Blessed Are the Vulnerable Reaching Out to Those With AIDS

includes index and biblioraphy

CHAPTER ONE Vulnerability as a Common Experience in the Context of HIV/AIDS 11 1 Two Meanings of Vulnerability:The Wound and the Breach 11 2 Vulnerability: Three Dimensions to Describe the Experience of AIDS 16 3 Response to the Experience of Vulnerability in a Time of AIDS 22 3.1 Bad Reflexes: Stigmatization and Discrimination 23 3.2 Good Response: Sensibility to the Other`s Vulnerability 25 3.2.1 Ethics of Vulnerability Integrates Responsibility and Finitude 27 3.2.2 Ethics of Vulnerability Opposes Fatalism and Denial 29 4 How to Act in a Time of AIDS? The Grace of Risk-taking 31 4.1 Relevance of Vulnerability for Listening to the Narratives of the Sick 34 4.2 Discovering the Chances and Challenges of Being Vulnerable 39 5 Conclusions: Theological Ethics of AIDS and Empowerment of the Most Vulnerable 5.1 The Vulnerability of AIDS Summons Our Capacity for Solidarity 48 5.2 Ethics of Vulnerability Resists the Stigma and the Closure of Sickness 48 5.3 Looking to the Kingdom 49 CHAPTER TWO The Kingdom of God 52 1 Dreams: The Holy Intrusion of God in the Vulnerability of the Night 54 1.1 The Dream: One Moment of Vulnerability in Man`s Life 55 1.2 The Dream: A Regenerative Moment of Lucidity to Resource Acting 59 2 The Vision of the Kingdom of God in Scripture 62 3 The In-breaking of the Kingdom of God and the Vulnerability to AIDS 72 3.1 In-breaking of the Kingdom of God:Event, Revelation, and Ethics 77 3.2 Social Justice: The Human Response to the In-breaking of the Kingdom 80 CHAPTER THREE The Kingdom of God Leads us to Christ Event 88 1 Jesus: Autobasileia as the Interpretation of the Kingdom of God in a Time of AIDS 88 2 The Precariousness of the World Suggests a New Vision of Christology 95 3 The Kingdom of God: Both Jesus` Preaching and Healing Works 105 4 Jesus` Praxis of Justice: Being the Liberator Who Anticipates the Kingdom 108 5 Conclusions 116 CHAPTER FOUR Liturgical Practices, Both Sacred and Secular for the Living and for the Dead 119 1 For the Living, Both Secular and Sacred Practices 123 1.1 Secular Practices for the Living:The Support Groups 123 1.2 Sacred Practices for the Living: Prayer, Eucharist,Anointing of the Sick, and Reconciliation 126 1.2.1 Prayer and its Links to the Ethical Challenges of AIDS 126 1.2.2 Praying for God`s Kingdom 130 1.2.3 Prayer is at the Heart of the Experience of Fragility 132 1.2.4 Sacraments: Eucharist, the Anointing of the Sick,and Reconciliation 134 Eucharist: the Invaluable Worth of all Existence 135 The Anointing of the Sick: Healing and Salvation for the Whole Community 137 Sacrament of Reconciliation:To Walk Together Again 13 9 2 For the Dead: Both Secular and Sacred Practices 141 2.1 Sacred Practices of the Dead:New Rites for the Deceased 141 2.2 Secular Practices for the Dead:The Quilt and the NAMES Project 144 3 Liturgical Practices Shape an Ethics of Hospitality and Solidarity for a Time of AIDS 152 3.1 What Does This Diversity of Community Practices Teach to Churches Affected by HIV/AIDS? 153 3.2 Liturgy Addresses the Social Dimension of Vulnerability 155 3.3 Overcoming the Fears and Welcoming the Gift of the Other 158 CHAPTER FIVE The Hospitality of Ethics and Ethics of Hospitality in a Time of AIDS 163 1 Ethics of Vulnerability:To Act Where HIV/AIDS Flourishes 166 1.1 The Preferential Option for the Empowerment of the Most Vulnerable 167 1.2 The Empowerment of the Most Vulnerable:A Strategy of Individual and Global Action 173 1.3 The Empowerment of the Most Vulnerable Needs an Ethics of Hospitality 182 1.4 Christian Tradition Invites Us to Take the Risk of the Most Vulnerable 191 2 Hospitality of the Kingdom of God:How to Carry Out an Ethics of Caring and Healing in a Time of AIDS? 198 2.1 Three Basic Dimensions of Human Life Affected by kingdom`s values 199 2.2 TIME: Connecting Our Chronos Wounded