Catholic Medical Quarterly

The Journal of the Catholic Medical Association (UK)

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Catholic Medical Quarterly Volume 72 (4) November 2022

Faith in Medicine

Honour the Physician: Healing in the Bible

Edward Hopkins is a seminarian with Arundel and Brighton Diocese, and gave this paper to the Sussex Branch Meeting in May 2022.

Anyone who has a passing familiarity with the Bible knows that Jesus spent a lot of time healing people. You might also have heard that God uses illness to punish wrongdoing. Perhaps, like me, you had conversations with people during the COVID pandemic about whether the world was being punished for its sins. This article explores the topic of healing in the Bible in three stages: first, by looking at how we might understand the connection between sin and illness; second by looking at natural healing, that is the work of medics, and what it has to do with God; finally, we will consider Jesus and his miraculous healings. Running through all this is the theme of honour­ing the physician.

Illness and Sin

We begin with the most depressing stage, but we need to start by diagnosing the problems. We talk about the Good News because Jesus brings the answer to these problems. If we don't recognise the problems, there isn't any reason to think Jesus brings good news.

We can define illness as “a disease or period of sickness affecting the body or mind.” That is straightforward. The definition of sin in the Cat­echism is more complex: "Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbour caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. [...]

Sin is an offense against God...”

Clearly, they are not the same thing, although both wound human nature in one way or another. Does God inflict illness as a punishment for sin?

The first point to make is that some illness is a natural consequence of sin. Cause and effect are at work in our bodies and our souls, after all. We can see this by briefly thinking about the Seven Deadly Sins and some of their possible conse­quences for our physical and mental health.

Pride: The person who refuses to acknowledge they are ill and seek medical help early on is more likely to suffer serious illness.

Lust: Sexually Transmitted Infections are the most obvious examples.

Anger: High blood pressure, depression, anxiety, and heart disease.

Covetousness: Desiring material possessions beyond what we need could lead to overwork and the health-related problems that follow from it.

Envy: “Why am I still single when all my friends are married?” The sadness at the good things someone else has can lead to depression.

Sloth and Gluttony: Many health problems are associated with lack of exercise or obesity.

This could be considered in detail, but hopefully this sketch is enough to show that illness is some­times the result of our own bad choices and failings. In such cases, it's hardly fair to blame God!

Nonetheless, there are instances in the Bible where God does appear to use illness as a punish­ment. The plagues on the Egyptians are very famous, and one of them is a plague of boils (Exodus 9:8-12) and the final one is the death of the firstborn (12:29-30). Nor do the Israelites themselves escape punishment during their wanderings in the desert. For their grumbling and disobedience, God sends venomous snakes that kill many of them, but when they repent, he gives them a remedy. Moses fashions a bronze serpent, and anyone who is bitten can look at it and live (Numbers 21:5-8). Perhaps most pointed for us is Paul's warning to the Corinthians who had received the Eucharist in a state of sin that this was why “many of you are weak and ill, and some have died” (1 Corinthians 11:30). This is a sobering thought, when we consider how many Catholics receive Communion weekly, but rarely go to Confession.

Then again, there are places in the Bible where sin does not cause illness. The words of Psalm 73:3-5 have as much poignancy today as they ever did:

For I was envious of the arrogant,
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For they have no pangs;
their bodies are sound and sleek.
They are not in trouble as other men are;
they are not stricken like other men.m [1]

Why do corrupt but powerful people enjoy good health, when the honest forty-something on our street is dying of cancer? We might turn to the book of Job for an answer. Job is introduced in the first verse of the book as a "man [who] was blame­less and upright, one who feared God, and turned away from evil." He does not deserve the suffering that comes his way, including "painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head" (2:2). Toward the end of the book, Job questions God and receives his answer (chapters 38-41). Roughly speaking, God's answer is "You are not God. You don't have the capacity to understand." Job is like a small child in hospital who does not understand why the doctors and nurse are doing things to him he finds unpleasant.

The New Testament provides a clearer answer perha s. God tells Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). This is hard for us to hear. We naturally want to be competent and in control - much of our lives are dedicated to controlling the world around us. But God's ways are not our ways.

Jesus teaches many things that seem paradoxical. Consider these words.

“If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?”( Luke 9:23-25)

The cross has become a comforting religious symbol to us, but for early Christians it was an instrument of torture and execution. "Take up your electric chair daily, and follow me," might begin to capture how they heard Jesus' words.

Suffering for the sake of Jesus seems to unite people more closely to him. We can see this in the lives of the saints. To pick some well documented modern examples, St Therese of Lisieux died at twenty-four from tuberculosis; St Elizabeth of the Trinity died at twenty-six of Addison's disease, and Blessed Carlo Acutis died of leukaemia at just fifteen. They were not sinners but loved Jesus so much that they united their suffering to his in a profound way.

The fact that suffering can be an opportunity to draw closer to Christ does not mean that suffering is inherently good or that illnesses should not be treated. So with that in mind, let us turn to the question of natural healing, i.e. medicine.

Natural Healing

We are going to examine a passage from the book of Sirach which is sometimes called Ecclesiasticus, and not to be confused with Ecclesiastes. It's also one of the books not included in Protestant bibles. It is, I think, a very encouraging passage for a medic, but before we dive into it, let me take a moment to highlight the “both-and” principle in Catholic theology. This is simply the fact that things which on first glance look like an either-or proposition, often turn out to be the opposite. For example, Jesus is both fully God and fully human; Mary is both the Mother of God and perpetually a virgin. Sirach 38:1-15 takes this approach in that it sees both God and the medic at work together in the process of natural healing.

1. Honour the physician with the honour due him, according to your need of him, for the Lord created him;
2. for healing comes from the Most High, and he will receive a gift from the king.
3. The skill of the physician lifts up his head, and in the presence of great men he is admired. (Sirach 38:1-3)

People should honour physicians because God created you to bring his healing into the world. Healing comes both from God and through the hands of medics; you can rightly hold your heads high and take pride in your skill.

4. The Lord created medicines from the earth, and a sensible man will not despise them.
5. Was not water made sweet with a tree in order that his power might be known?
6. And he gave skill to men that he might be glorified in his marvellous works.
7. By them he heals and takes away pain;
8. the pharmacist makes of them a compound. His works will never be finished; and from him health is upon the face of the earth. (Sirach 38:4-8)

God intends people to be healed by man-made medicines; what we might call natural healing as opposed to supernatural healing. Verse 6 reminds us that those who create medicines should do so for the glory of God.

9. My son, when you are sick do not be negligent, but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you.
10. Give up your faults and direct your hands aright, and cleanse your heart from all sin.
11. Offer a sweet-smelling sacrifice, and a memorial portion of fine flour,and pour oil on your offering, as much as you can afford. (Sirach 38:9-11)

Here we see need to repent from sin and also to pray when we are ill. These happen alongside the work of the physician and there is no contradic­tion between the two. Verse 11 is a reference to the Jewish Temple sacrifices which were required when the book of Sirach was written. [2]

12. And give the physician his place, for the Lord created him; let him not leave you, for there is need of him.
13. There is a time when success lies in the hands of physicians,
14. for they too will pray to the Lord that he should grant them success in diagnosis and in healing, for the sake of preserving life.
15. He who sins before his Maker, may he fall into the care of a physician.

Here, I would mention two things. Firstly, medics are supposed to pray for success in their work. Clearly, you can’t get your rosary beads out while you’re working, but you could offer your work to the Lord before you start each day. Short and sincere prayers are perfectly acceptable to God!

Secondly, notice that the final verse hopes that those who sin against God may fall into the hands of a physician. This looks a bit curious since it is the role of priest not a medic to forgive sins, but we shall return to the point below as we consider the question of miraculous healing.

Miraculous Healing

One of the striking things about Jesus is how many people he cures. Here we will consider Mark chapter 2 which covers all the important points in one place. It begins with the paralytic whose friends lower him down through the roof for Jesus to heal him. I imagine they were surprised when Jesus’ first words to the invalid were, “My son your sins are forgiven.” That was not what they had brought him there for – they wanted Jesus to cure his paralysis. Nor were the scribes happy, but Jesus’ response is instructive:

“...Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your pallet and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to
forgive sins”- he said to the paralytic - “I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home.” And he rose, and immediately took up the pallet and went out before them all...” (Mark 2:9-12a emphasis added)

Jesus is making a point that he has the authority to forgive sins, an authority that was reserved for God. He is implicitly claiming divine authority by healing the man. He surely has compassion on the man for his paralysis as well, but his first thought is that the man should be set at rights with God by being forgiven. A few verses later, we find the key to understanding what is going on here:

And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:16-17 emphasis added.)

Jesus describes himself as the physician who heals sins. I would suggest that just as we recognise physical and mental illness, sin is spiritual illness.[3] In this light, I read Sirach 38:15 as a prophecy about Jesus. “He who sins before his Maker, may he fall into the care of a physician.” Jesus is the Divine Physician whom Sirach is anticipating. In fact, some of the early Christians spoke about Jesus in this way including Ignatius of Antioch[4]. Irenaeus of Lyons[5] and Augustine who said “our nature is healed by the great Physician, Christ, whose remedy it would not need if it were only whole.”[6]

Final thoughts

Healing in the Bible is a complex topic, but I would offer three things to take away from this discussion. Firstly, the relationship between illness and sin exists but is not a simple one. Secondly, God is more than happy to heal people by working through the hands of medics. Thirdly, Jesus is the Divine Physician who heals both sin and illness whether by natural or supernatural means. I won­der if it is too bold to say that medics are partici­pating in the work of the Divine Physician? That is perhaps something for further reflection, but the role of healer is surely one that is pleasing to Christ.