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RSSCasting Out a Demon in Honduras
by The Rev. Barbara Cawthorne Crafton
Pentecost V, Proper 6, Year A
Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7)
Psalm 116: 1, 10-17
or
Exodus 19:2-8a
Psalm 100
Romans 5:1-8
Matthew 9:35-10:8, (9-23)
Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. — Matthew 10:8
Here is the story of Johanna, an HIV-positive woman in Honduras:
A brand-new mother, Johanna was so profoundly weakened by her illness that she couldn't walk or even see. How could she care for a newborn?
“I was so sick my family carried me to Siempre Unidos (Always Together),” says Johanna. Siempre Unidos, working closely with Episcopal Relief & Development and the Diocese of Honduras, operates three clinics for HIV-positive people, providing medical care, AIDS education and screening, and opportunities for employment. Soon, thanks to the anti-retroviral drugs she received at Siempre Unidos, Johanna was a new woman, able to walk, able to see and able to care for her baby boy.
Now that she was well, Joanna needed to find work to support herself and her son. She was hired at an industrial sewing shop managed by Siempre Unidos. The stigma of HIV/AIDS is a serious matter in Honduras. It is hard to get and keep a job if one's status as an HIV+ person becomes known. But this is not so at Siempre Unidos.
Johanna goes to work each day and is thriving in the Siempre Unidos community, and loves it. “I want to thank God,” Johanna says about the positive direction her life has taken. “Here we learn that we can succeed and do have worth.”
The bishop and people of the Diocese of Honduras have taken Jesus' instructions to his disciples to heal the sick and cast out demons to heart. Anti-retrovirals took care of Johanna's devastating symptoms. And the demon of prejudice against people simply because they have an illness? Siempre Unidos took care of him.
