A Theology of Illness

Hi everyone.  To all three of you who remain faithful readers let me say thanks an apologies for still checking in here and checking your rss feeds for me.  In recent months most of my posts have been health updates and have been a bit infrequent, but lately I have taken infrequency (if that's not really a word I claim it as my invention) to extremes. 

Sadly, for my blogging career I've been re-reading a bit of Neil Postman, finally read Brave New World by Huxley, and those things coupled with the serious ramifications of my declining health, have weakened my love for technology a bit lately, and all of the things you can do with said technology have lost quite a bit of their sex-appeal.

Still, I remain grateful for all of the friends I have made through blogging and Facebook so I hope to not go completely silent and may even post more frequently in the future, then again I may not.  At the least I do hope to give a health update soon, maybe this week.  Suffice it to say that aside from kicking a piece of furniture yesterday and breaking a toe (for which I have moaned and groaned like a woman in labor) I'm feeling very well these days.

But that's not what today's post is about.  I came across a wonderful commentary from Rod Dreher on praying for distasteful people like Bernie Madoff, and in this he quotes a wonderful passage from a book called A Theology of Illness by Jean-Claude Larchet.  Even us hard boiled Presbyterians ought to be able to appreciate the perspective on illness that is here attributed to Orthodoxy.

For illness always calls into question the basis, the framework an the shape of our lives, including the life-patterns we have acquired, the free use of our bodily and psychological faculties, our system of values, our relations with other people, even life itself. This is because in times of illness the inevitability of death becomes a stark reality. ... Far from being an event that touches only our body, and that for a limited time, illness often forces us to assume a spiritual struggle that involves our whole being, and destiny. ...

...Orthodox Christianity brings to the holistic treatment of a sick person a philosophically ascetic orientation increasingly alien to the way we live and think in the modern West.

For example, Orthodoxy encourages believers to pray for good health, but more importantly, to pray for what is most spiritually useful. Orthodoxy enjoins the patient to see his illness in the entire context of his life, and how it can be used to deepen his relationship with God. Elder Zacharias, a monk from the Orthodox monastery in Essex, England, tells of a woman who approached him with a diagnosis of six months to live. She had incurable cancer. "Wonderful," he told her. "You have six months to prepare for the most important encounter of your life." She used that time to work with him, in prayer and counseling, to meet God. He reports that on his final visit with her, her body was ravaged, but her face was luminous. She told the elder that she didn't feel worthy of the grace of having that illness. Orthodox Christianity could not prevent death, but it helped this woman imbue her suffering with meaning, and to bear it with grace, dignity, and even, in the end, joy.

Comments

[Terry]

Oh, and I thought the sandals were all about style and coolness. I was in infant nursery this morning so I missed any explanations from the pulpit. :-)

[Jorge Bessa]

Awesome! God bless you and thanks for sharing it. Wow!

[Annette Harrison]

Hi David . . .

Thanks so much for this very helpful and encouraging post. Having just had a family member diagnosed with Stage 3 ovarian cancer, it was more timely than I can tell you. Thank you for your faithfulness in sharing these thoughts, even when maybe you didn't feel like it.

[Vicki L]

I will be the evidence that you have more than three readers...

What a great "find" in this book! Isn't God gracious to give us peeks into his glory and grace just when we need it the most!

Your Winter Haven friends are praying for you and your family,
Vicki

[Anne]

Reader five signing in. Books don't get tangled up with IV lines and are easier to cuddle up with, in bed or the blasted chemo chair. Keeping you in prayer. Anne - stg III

[David Zook]

What an awesome way of treating illness. Thanks for posting it.

[Angie Sutton]

No. 7 reporting in. Thanks for letting us hear from you. We are continuing to pray for you daily.

[Dan Phillips]

8

[Dan]

Number nine, number nine, number nine.... Oh sorry, I was having a Beatles moment there ;)

[Rong]

Number 10 here. Even your old blogging stalkers are still about Dave. When you're up to it please do keep giving us your pearls of wisdom and letting us know how you're doing.

[A. Amos Love]

Thought this might be a blessing.

"God's Words of Comfort & Healing"

web.me.com/love101

Lot's of 8 x 10 posters proclaiming The Word of God.

Two free E-books.

10 topics of scriptures text and audio.
Free download to iTunes.

[Mark Daniels]

This is great...and so hard to live out.

God bless!

Mark

[Richard]

A book that has helped us as my wife and I walk through her cancer together is "Being Well When We're Ill," a terrific work by Marva Dawn; I just ran across a copy at our local library. Also, Michael Horton's short but powerful book, "Too Good to be True," which contains a lot of Luther's "Theology of the Cross vs a Theology of Glory." Luther's Heidelberg Disputation is powerful stuff.