A Prayer for World AIDS Day in a Time of Coronavirus

Post Author: Anna E. Layman Knox

For World AIDS Day

The author with faith community leaders at a Methodist HIV/AIDS awareness and response event in Durban, South Africa in 2011

Bonjour, mon Dieu. Comment ça va?

(Hello, my God. How are you?)

Je suis triste aujourd’hui, mon ami.

(I am sad today, my friend.)

But God, you knew what this plague was, as we floundered and feared for years for explanations.

And God, you know what this plague is, as we struggle and stumble to disperse treatment.

And you know us – so well – every fragile sinew and cell of our being.

And we know you –

we know you to say that if one suffers, we all suffer as one.

And so, if 38 million still suffer, God, your heart must still break.[1]

If 690,000 still die in one year, our hearts must break with you.

And as there is another plague that now consumes the minds and fears and funds of your world today –

May our fear of scarcity not inhibit your work of abundance.

May our fear of illness not inhibit your work of healing.

If 25.4 million can access therapy, you know, and we know – there is hope.

And this hope does not disappoint us –

such that one day, perhaps we will ask –

Bonjour, mon Dieu. Comment ça va?

(Hello, my God. How are you?)

And you will answer –

Je suis guéri aujourd’hui, mon ami.

(I am healed today, my friend.)

And we will proclaim –

Grâce à Dieu!

(Thanks be to God!)

So let it be.

[1] All statistical references within this text are found here: https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/fact-sheet.

The Rev. Anna Layman Knox (she/her/hers) is a Duke Divinity school graduate and ordained minister currently serving as the Community Pastor of Camp Hill United Methodist Church in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. She began her life in full time ministry, serving on the pastoral staff of Manning Road Methodist Church in Durban, South Africa, a community in ministry with refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo – a community that still holds half of her heart. She is passionate about meeting people where they are in the world and discovering what God is doing through their eyes. She journeys through life with her husband, Simon, and their son, Dominic, and when she's not mothering, writing, and preaching, you can find her on her mat, as a Yoga Chaplain, or singing - just for fun.

Image by: Unknown
Used with permission