The Spiritual Meaning of Illness

THE AMBIVALENCE OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS

"Among human affairs," St John Cassian writes, "nothing merits being held as good in the true sense of the word except virtue, which leads us to God and makes us adhere to this immutable Good. On the other hand, there is no evil other than sin, which, by separating us from God who is good, unites us to the devil who is evil."

It is true that physical health corresponds to the normal state of human nature - that is, its prelapsarian state - and for that reason health can be considered as good in itself. Nevertheless, from another point of view health is worthless to the human person—it does not constitute a true good but is only good in appearance —if it is not used well, that is, if it is not used with an aim toward the Good: to fulfill the commandments of Christ and to glorify God. This is why St Basil declares: "Insofar as it does not render good those who possess it, health cannot be counted among those things that are good by nature." In fact it is evil if it contributes to making a person indifferent to his salvation, keeps him away from God by giving him the false impression that he is self-sufficient, and bestows on him that strength of the flesh which actually weakens, rather than giving him that weakness in which God reveals himself, which constitutes true strength (2 Cor 12:9-10). Health is an even greater evil if it is used to give free rein to the passions, thereby becoming an instrument of iniquity (Rom 6:13). "Know, then," St Gregory of Nazianzus counsels us, "how to despise an insidious health that leads to sin."

As for illness, it is in itself something evil to the extent that it arises as a consequence of the sin of Adam and as an effect of demonic activity within the fallen world. As such, it is a negation of the order God intended when he created the world and mankind. Nonetheless, it is evil only on the level of physical nature and the body. If one does not give oneself over to it entirely, illness cannot injure one's soul, nor can it affect one's essential being, one's spiritual nature. According to Christ's own teaching, a person should fear whatever can make perish in Gehenna both body and soul, but he need have no fear of what can affect his body alone, without bringing death to his soul (Mt 10:28). By itself illness does not have the power to separate man from God; therefore from a spiritual point of view it cannot be considered to be a source of evil in his life.

St John Chrysostom notes: "If the soul is in good health, bodily illness can in no way harm a man." Illness, then, is only evil in appearance. It can even constitute a blessing for man in the sense that, if one uses it appropriately, one can draw from it considerable spiritual benefit, thereby making of what was originally a sign of mortality into an instrument of salvation. St John Chrysostom adds: "There is evil which, properly speaking, is not evil, even though it bears that name: such as illness, and other things of that sort. If they were truly evil, they would not be able to become for us the source of a multitude of blessings." In the same vein St John Cassian states: "How can we see [in illness] something that is essentially evil, since it serves as a blessing to so many by granting them the means to attain to abundant and eternal joy?" Finally, St Gregory of Nazianzus offers the following counsel: "Do not admire every form of health, and do not condemn every illness."

Consequently, in certain cases and from the point of view of that which is spiritually good for man, illness can be paradoxically considered as a higher good than health and therefore as preferable to health. St Gregory of Nazianzus observes that the aim of medical treatment "consists in reconfirming health or the good condition of the flesh if such exists, or in recovering it if it has been lost. But it is not clear that these advantages are really useful. Often, in fact, the opposite conditions are more advantageous to those who are affected by them." Accordingly, we encounter any number of holy people, faced with their own illnesses or the illnesses of those in their care, who ask God not in the first place for a return to health, but for what is spiritually the most useful. And rather than lament because of these illnesses, they rejoice in the benefits that can be drawn from them.

THE POSITIVE MEANING OF SICKNESS AND SUFFERING

Such an attitude, however, presupposes that we attribute to illness a meaning and a finality that transcend physical nature. To consider illness strictly as a phenomenon unto itself is almost inevitably to see it in a negative, sterile light; and this only increases the physical suffering and moral pain which result from a sense of its absurdity. The consequence of such an attitude is generally to leave the way open to the activity of demons and to develop in the soul troubling passions, such as fear, anxiety, anger, weariness, revolt and despair. These states not only do not relieve the body, they most often increase the symptoms of the evil that affects it, thereby creating sickness even in the soul. The illness then serves no good at all, but it becomes for the ill person a source of spiritual deterioration which puts his soul in jeopardy perhaps more than it does his body.

It is because of this very danger that the Fathers stress the point that "it is not in vain, nor without reason, that we are subject to illnesses." This is why they encourage us to be vigilant when illness strikes, and not to trouble ourselves first of all with their natural causes and means to cure them. Rather, our first concern should be to discern their meaning within the framework of our relationship to God, and to throw light on the positive function they can have in furthering our salvation. In this respect St Maximus counsels: "When you are exposed to unexpected testing search out its purpose and you will find the means to profit from it." The ideal, then, is to avoid from the beginning allowing ourselves to be dominated by suffering when it exists, but to go beyond the limits in which the suffering tends to enclose the soul and even our entire being, our entire existence.

In this double perspective St Gregory of Nazianzus offers the following counsel to an ill acquaintance: "I don't wish and I don't consider it good that you, well instructed in divine things as you are, should suffer the same feelings as more worldly people, that you should allow your body to give in, that you should agonize over your suffering as if it were incurable and irredeemable. Rather, I should want you to be philosophical about your suffering and show yourself superior to the cause of your affliction, beholding in the illness a superior way towards what is ultimately good for you."

To be philosophical about one's illness and suffering means above all for a person to consider what they reveal to him about his condition. As a consequence of Adamic sin and an effect of sin perpetuated in the fallen world, together with demonic activity, illness manifests.

THE WAY OF HOLINESS

Among all the attitudes recommended by the Fathers in times of illness, patience and thanksgiving come first. "St John of Gaza goes so far as to affirm that "God demands of the sick person nothing other than thanksgiving and endurance." By these two dispositions of the soul, the patient can realize one of the highest forms of ascetic practice and a truly spiritual pathway. "Such is the greatest form of asceticism," Amma Syncletica teaches, "that we master ourselves in times of illness, addressing to God hymns of thanksgiving." The Fathers celebrate both of these virtues, stressing the power they possess to lead the ill person to the highest summits of the spiritual life and to grant him salvation.

With regard to patience, St John Cassian writes: "The advantage that illness can sometimes present appears quite clearly with the beatitude illustrated by the poor, ulcerated Lazarus. Scripture makes no mention at all in his regard of any virtue. His great patience in supporting his poverty and illness alone merits the blessed fortune to be admitted into the bosom of Abraham." Referring to this same parable, St John Chrysostom likewise underscores the fact that Lazarus did nothing extraordinary other than suffer his illness and his poverty with patience, and it is this that earned him eternal salvation. For his part, St Macarius affirms that "when souls have been delivered from various afflictions - whether these be caused by other people, or they result from bodily illnesses—they receive the same crowns and the same assurance as the martyrs, if they have preserved patience until the end."

As for thanksgiving, St Diadocus of Photike writes: "If [the soul] receives with thanksgiving the pains provoked by illness, it demonstrates that it is not far from the boundaries of impassibility." And Abba Poemen does not hesitate to declare: "If three men meet, and one preserves interior peace, the second gives thanks to God in illness, and the third serves with purity of thought, these three accomplish the same work."

It is for this reason that St Gregory of Nazianzus urges us to have a great deal of respect and veneration for those who are ill, since some of them, by virtue of their trials and tribulations, will attain sanctity: "Let us respect the illness that accompanies sanctity and offer homage to those whose sufferings have led to victory; for it may be that among these ill persons there is hidden another Job."

From: The Theology of Illness by the French Orthodox Layman Jean-Claude Larchet, St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, Crestwood, NY 2002