Author
Liturgical Date
Readings
One of the many reasons why the faith is discarded today is the apparent lack of agreement with scientific data. We cannot believe, so they say, because faith is far too irrational, full of events that can’t be proven by a serious and verifiable method. Instead of evidence there is only superstition. Today’s Gospel may show an example of such weakness in trying to find proof. There is a miracle, which in itself is already a doubtful thing to the learned; there is also a link made between sickness and sin, which may also seem absurd. If we read the account closely in fact, Christ performs the miraculous healing as evidence of his power to pardon sins, not as a method for forgiving sins. Notwithstanding this often happening in the Gospels but also in the entire Bible, we see examples of people with great sicknesses, such as Job, caused according to the author, by their sins. In itself, the idea that God sends a bodily affliction to atone for a spiritual wound is not beyond our grasp as Christians. Since this image of God is difficult to accept for one who has little faith in God, let us search to see if there is another link, one more scientific, between sin and sickness.
We begin with sicknesses. What causes them? Scientific research has shown there are many causes. There are bacterial diseases, viruses, genetic disease, venereal disease, fractures caused by accidents, pollutants, from drugs, and many more. One of the recent discoveries from the last few years which is most interesting is that daily stress can have many negative effects upon the body. A high level of tension can increase blood pressure; it can increase the heart rate and cholesterol levels. All of these effects can lead to serious physical conditions such as a stroke or heart attack. Science understands the link between stress and health, a link which can be seen even in the ancient stoics such as Seneca, and it offers many natural remedies for sicknesses. The growing importance of vacation, in fitness culture, a balanced diet and the opening of specialist clinics to aid a better night’s sleep, all are examples of the developing realization in science between stress and health. Exercise, to sleep well, to rest, to eat well- all of these can decrease stress and improve health.
But if the world understands that stress can affect and damage health, what actually is stress and what is the main cause? It’s a word with many meanings. Usually, we think of rushing, the tension at work, and tension in the family and between people- these raise blood pressure. The basic problem is that daily life does not meet our expectations. Ancient monks used to call this the vice of sadness. There is no tension, no stress when all happens as we wanted. The sadness comes at the moment our desire is blocked. When there’s no traffic, when our husband or wife is content with what we’ve done, when a boss likes the work of his employee there is no stress. Therefore if we want to decrease stress we have to do one of two things- seek to build a world which matches our idea, or we change our idea. Naturally of these two possibilities the second is more doable. The daily work of a Christian is to accept everything that Providence brings to us, and to act for the good, as St. Paul says: “all things work to the Good to those who love the Lord.”
Exterior stress can be made much better with accepting providential circumstances and then stress will decrease and health will improve, yet there is also a more subtle, more interior stress which can cause many health problems. It is a stress which is part of the will, not part of the external world for how others should act, but how I should act. This negative stress of being wrong is called shame. An example; a husband comes home for dinner after work, and his wife has made a nice meal but forgot that he doesn’t eat peppers, he gets a little irritated but nothing serious. His wife however, instead of simply saying she’s sorry and moving on, begins to rebuke herself. She doesn’t say “I was wrong” but “I am wrong, I’m bad”. The first attitude “I was wrong” is enough to make up for it, the second “I am wrong” creates shame which brings many nasty effects. Having cooked with red peppers and feeling terrible, his wife, in order to feel better drinks heavily or maybe treats her husband abruptly, not because he deserves it but because she feels bad. Later at the end of the day when her husband comes home from work she feels worse for having treated her husband badly, feeling more ashamed of the shame she felt and looks for another way to calm down. Instead of prayer she watches television.
So as not to think that shame is a problem only for women there are also many examples for men. A monk for example, sleeps through Vigils and arrives late, and he is given a punishment because of it. Instead of saying, I made a mistake, he rebukes himself saying, I am bad, I shouldn’t miss the office. He feels ashamed, not sorry. Or a husband who is criticized at work; he feels bad and depressed, coming back home he doesn’t want to explain what happened to his wife and he looks instead for a refuge, a satisfaction in pleasure; maybe he drinks, looks for another woman or watches pornography. All of these are because, according to him, he shouldn’t make mistakes. The words “should” and “must” are usually a sign of pride and brings shame as the consequence. Shame brings sadness, stress, and ill health.
Considering well our condition as human beings it is not a surprise that we fall, that we make mistakes, it is more surprising when we do well. The Mass collect expresses this in a beautiful manner: “tibi sine te placere non possumus” (without you we cannot please you). However when we make frequent mistakes, instead of being truly sorry, we feel this shame, if we remember how man’s beginnings are recorded in Genesis, we find that shame is a result of the fall. Before taking the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil Adam and Eve “were both naked and did not feel ashamed.” After “their eyes were opened and they knew that they were both naked, joined fig leaves together and made themselves belts.” Shame is the immediate effect of having wanted knowledge of evil; we have to live with that shame until death.
Christ, however, has opened a new window for us; he has given us a cure for shame. As Saint Paul says, “For the joy which was set before him he endured the Cross, despising shame and sat at the right hand of the throne of God.” The true cure for interior shame can not be found in a New Age cure, in a nihilistic aestheticism, and neither in a series of sins and delusions. Christ has given us the true cure for shame in his nakedness on the Cross. God promised death to Adam and Eve for eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Christ dying for us has cancelled that death and has given us life.
The miracle performed in today’s Gospel does not explicitly say that the sickness is a result of sin, but modern science has helped us to understand how important joy is for health. The challenge today is to understand that true joy is a result of sanctity and of virtue. The challenge today is not to seek to neutralize stress, the daily sadness with polluted joy. True joy comes only when we serenely accept Divine Providence both in the good and the bad, both in the people around us and also within us in the profound depths of the heart. Accepting providence, fighting against shame, we unite ourselves evermore to the mystery of the Cross. Only the light of the Cross of Christ can illuminate the profound darkness of the heart, because Lord: “apud te est fons vitae et in lumine tuo videbimus lumen” (with You is the fountain of life; in Your light do we see light).