№24 (116) / December 8 '99
Church and medicine
In this topic:
Church and medicine
Archbishop Vikenty visited hospital churches in Yekaterinburg
Church and medicine
Archbishop Vincent's address to medical workers in the Urals
The enemy tempted the ancient Christians with torment, and the present ones with illnesses and thoughts (Venerable Ambrose of Oltinsky).
Sin not only affects the soul, but also the body. In some cases this is very obvious, in others, although not so clear, the truth remains the truth that illnesses of the body are all and always from sins and for the sake of sins. Sin is committed in the soul and directly makes it sick, but since the life of the body comes from the soul, then from a sick soul, of course, life is not healthy. The very fact that sin brings darkness and darkness should have an adverse effect on the blood, in which the basis of bodily health But when you remember that it separates a person from God, the Source of life, and puts a person in discord with all the laws operating both in himself and in nature, then one must still marvel at how a sinner remains alive after sin. This is the mercy of God, awaiting repentance and Therefore, the patient, before doing anything else, must hasten to be cleansed of sins and in his conscience to be reconciled with God. This will pave the way for the beneficial effect of medicines. It is heard that there was some significant doctor who did not begin treatment until the patient confessed and would not receive Holy Communion, and the more severe the illness, the more persistently he demanded this (St. Theophan the Recluse).
Abba Daniel said: as the body blooms, the soul is exhausted, and as the body is exhausted, the soul flourishes (Paterikon of Athos).
God does not require physical feats from the sick, but only patience with humility and gratitude (Venerable Ambrose of Optina).
When, for example, a sick person is disposed to bear his illness complacently, and endures it: the enemy, knowing that in this way he will be confirmed in the virtue of patience, comes to upset his good disposition. For this purpose, he begins to bring to mind many good deeds that he could have done if he had been in a different position, and tries to convince him that if he were healthy, how good he would serve God, and how much benefit he would bring both himself and others would go to church, have conversations, read and write for the edification of their neighbors, etc. Noticing that such thoughts are accepted, the enemy more often brings them to mind, multiplies and colors them, leads them to feelings, arouses desires and impulses to action Thus, imagine how well this or that business would go for him, and arousing regret that he is bound hand and foot by illness. Little by little, with frequent repetitions of such thoughts and movements in the soul, desire turns into dissatisfaction and annoyance. The former complacent patience is thus upset, and illness is no longer presented as a cure from God and a field for the virtue of patience, but as something hostile to the cause of salvation, and the desire to free oneself from it becomes uncontrollable, still in the form of obtaining through it space for good deeds and pleasing God in every way. Having brought him to this point, the enemy steals from his mind and heart this good goal of the desire for recovery and, leaving only the desire for health, as health, makes him look annoyed at illness, not as an obstacle to good, but as something hostile in itself. As a result, impatience, not healed by good thoughts, takes strength and turns into grumbling, and deprives the patient of his former peace from complacent patience. And the enemy rejoices that he managed to upset. (Invisible Warfare).
Whether you are sick or poor, endure. God does not require anything from you except patience. By enduring complacently, you will continuously be in good deeds. Whenever God looks at you, He will see that you are doing good, or that you are in goodness, if you tolerate it complacently, whereas in a healthy person, good deeds come intermittently. Why, wanting to change your situation, do you want to exchange the best for the worst? (Invisible Warfare).
One elder, suffering from water sickness, said to the brethren who came to him with a desire to treat him: “Fathers, pray that my inner man will not be subjected to a similar disease: and as for the real disease, I ask God that he not suddenly freed me from her; for as much as “our outer man decays,” so “our inward man is renewed” (2 Cor. 4:16). (Venerable Seraphim of Sarov).
One elder said about poor Lazar: “You can’t see in him a single virtue that he did,” and I found only one thing in him, that he never grumbled at the Lord, as if he did not show him mercy, but with gratitude suffered his illness, and therefore God accepted him.” (Paterikon of Athos).
One day a patient with legs came to Abbot Anthony and said: Father, my legs hurt, I can’t bow down, and this confuses me. Father Anthony answered him: Yes, the Scripture says: son, give me a heart, not legs. (Venerable Ambrose of Optina). You must definitely go to church services, otherwise you will be sick. The Lord punishes us with illness for this. (Venerable Ambrose of Optina).
A certain woman, having a disease in her chest called cancer, and having heard about Abba Longinus, was looking for an opportunity to meet him. He lived nine miles west of Alexandria. When the woman was looking for him, this blessed man happened to be collecting wood by the sea, and, seeing him, the woman said to him: “Abba, where does the servant of God Abba Longinus live!”, not knowing that it was he himself. He said: “What do you want from this deceiver? Do not go to him, for he is a deceiver. What do you need? The woman showed illness. The elder, having marked that place with the sign of the cross, released her, saying: “Go, the Lord will heal you. Longinus cannot help you.”
The woman left, believing the word, and was soon healed.
When she told some about this and described the signs of the elder, they learned that it was Abba Longinus himself. (Paterikon of Athos).
DO NOT KILL. By the way, doctors also kill their patients out of ignorance of their illness by prescribing harmful medications. Those who do not want to be treated or treat a patient who needs the help of a doctor also kill. Those who kill are those who irritate a patient for whom irritation is fatal, for example, a person susceptible to consumption, and thereby hasten his death. Those who kill are those who do not promptly, out of stinginess or for other evil reasons, provide medical benefits to the sick or bread to the hungry. (St. John of Kronstadt).
The brother asked Abba Arseny: there are some good people, why are they subjected to great sorrow at the time of death, being stricken with bodily illness? “Because,” answered the elder, “so that we, as if salted here with salt, go there clean.” (Paterikon of Athos).
One of the parish priests became ill, and, approaching his death, he saw his bed surrounded by demons who were preparing to kidnap his soul and bring him down to hell. Then three Angels appeared. One of them stood at the bedside and began to argue about the soul with the most disgusting demon, who was holding an open book in which all the sins of the priest were written down. Meanwhile, another priest came to admonish his brother. Confession began; the sick man, fixing his frightened gaze on the book, pronounced his sins with selflessness, as if spewing them out of himself - and what does he see? He clearly sees that as soon as he uttered any sin, this sin disappeared in the book, in which there remained a gap instead of a record. Thus, by confession, he blotted out all his sins from the demonic book, and, having received healing, spent the rest of his days in deep repentance, telling his neighbors for their edification the vision captured by the miraculous healing. (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov. “The Word on Death”).
She also said (blessed Syncletikia): the devil has many sharp weapons. When he has not conquered the soul through poverty, he brings wealth to deception. He did not overcome her with insults and reproaches - he lavished praise and glory on her. A person is not overcome by health; his body is affected by diseases. For, unable to seduce him with pleasures, he attempts to seduce the soul with involuntary labors, striking a person with serious illnesses in order to thereby darken the love of God in the careless. But whenever your body is struck or inflamed with a strong fever, it also languishes with an unbearable thirst - if you are a sinner, then bear it, remembering the future punishment, the eternal fire and execution by the court, and “do not neglect” the present (punishments) (Heb. 12:5), but rejoice that God visited you, and repeat this beautiful saying: “The Lord punished me severely, but did not put me to death” (Ps. 117:18). You are iron, and fire will cleanse your rust. If you, being righteous, fell into illness, then through this you will achieve more from less. You are gold, and through the fire you became purer. (...) If we lose our eyes, we will bear it without burden; for through this we are deprived of the organs of gluttony and are enlightened with our inner eyes. Have we gone deaf? Let us thank God that we have completely lost our vain hearing. Are your hands weak? “But we have within ourselves hands prepared to fight the enemy.” Will weakness take over the whole body? But from this, on the contrary, the health of the inner man increases. (Paterikon of Athos).
God be merciful! In the monastery, the sick do not die soon, but drag on and drag on until the illness brings them real benefit. In a monastery it is useful to be a little sick, so that the flesh, especially among young people, will rebel less, and less trifles will come to mind. Otherwise, with full health, especially young people, what kind of wasteland does not come to mind. (Venerable Ambrose of Optina).
In other rooms:
Can a person always find out exactly why he was sick?
Life itself gives the answer to this question. Girls who have not yet known men and are not guilty of the sin of adultery suffer from female diseases, and in queues to see a gastroenterologist it is not fat people who line up, but rather, on the contrary, extremely thin people... The ways of the Lord are inscrutable, and sometimes we have no choice but to simply humbly accept your fate.
Trying to figure out the sin that, according to the understanding of the sick person, led him to this state, a person risks only aggravating the disease with vain toils, endless lamentations and self-criticism. A person broken down by illness begins to grumble, blaming God for his misadventures, and then completely turns away from Him.
As mentioned above, not every illness is retribution for what has been done. Perhaps, by confining himself to a physical or mental illness, the Lord thus prevents a person from doing terrible things that he could do if he were healthy.
“There are diseases, the healing of which the Lord imposes a ban on when he sees that illness is more necessary for salvation than health,” says Theophan the Recluse.
Therefore, “if doctors do not help or the doctor has not correctly identified the disease and the disease does not stop, then do not rush to recklessly consider this or that circumstance as the reason for the failure of treatment and do not look for other reasons for this, except that God does not want me to recover, or He want to continue my illness... And when [the patient], after using many healing remedies, does not receive recovery, then he can be sure that it is God’s will that he endure a very long and severe illness,” St. John of Tobolsk echoes his thoughts .
They say that the Lord never gives to a person beyond his measure. But the question of why there are so many suicides in the world remains open...
Is it possible to pray for healing and how to do it
Archpriest Sergiy Pravdolyubov, rector of the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Trinity-Golenishchevo, says that “one can and should turn to God with a request for recovery.”
However, when the body is exhausted by a long-term serious illness, it is very difficult to pray. After all, the spirit in us fades away, and at the same time faith. We turn to the words of the holy fathers, the Bible and go to a priest for an interpretation of our condition. But we hear nothing but standard expressions: “pray sincerely, take communion, confess your sins.” In such a state, it is generally difficult to tune in to prayer and even read the “Our Father,” let alone an akathist or defend a service in church.
We are constantly plagued by the question: “Why? For what? When will this end? But, alas, the more we resist our condition and the will of God, the more likely the outcome is that this will never end at all. We have one path - humility. Reverend Ambrose o
And the shortest prayer that our brain can perceive and master at such a time is: “Lord, save and have mercy!” can happen many times during the day and sleepless night.
Now there are many audio recordings of church chants, psalms and prayers. You can simply turn them on and listen, and in moments of relief, begin to pray yourself. You should not beat yourself up by increasing your daily prayer rule. The point is not in the number of prayers, but in their quality.
It is also important to understand why you are asking the Lord for healing. It has been repeatedly said above that God allows us illness in order to lead to salvation. By sending us an illness, He wants us to leave the life that led us to this illness, and in the future live, serving the Lord, each in his own field. Most people, according to Archpriest Alexy Potokin, do not think about this. The priest exaggeratedly reduces the desire to be healed to the following formulation:
“Lord, give me a breath of air so I can get a little more excited.”
According to the priest, simply praying for health in order to return to the previous meaningless existence is like asking for money to drink away.
Christ often said when a person was freed from illness: “Your faith has saved you.” Therefore, “according to your faith, be it done to you” (Matthew 9:29).
Galina Bocharova
