Online Catholics - Editorial:
Do this in memory of me
Last Tuesday in Australia, a nationwide red alert was issued:
blood banks around the country had less than 48 hours blood supply
left.
Last Tuesday in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI pointed to Christ as a
model for blood donors. The Pope was speaking to a number of people
amongst the crowds in St Peter's Square who were getting ready
for the World Day of Blood Donors.
"May Christ, who has redeemed us with his blood, always
be the model for your volunteers," the Pope told the gathered
donors.
The Pope's words suggested an intriguing possibility to one Australian,
who wrote to Online Catholics with this suggestion:
that Good Friday could be the most significant day of the year
to promote and support blood donors.
The Australian Aids Fund Inc President, Brian Haill, said that
polluted blood banks in the world's poverty-stricken nations were
contributing to the global spread of HIV that's already killing
3 million people a year and infecting 5 million others. Four out
of every five countries lacked a safe and stable blood supply.
A special church collection on Good Friday in countries like
Australia would permit Australian Catholics to actually model
Christ's sacrifice, as the Pope recommends, and their contributions
could make some of those blood banks safe, Haill said.
While it would mean a break with the traditional use of Good
Friday collections to preserve Holy sites, such a collection would
become much more meaningful if it was applied to the living body
of Christ which is HIV infected, Haill added.
He invited Australia's church leaders to consider the proposal.
"Given the Red Cross already symbolises lifeblood, this ought
to be a natural progression and certainly the role and value of
donors needs to be considerably more heightened than it is now."
Mr Haill's suggestion is a good one. For those in rich lands
to give blood to those in poor countries is explicitly Christian
action. To weave in the theology of the crucifixion and the ritual
of Good Friday with concrete action has a sort of beauty to it.
Mr Haill adds to the recurring patterns of death and life in this
tapestry we inhabit with a golden thread of his own.
Were we as a nation to donate blood to the poorest of the poor
on that most solemn of days - how much sooner might the Kingdom
come?
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