jesus' approach to the sick. In pastoral care to the sick, Jesus elicited faith on the part of the infirmed and by that wrought miracle. Thus, pastoral care quarters also the task of eliciting faith and dispersing fear on the part of the sick, in this case, those with HIV/AIDS
In identifying the sick in the community, our attention should turn first to HIV/AIDS which is a ravaging pandemic and see how those who are infested either by ignorance or by a fault of theirs are made to see their condition as a call to a greater Christian maturity. The approach of pastoral care which is not an obligation for the clergy only but on all Christians within the body of Christ should not be an attitude to judge. The warning of Jesus is imperative here: “Judge not, that you may not be judged” (Mt 7:1). Judgment gives an impression of superiority to the judged. To judge those who have HIV/AIDS is to give a fancy that we are either of a better moral attitude or probably enjoy more of God's grace. To judge in this or like manner is to invariably make us vulnerable to judgment. Let us speak a little more frankly, are we immune from those unhealthy attitudes which spread the unhealthiness and increase the risks inherent in unhealthy relationships? Do you think that those Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices, or those eighteen whom the tower of Siloam fell on and slew them, were worse sinners in Jerusalem? Unless you repent you shall likewise perish (Cf. Lk13:1-5).
With their sacrifices, or those eighteen whom the tower of Siloam fell on and slew them, were worse sinners in Jerusalem? Unless you repent you shall likewise perish (Cf. Lk13:1-5).
Pastoral care demands a response of compassion on all those who are sick. Being compassionate was an essential characteristic of Jesus' approach to the sick. Jesus in fact says: “Be compassionate as your heavenly Father is compassionate”. Being compassionate entails a respectful understanding of the situation and condition of the individual and even a patient dialogue in such a way that can awaken the inner resources for a healthy and healing relationship. Since the cause of the sickly condition may have been as a result of unhealthy relationship, there is the high propensity for the sick individual to develop a closed-up attitude to relationships and only a healthy relationship could make any medication whatsoever efficacious.
It is equally a bounden duty on pastoral care to see that people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) are integrated into parish activities to give them a sense of belongingness. This is what Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) do in what they call, 'support groups'. The Church could invariably identify and make relevant the contributions of PLWHA meaningful within the community and make them know that, HIV/AIDS is not a death sentence but a call to be more vigilant with the conditions of one's health. A sense of belongingness of this sort would help redress the problem of stigmatization which is commonly associated with HIV/AIDS.
Conditions of one's health. A sense of belongingness of this sort would help redress the problem of stigmatization which is commonly associated with HIV/AIDS.
The care of the sick with HIV/AIDS should similarly provoke a more active sex education programme in parish catechetical programmes. Pastors should know that a proper understanding of sex and sexuality is not the task of parents and school teachers only but also a pastoral imperative. They should evolve programmes especially among youths that would give allowance to the reordering of the active sexual instincts and the language communicated by sex. Any encounter between people of the same or different sex is communication. The sexual encounter is language: either truthful or deceptive. In casual sexual-genital activity, the user tries to speak the language of love while lying to him or herself, and to others. He uses language of belonging and of fidelity without having any such thing in mind…. Those who have not learned to bring their sexual drives under control run the immediate danger of becoming compulsive users, consumers, in the field of sexual activity. (Bernard Haring, “A call to radical conversion” in Vicky Cosstick, (ed) AIDS, Meeting the Community Challenge, St. Paul's publication, 1987).
Pastoral care does not mean an emphasis of an AIDS ministry but a call for an organized lay ministry to the sick. In our society, once a person declares his status as HIV positive, there is often a discriminatory reaction and response to such people but if a lay ministry to the sick is in place, they can both help in the form of counseling and similarly help those who have relapsed in the faith as a result of their health conditions. This ministry should be taken with much sensitivity, compassion and maturity. The body of Christ is almost incomprehensible and new gifts and new ministries evolve with new circumstances and conditions. Once a ministry of this sort is done, there can be more healing for the body of Christ; the Church and equally too, this would help society's response to PLWHA shift from bigotry to open-mindedness, from inequality to equality, from prejudice to fairness and also from bias to compassion.
is often a discriminatory reaction and response to such people but if a lay ministry to the sick is in place, they can both help in the form of counseling and similarly help those who have relapsed in the faith as a result of their health conditions. This ministry should be taken with much sensitivity, compassion and maturity. The body of Christ is almost incomprehensible and new gifts and new ministries evolve with new circumstances and conditions. Once a ministry of this sort is done, there can be more healing for the body of Christ; the Church and equally too, this would help society's response to PLWHA shift from bigotry to open-mindedness, from inequality to equality, from prejudice to fairness and also from bias to compassion.
The ministry to the sick should be reevaluated in the light of failing health conditions society is suffering. The Church must continually remain a salt to the earth and a light to the world. And so, if society fails to appreciate the sick and care for them, the Church cannot and should not fail in this responsibility. This is the new imperative that HIV/AIDS open up for pastoral care to the sick. This debt is not one that pastors owe alone but by all members of the body of Christ. For the rule of judgment remains static: when I was sick did you visit and care for me…? This duty must open its frontiers not only to those within the parish but also to those in areas where HIV/AIDS is more prevalent and vulnerable: to the prisons, the hospitals and rural communities.
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