The Way of Christ and Practice of Medicine
by Fr. Symeon Kees
Creation and Life
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Before God created, nothing existed, but God Himself. God is the Uncreated One who created all things. He is the Existing One – The One Who Is – that brought all things into existence. God is the Unbegotten Father. The Father is Uncreated – He has no beginning. The Father has never been alone. His Son, the Word (called the Logos in Greek and the Tao in Chinese) is not the Father, but has always existed with the Father. The Father and Son share the same Uncreated Essence. So, the Son has always existed with God (the Father) and is God (the Son) Himself. As St. John the Theologian wrote, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” The Father and Son have always existed together with the Holy Spirit, who Proceeds from the Father without beginning. The Holy Spirit shares the same Uncreated Essence as the Father and Son. So, One God exists – One Power, One Energy, One Divine Will. He is the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit: Three Persons, each distinct from the others; One Essence that cannot be divided into parts. No such thing as “God in general” exists. The identity of God is very specific. He is the True and Living God – The One Who Is – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The Personal God (One Trinity in Three Persons) created everything that exists. After bringing the earth into being, He made our first ancestors, named Adam and Eve, as persons in His Image. They were endowed with the unique potential to become like God, to attain perfection. They were immortal and full of life because they experienced the uncreated Life-giving energy of God. St. Symeon the New Theologian explained that “Adam was made with a body that was incorrupt, although material and not yet spiritual, and was placed by the Creator God as an immortal king over an incorrupt world, not only over Paradise, but also over the whole of creation which was under the heavens.”[1]
Diagnosis: Death
God gave Adam and Eve all the trees in the Garden of Paradise to eat, except only one – the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Rejecting God’s command, they did what was completely unnatural for their human nature: they used their free will to be disobedient, using their own wills to diverge from the Divine Will that leads to Life. By turning away from God, Who is Life, they separated themselves from the experience of Life-giving energy, they fell into the experience of death, which is the absence of the experience of Life.[2] They also brought the creation down with them into corruption and chaos. The first sin brought a cataclysmic impact and produced a pervasive corrosive effect on the entire universe.
In our world, innocent children often inherit diseases and other medical conditions, such as fetal drug addiction, because of the behaviors of their parents. Most significantly, all of us who share the human race, are born into this world innocent, yet afflicted with death, which affects the body and soul:
- The experience of death in the body is evident in the sickness and, ultimately, the death of our mortal bodies. Our bodies are corruptible.
- The experience of the death in the soul is evident in the many manifestations of spiritual illness, which also manifests itself in mental and physical sickness. Aspects of our spiritual sickness include these things:
- Pride (egotism, narcissism, self-love)
- Darkening of the heart (nous – the spirit, eye of the soul, spiritual intellect)
- Disconnection between the rational mind (by which we think, study, and understand concepts) and the heart (the spiritual mind through which we experientially know God directly and perceive the invisible realm).
- Forgetfulness (of who God is, of what it means to be human, male and female, of the nature of healthy relationships, and of the right Way to live in the world)
- Delusion about God, ourselves, other human beings, truth, spirituality, relationships, the world, and so on.
- Passions (unnatural movements of the soul – laziness, lust, anger, gluttony, etc.) The more we follow the passions, the less we live as human beings and the more we behave like lower animals, irrationally following instinctual inclinations. If we follow the Way of Christ, we live as human beings made according to the divine image who have been granted the potential to become like God and experience the fullness of Life. The passions lead us toward suffering, which is what the word passion means, and a greater experience of death.
- Pride (egotism, narcissism, self-love)
After the first sin, which brought death, God exiled our first ancestors from Paradise. God loves us. He exiled our first parents from Paradise so that they would not eat from the Tree of Life and live perpetually afflicted by death, a state marked by illness, corruption, and inner chaos. He intended to cure our race from death and reopen the gate to Paradise.[3]
Although, after the Fall, our race experienced a darkening of the heart and separation from the experience of God, our early ancestors still held on to some understanding of who God is and worshiped Him as the Creator:
“The men of that time had a recent memory of the Fall, being taught about it in any case by Adam and Eve, and they therefore held God in reverence and honored Him as their Master. It was on account of this reverence that Abel and Cain offered sacrifices of their possessions to God…. Thus for years knowledge about God was transmitted through a succession of teachers, and the ancients recognized their Creator. Later, though, when men had multiplied, and from their youth had turned their thoughts to evil, they were dragged down to forgetfulness and ignorance of the God Who had made them, and worshiped not only idols and demons as god, but even deified the very creation which God had given them for their service.”[4]
As St. Paul explained in his Letter to the Romans,
“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.”[5]
Without the experience of God in the heart, our ancestors laid greater dependence on rational opinions and philosophical guesses. Having darkened hearts, their rational minds because delusional. They devised myths to explain the world around them and developed religious systems based on these myths. Having lost the experience of God in their hearts and having forgotten the teachings passed down about who the Existing One truly is, our race confused the Uncreated One with the created world. Since we, who are made according to God’s Image, lost the knowledge of the true God, then we also forgot our identity as human beings, persons with potential to become more than we are. We likewise became confused about what it means to be male and female and our relationship as human beings to each other. As St. Paul continued,
“Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful….”[6]
Speaking to the philosophers in Athens, St. Paul confirmed that even in the age of spiritual darkness after the Fall, God did not abandon the human race, but
“From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. “For in him we live and move and have our being.”[7]
Justin the Philosopher likewise explained that some truth exists even among man-made religions to the degree that humans beings were able to experience the living divine Word. The Word (Logos or Tao) is the Son Who has always existed with the Father and the One through Whom the Father created and sustains all things. There is a seed of the Word found in man-made religions, although the fullness of the Truth is found only in the Way revealed by the Son, the One Who is the Living Truth.[8] Since Truth is not a collection of factual philosophical statements, but the Living Word, then knowing truth and being guided by Truth does not mean ascribing to correct facts about existence, but personally experiencing the One Who is Truth and following His Way. As St. Justin wrote, “For whatever either lawgivers or philosophers uttered well, they elaborated by finding and contemplating some part of the Word. But since they did not know the whole of the Word, which is Christ, they often contradicted themselves.”[9] The problem with man-made religion is not what is understood rightly within the doctrine, but what they misunderstood about God and humanity.
The Rescue: From Death to Life
The Existing One chose the descendants of Abraham, his son, Isaac, and his son, Jacob (called “Israel”) to be a holy nation through whom He would apply the divine Medicine to free us from death and cure our sickness. God revealed Himself to the Israelites, especially through Prophets, and, while the disease afflicting mankind continued to manifest itself, prepared them for the appointed time when the Father would send the Son into the world to heal it.[10]
The Son of God, the Word of the Father, became a human person in the womb of Mary, His Virgin Mother. The Son, who fills the whole universe and contains the whole universe within Himself, took on our human nature in order to heal and transform it. As St. John the Theologian wrote in the Gospel, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1.14).[11]
While on earth, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, revealed to our race the Way of salvation, that is, the Way of personal healing and transformation.[12] He healed physical diseases to show us His power to heal both the body and the soul from death. To three of His disciples, Peter, James, and John, Christ revealed what a healed human being looks like. On Mt. Tabor, He opened the hearts of the disciples to see His glory, the glory which was always there, but not visible to darkened human hearts without divine help. They saw the Master’s clothes as white as light and His face radiating with the divine energy of the Holy Trinity. Christ showed us that salvation involves the healing of soul and body together, both united with God and radiating with divine energy, which is grace and glory by another name. Although the glory seen radiating from Christ is His own, we are called to be united with Him and participate in His glory. This is what the Fathers mean when they teach that God became human that we might become god, that is, what Christ is by nature, being God, we are called to be by grace, that His own divine energy might heal, perfect, and transfigure us, body and soul.[13]
Since sickness had blinded the heart of our race, His own creatures, not recognizing Him because of the darkness in their hearts, crucified Him:
“Today He is suspended on a Tree
who suspended the earth over the waters.
A crown of thorns was placed on the head
of the King of angels.
He who wore a false purple robe
covered the heavens with clouds.
He was smitten who, in the Jordan, delivered Adam.
The Groom of the Church was fastened with nails
and the Son of the Virgin was pierced with a spear.
Thy suffering we adore, O Christ.
Make us to behold thy glorious Resurrection.” [14]
As it is true that Christ was crucified at the hands of sinful men, Christ, knowing all things, was born as one of us to die as one of us. Although His enemies intended to show by His death that He was not a true king, Christ willingly ascended the Cross in the flesh to destroy death and show Himself as the King of Glory. Since He is Life Himself and the Life-Giver, death could not contain Him. As St. John Chrysostom proclaimed through a sermon still preached every year on Pascha 1,600 years later,
“He that was taken by death has annihilated it! He descended into hades and took hades captive! He embittered it when it tasted his flesh! And anticipating this Isaiah exclaimed, “Hades was embittered when it encountered thee in the lower regions.” It was embittered, for it was abolished! It was embittered, for it was mocked! It was embittered, for it was purged! It was embittered, for it was despoiled! It was embittered, for it was bound in chains!
It took a body, and face to face met God! It took earth and encountered heaven! It took what it was but crumbled before what it had not seen! “O death where is thy sting! O hades, where is thy victory?”
Christ is risen, and you are overthrown! Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen! Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice! Christ is risen, and life reigns!”[15]
By His own death in the body, Christ destroyed the power of death over us, resurrecting our human nature, body and soul, to immortality. As Orthodox Christians sing on Pascha, “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!” By His Resurrection, Christ has shown the Cross, an ancient instrument of execution, to be an Invincible Weapon, a Trophy of Triumph, and the Tree of Life. The church sings in honor of the Cross:
Hail! guide of the blind, physician of the sick and resurrection of all the dead. O precious Cross, thou hast lifted us up when we were fallen into mortality. Through thee corruption has been destroyed, and incorruption has flowered forth; we mortal men are made divine and the devil is utterly cast down…. We exalt Him who was lifted high upon thee, and we venerate thee, plenteously drawing forth from thee great mercy.[16]
Forty days after His glorious Resurrection, Christ bodily ascended into heaven, raising our human nature to the heavenly heights. Ten days later, Christ sent the Holy Spirit upon the Church, established upon His Holy Apostles, to indwell it as the true temple of God on earth. Indwelled and guided by the Holy Spirit, the church remains the “pillar and ground of truth.”[17] While some ancient teachers knew the Truth partially, the Church has received and knows the whole Truth fully and personally. In ancient pagan religions, truths were mingled with falsehood based on human imagination, opinion, and demonic influence contradicting the Truth. As St. Justin the Philosopher wrote, “Whatever things were rightly said among all men, are the property of the Christians. For next to God, we worship and love the Word who is from the unbegotten and ineffable God, since also He became man for our sakes, that, becoming a partaker of our sufferings, He might also bring us healing.”[18]
The Church – Our Hospital
The Church is the hospital planted by God upon the earth for the healing of our race. The life of the Church is the Way of healing, the Way of transformation, the Way of Christ. The Church is the fountain of medicine and the context of therapy to cure the ills of the soul. St. Ephraim the Syrian described the Church:
“The assembly of saints
bears resemblance to Paradise:
in it each day is plucked
the fruit of Him who gives life to all;
in it, my brethren, is trodden
the cluster of grapes, to be the
Medicine of Life.
The serpent is crippled and bound
by the curse,
while Eve’s mouth is sealed
with a silence that is beneficial
— but it also serves once again
as a harp to sing the praises of her Creator.” [19]
The Church has always regarded medicine as a gift from God and the work of a physician as a ministry of the Church. As God chooses to heal the physical body through the intercessions of the Saints, through sanctified elements of the creation, such as Holy Oil, God also heals through the physicians work. The ministry of the physician is revealed in the Old Testament:
“My son, do not be negligent when you are sick. But pray to the Lord and He will heal you. Depart from transgression and direct your hands aright, and cleanse your heart from every sin. Offer a sweet-smelling sacrifice and a memorial of the finest wheat flour; and pour oil on your offering, as if you are soon to die. And keep in touch with your physician, for the Lord created him, and do not let him leave you, for you need him. There is a time when success is also in their hands, for they will pray to the Lord to give them success in bringing relief and healing, for the sake of preserving your life. He who sins before the One who made him, may he fall into the hands of a physician.”
St. Basil the Great affirmed the blessed place of the medical arts in the Church, explaining that
“the medical art has been vouchsafed us by God, who directs our whole life, as a model for the cure of the soul, to guide us in the removal of what is superfluous and in the addition of what is lacking. Just as we would have no need of the farmer’s labor and toil if we were living amid the delights of paradise, so also we would not require the medical art for relief if we were immune to disease, as was the case, by God’s gift, at the time of Creation before the Fall. After our banishment to this place, however, and after we had heard the words: ‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread,’ through prolonged effort and hard labor in tilling the soil we devised the art of agriculture for the alleviation of the miseries which followed the curse, God vouchsafing us the knowledge and understanding of this art.”[20]
St. Luke the Evangelist, author of one of the four Gospels and of the Acts of the Apostles served as a physician. Some of the Saints who lived within the first few centuries after Pentecost include those known as Unmercenary Physicians, called by that name because they healed without accepting money for their ministry. Ss. Panteleimon, Hermalaus, Cosmas and Damian, and Cyrus and John are counted among these faithful healers. After the ascension of St. Constantine as Emperor of the Roman Empire, thereby establishing an Orthodox Christian empire that endured for over 1,000 years, the Church continued supporting its medical ministry. The motivation of the Church’s medical ministry was not due to secular notions of human rights or social justice, but philanthropia, love for our fellow human beings. Christ calls us to express self-less love to our neighbors, alongside our love for God and in response to God’s love for us. As recounted in The Birth of the Hospital in the Byzantine Empire:
“From their origins in the fourth century until 1453 Byzantine hospitals were conceived as expressions of Christian charity. They carried out in the real world the orthodox doctrine regarding philanthropic medicine. When Basil the Great opened his extensive charitable institution—his ptochotropheion—outside Caesarea, he saw its medical services as the deepest possible expressions of philanthropia. As Gregory of Nazianz phrased it, one could see their love put to the test in their treatment of disease. John Chrysostom built his hospitals in Constantinople ‘for the glory of Christ’ and staffed them with ascetics who viewed their service to the sick as a religious duty. Sampson, the legendary physician of the Eastern capital, founded his hospital on the principles of the physicians’ profession and on the divine laws which Christ laid down. Even after Justinian introduced the archiatroi of the ancient pagan profession in the Christian xenones, a step which encouraged lay professionals to enter hospital service at all levels on the staff, the religious mission of the nosokomeion was never forgotten. When, about 800, Theodore Stoudites described a large nosokomeion with a complete staff of physicians and nurses, he emphasized that all the doctors from the chief physicians to the practical nurses strove to follow the divine plan of philanthropia. When John II Komnenos established the Pantokrator Xenon in the twelfth century, he prayed that it would always be a fountain of mercy, a refuge for men and women, a pure offering to the Lord. Moreover, John hoped that the philanthropia which he displayed in founding this hospital would attain for him the forgiveness of his many sins. The emperor also reminded the physicians, medical assistants (hypourgoi), and servants of the Pantokrator that they should never neglect patients, since Christ, the Creator of All, considered these sick his beloved brethren. Thus, John wanted the monks and the lay staff of the Pantokrator complex to care not only for the buildings he had built—the lifeless temples—but especially for the patients of the hospital—the living temples of God.”[21]
The Great Schism: Separation of the Western World from the Life of the Church
Five major centers of Christianity, called Patriachates, emerged in the Empire: Rome, Constantinople (which had become the new capital of the Roman Empire and, therefore, called New Rome), Alexandria in Egypt, Antioch in Syria (where “Christians” were first called by that name), and Jerusalem (the place of Christ’s Crucifixion and glorious Resurrection.) In the year 800, the Patriarch (Pope) of the Orthodox Patriachate of Rome crowned Charles the Great, or Charlemagne, as the Emperor of a new empire, called the Holy Roman Empire. By doing so, the Pope of Rome and Charlemagne set up a rival throne to Christendom in the East where symphonia (harmony) existed between the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church and the God-crowned Emperor. In the West, within the Holy Roman Empire, the Pope of Rome asserted authority over all the bishops of the Church contrary to the conciliar relationship among brother bishops that existed in the Orthodox Church. This claim contradicted the conciliar relationship among brother bishops that had existed within the Orthodox Church. Additionally, Rome unilaterally changed the words of the Nicene Creed, the “Symbol of Faith” accepted and received by the whole Christian Church since the fourth century. Eventually, with the rise of the Roman Papacy and changing of the Creed, the Orthodox Patriachate of Rome, already cut off from the Christian Roman Empire in the East, separated herself from the Orthodox Church. Distancing herself from the living Holy Tradition of the Church, Roman Catholicism (Papism) was born and developed in the West. This Great Schism between Rome (and her territory in Western Europe) from the original Orthodox Church in the East accounts for the tremendous difference between Roman Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity in past centuries and today. While the teachings of the Orthodox Church have remained unchanged, Roman Catholicism, having adopted theological opinion at divergence with the historical Christian Faith, continued to change.[22]
About 500 years after the Great Schism, the Protestant movement began in Western Europe as a reaction against Roman Catholicism. Ironically, many of the doctrines borrowed by Protestants from Roman Catholicism were not Biblical teachings, but rather Roman Catholic innovations contrary to the timeless Apostolic teaching of the ancient Church, which wrote and compiled the Holy Scripture and preserved Scriptural interpretation alongside the sacred text itself. Western Christianity (Roman Catholicism and Protestantism) adopted a philosophical model that identifies inherited guilt as our central human problem. Since guilt inherited from Adam and Eve is misidentified as our problem, Western Christianity tends to emphasize salvation as legal forgiveness. The Orthodox Church has always understood that the core problem of the human race is that we are afflicted with inherited spiritual and physical death. Since death is our problem, then the Way of salvation leads is the path of healing from death, which is the experience of Life. More specifically, salvation is ultimately the personal experience of (and union with) the One who is Life.
The Significance of the Orthodox Way – Right Faith
An Orthodox Christian physician is an Orthodox Christian who seeks to heal others while experiencing the Way of healing himself within the life of the Orthodox Church. The physician who is not a good patient of Christ, the Great Physician, cannot fulfill his full potential in his ministry to heal others. The Orthodox Christian physician must be “Orthodox,” a word that means “right faith” and “right worship.”
The importance of believing in the right faith is not so that we may smugly be correct about external truth, but that we might become internally good – humble, pure of heart, loving, joyful, and full of peace. Physicians know that a person who is healthy can quickly become extremely ill and possibly die if he follows bad advice based on untrue medical claims. A false understanding of the human body, the nature of a disease, what medicines must be taken and how they should be taken, and the total required therapy for healing, really makes a difference in patient health. Similarly, misconceptions about God lead to a distorted view of the human person, human relationships, the nature of the sickness of the soul, and the treatment plan that eliminates sickness and assures good health. St. Ignatius of Antioch, the second bishop of Antioch who lived during the time of the Apostles, warned the Church against the heretics who taught false doctrines and the fraudulent teachings they spread. In a letter to the Ephesians, he wrote,
“For there are some who maliciously and deceitfully are accustomed to carrying about the Name while doing other things unworthy of God. You must avoid them as wild beasts. For they are mad dogs that bite by stealth; you must be on your guard against them, for their bite is hard to heal.”[23]
Likewise, in another letter he wrote,
“I exhort you therefore—not I but the love of Jesus Christ [cf. 1 Cor. 15:10]—use only Christian food and abstain from every strange plant, which is heresy. For they mingle Jesus Christ with themselves, feigning faith, providing something like a deadly drug with honeyed wine, which the ignorant man gladly takes with pleasure; and therein is death.”[24]
Within the Church, the dogma (or teaching) of the Church must be understood in terms of its medicinal role in the healing of the soul. Since Apostolic times, the Church has defended the Truth against those who created theoretical heretical opinions. The Orthodox Way leads to the healing and knowledge of God through humility and prayer. A heretic is one who has drifted away from the Way of healing because of egotism. Blinded by pride, rather than knowing the Truth experientially through prayer and repentance, he trusts in his own innovative opinions. In a haze of self-assured delusion, he considers his rational concepts and theories more correct than the Truth which has been revealed to the Church, reflected in the teachings passed down from generation to generation and confirmed through the personal experiences of the Saints. (Since there is one God, all those who truly know God in the heart through prayer express the same theology. Since God does not change, theology does not change.)
In response to heresy, the Church has expressed dogma to clarify the Truth revealed to the Church. At the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325, for example, the Fathers of the Church who expressed dogma regarding the relationship between the Father and the Son did not create new doctrines or philosophically speculate about theological ideas. Instead, the Fathers simply expressed what the Church has always believed about God in new language that distinguished unchanging, unaltered Truth from innovative heresies that poisoned elements of truth with false opinions. Dogma cannot define the Mystery, which is ungraspable by human thought, but clarifies the boundary along the Way that those who seek to experience the Mystery do not want to cross. The purpose of dogma is to act as a signpost marking the Way of Christ that leads to Life so that one who walks the Way does not drift off course onto one of the many tempting, yet dangerous, paths that lead to confusion, sickness, and death.
Rationally believing that a dogma is correct does not make one healed any more than just believing that a certain medical treatment is effective makes one well. To gain benefit, one must act. With regard to physical health, the physician must prescribe the treatment plan and the patient must follow it. With regard to spiritual health, the person must faithfully remain on the Orthodox Way.
In our “progressive” secular culture, we are bombarded with different competing ideas opposed to the Orthodox Way.[25] Adherents of these doctrines and those who teach them may consider the core principles of their ideology unchallengeable, like religious dogma. In this new “religion,” rights replace the Way of Christ and both inequality and discrimination are its (unforgivable) sins. We reject secular ideologies as suitable substitutes for the timeless Way rooted in the experience of God. As an Orthodox physician, dedicate yourself to learning the Faith with your rational mind and, most importantly, dedicate your heart to prayer, that you may know Christ and His inner Way. Dive into the experience of the spiritual life deeply with humility.
The Significance of the Orthodox Way – Right Worship
To be Orthodox means also to be a Christian of true worship. As Orthodox Christians, we worship the Existing One as opposed to one of the many non-existent gods followed throughout the world. We have been chosen to participate in heavenly worship, not just act out a ritual representation of it, but truly participate in it alongside the Saints from all ages and the angelic bodiless powers. Our worship is ancient, yet always new. When we worship together as Orthodox Christians, we offer our whole lives to God. In return, He gives us the Medicine that heals.
Sunday, called the Lord’s Day, has been the central day of worship for Christians since the Resurrection. St. Gregory Palamas reminds the Orthodox Christian physician, and all of us, to keep Sunday worship central to our lives, even as we live in a secular pagan culture:
“You will see that it was Sunday when the disciples assembled and the Lord came to them. On Sunday He approached them for the first time as they were gathered together, and eight days later, when Sunday came round again, He appeared to their assembly. Christ’s Church continually reflects these gatherings by holding its meetings mostly on Sunday, and we come among you and preach what pertains to salvation and lead you towards piety and a godly way of life.
Let no one out of laziness or continuous worldly occupations miss these holy Sunday gatherings, which God Himself handed down to us, lest he be justly abandoned by God and suffer like Thomas, who did not come at the right time. If you are detained and do not attend on one occasion, make up for it the next time, bringing yourself to Christ’s Church. Otherwise you may remain uncured, suffering from unbelief in your soul because of deeds or words, and failing to approach Christ’s surgery to receive, like divine Thomas, holy healing. There exists not only thoughts and words of faith but also deeds and acts of faith – ‘Shew me’, it says, ‘thy faith by thy works’ (cf. Jas. 2:18) – and if someone abandons these and is completely distanced from the Church of Christ and given over wholly to worthless pursuits, his faith is dead, or non-existent, and he himself has become dead through sin.”[26]
The Orthodox Way – The Way of Healing
The Orthodox Christian is called to receive the Medicines – the Holy Mysteries – of the Church and participate in the ascetical therapy of the Church in order to experience healing and transformation. Asceticism involves prayer and fasting accompanied by genuine humility and repentance, turning away from the path of sin that leads to death. The ascetic endeavor is the spiritual equivalent of physical therapy. Like physical therapy, healing requires the exertion of effort and endurance. In order to heal, one must desire to be well more than he desires comfort, pleasure, and keeping the status quo. Asceticism brings positive change, but personal growth requires us to see ourselves as we truly are – with humility, honesty, and sobriety – so that we can make progress.
Through asceticism we strive to purify our hearts by overcoming the egotism that blinds us from seeing ourselves, others, and the world clearly. Because our hearts are darkened, we operate according to the delusion that we are better than others. We do not live as true, healthy human beings created in the image of God. A healthy human person naturally lives in harmony with the Will of God. He lives humbly and expresses self-less love. The unhealed human being does not live as though he has been made according to the Image of God. Instead, he lives instinctually, following the inner passions, the distorted unnatural and unhealthy movements in the soul. The one who follows the inner passions behaves more like an irrational animal than a man. St. Ephraim the Syrian described our sickness when he wrote,
“The fool, who is unwilling to realize
his honorable state
prefers to become just an animal,
rather than a man,
so that, without incurring judgment,
he may serve naught but his lusts.
But had there been sown in animals
just a little
of the sense of discernment,
then long ago would the wild asses have lamented
and wept at their not
having been human.”[27]
St. Basil further explained that we who were intended to rule the animals in the creation are now ruled by inner beasts, the passions:
“So, you say, what beasts do I have in myself? Indeed you have thousands, and a great crowd of beasts in yourself. And do not consider this statement to be an outrage. Anger is a little beast when it barks in the heart. Is it not wilder than every dog? Is not the deceit lurking in a deceitful soul harder to tame than every lurking bear? Is not hypocrisy a beast? Is not one sharp in insults a scorpion? Is not one who in hiding strikes out in revenge more dangerous than a viper? Is the greedy person not a rapacious wolf? What kind of beast is not in us? Is not the one mad for women a raging horse? For Scripture says, ‘They have become horses mad for women, each neighing toward his neighbor’s wife’ [Jer. 5.8]. It does not say he spoke to woman, but he neighed. It transferred him to that nature of those without reason, because of passion with which he associated himself. Therefore there are many beasts within us.”[28]
As Basil wrote, if we wish to benefit others, we must first heal ourselves from the passions within us:
“Rule the thoughts in yourself, that you may become ruler of all beings. Thus the rule we have been given over animals trains us to rule the things belonging to ourselves. For it is misplaced to be governed at home and govern natures, to be ruled within by prostitute and be mayor of the city by public consent. It is necessary that household affairs be managed well and that good order within be arranged, and thus to received authority over others. Since the word of Scripture will be turned back at you by those you rule if your household affairs are disorderly and disorganized, namely ‘Physician, heal yourself’ [Lk. 4.23], let us heal ourselves first.”[29]
St. Basil’s words constitute a warning to physician to first attend to their own healing in order to best attend to the healing of others.
Since death affects both the physical body and the soul, the Way of Christ leads to the healing and transformation of both the body, ultimately through resurrection, as well as the soul. Therefore, therapy of the Church involves the active participation of both the body and soul. When we worship, we use our will to prostrate our bodies before God (rather than using our bodies to sin against God.) Our fasting involves abstaining from certain foods and limiting the amount of food we eat. If we use our will to determine how we eat in obedience to God rather than eating in obedience to the pleasure-seeking urging of the stomach, we can use our will to control our bodies with regard to other instinctual pleasure-seeking urges contrary to the good health of the soul. Likewise, if we can use our will to control what goes into our mouths, then we can use our will to control the words that proceed from our mouths, which can injure others. Through fasting, always intertwined with prayer, we can become more focused, grow more aware of our dependence on God, loosen our attachment to the corruptible world, and use our will to overcome the passions.
The Orthodox physician understands that the sickness of a patient’s soul must be addressed alongside the illness of the body in order to bring complete health to the patient. If, for example, a patient is powerfully affected by the passion of gluttony, the physical effect, the patient’s eating disorder, may be rooted in a spiritual cause that requires spiritual treatment. The unity of body and soul and the pursuit of the healing of the whole person is the reason the physician looks to the Orthodox priesthood for assistance in the medical ministry of the Church. While the physician seeks to heal the body primarily, while being attentive to the health of the soul, the priest’s focus is the healing of the soul, although the healing of the body (in this life) may certainly accompany it.
Prayer is Central
Being an Orthodox Christian does not just mean rationally agreeing with a list of dogmatic statements, but living the spiritual Way expressed by those dogmas. It does not mean merely attending worship services, but offering God thanks in prayer at all times. Simply, the heart of the Orthodox Christian Way is prayer – prayer with the heart. All that we do in the Church externally leads us to internal prayer and is an expression of internal prayer.
Prayer is at the center of the spiritual life – prayer not only with the rational mind, but prayer with the heart, the spiritual center of the human person. Rational belief, engagement in religious ritual, and private ascetical exercises are all useless without true prayer. Rather than bringing one closer to God, attempts to be Orthodox without prayer and a proper disposition of the heart can lead one down the dangerous path of pride, delusion, narcissism, self-justification, judgmental attitudes toward others, rational speculation divorced from spiritual experience, and adherence to personal opinion rather than truth.
Love is Necessary
Prayer must be accompanied by love. Christ taught us that the natural, healed person loves God and loves others.[30] St. Silouan the Athonite wrote,
“If we wish to love God, we must observe all that the Lord commanded of us in the Gospels. Our hearts must brim with compassion, and not only feel love for our fellow-men but sympathy for every thing created of God. That green leaf on the tree which you needlessly plucked – it was not wrong, only rather a pity for the little leaf. The heart that has learned to love feels sorry for every created thing. But man is a supreme creation, and therefore if you see that he has gone astray, and is bringing destruction on himself, pray for him, and weep for him if you are able, or at least sigh for him in the sight of God. And the soul that acts after this fashion is beloved of the Lord, for she is like unto Him.”[31]
Humility is Required
Prayer must also be accompanied by humility. Without humility, no spiritual progress is made. The humble one sees himself as he is. St. Isaac the Syrian said, “The person who has attained to the knowledge of his own weakness has reached the summit of humility.”[32] St. Silouan explained, “The Lord does not manifest Himself to the proud soul. All the books in the world will not help the proud soul to know the Lord. Her pride will not make way for the grace of the Holy Spirit, and God is known only through the Holy Spirit.”[33] Abba Tithoes, one of the Desert Fathers, taught rightly, ‘The way of humility is this: self-control, prayer, and thinking yourself inferior to all creatures.”[34]’ Physicians must not live a life of delusion, thinking that they are better than others – fellow physicians, assistants, nurses, administrators, and patients— in their midst. They must not imagine that they possess the power to heal without the help of God. A physician with pride in his heart cannot experience healing in his own soul and, no matter how great the skill God has granted him, will fail to reach his full potential. If he practices the medical arts with humility, however, he can heal others beyond the scope of medical knowledge and beyond the limitation of the sciences.
A good patient listens to the instructions of the physicians and carries out the method of treatment so that he may heal. St. Silouan explained, “Even the Lord was obedient. The proud and those who are a law unto themselves prevent the indwelling of grace and therefore never know peace of soul; whereas the grace of the Holy Spirit enters with ease into the soul of the obedient, bringing joy and quiet.”[35] The Orthodox Christian physician, as a good patient, must be obedient to Christ and to those whom Christ has appointed to guide and serve as spiritual physicians within His own Church.
The Ministry of the Clergy
To accomplish healing, God has ordained bishops, the successors of the Apostles, presbyters (literally, “elders”), and deacons. Indeed, if one wishes to know whether a local church is of the true, original Church founded by Christ Himself as the divine Hospital on earth, the person should discover if that church is under the care of an Orthodox bishop. As St. Ignatius indicated,
“Where the bishop is present, there let the congregation gather, just as where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church…. It is a fine thing to acknowledge God and the bishop. He who pays the bishop honor has been honored by God. But he who acts without the bishop’s knowledge is in the devil’s service.”[36]
The bishops and the priests, who serve in obedience to their bishop, serve as physicians of the soul within the Church.[37] Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpakotos has explained that “the person in charge of treatment in the local Church is the Bishop. The Priests under his care are spiritual doctors who celebrate the sacraments with his permission and heal people, and the Deacons and monks are spiritual nursing staff.”[38] The deacons have also been traditionally charged with aiding the priests in providing for the basic needs of the poor. Since Apostolic times, the Orthodox Christian faithful have been called to love their bishop, priests, and deacons and to be obedient to spiritual fathers set apart to guide them along the spiritual Way.
St. Ignatius of Antioch, instructed early Christians to do all things in obedience to the bishop and presbyters (priests) with love. He wrote to the Christians in Ephesus, saying,
“Hence you should act in accord with the bishop’s mind, as you surely do. Your presbytery, indeed, which deserves its name and is a credit to God, is as closely tied to the bishop as the strings to a harp. Wherefore your accord and harmonious love is a hymn to Jesus Christ.”[39]
To the Magnesians, he offered these similar words:
“As, then, the Lord did nothing apart from the Father, either by himself of through the apostles, since he was united with him, so you must do nothing apart from the bishop and the presbyters. Do not try to make anything appear praiseworthy by yourselves, but let there be in common one prayer, one petition, one mind, one hope in love, in blameless joy—which is Jesus Christ, than whom nothing is better.”[40]
Likewise, in his letter to the Trallians, he said,
“For when you subject yourself to the bishop as to Jesus Christ, you appear to me to be living not in human fashion but like Jesus Christ, who died for us so that by believing in his death you might escape dying. Therefore it is necessary that, as is actually the case, you do nothing apart from the bishop, but be subject also to the presbyter as to the apostles of Jesus Christ, our hope; for if we live in him we shall be found in him.”[41]
The Practice of the Orthodox Physician
An Orthodox physician who practices medicine properly as a ministry of the Church must be obedient to the bishop and the presbyters assigned by the bishop. Oversight of the bishop and the presbyters is certainly necessary for a medical practice firmly placed within the life of the Church, attached to a diocese or local parish. A practice that is not under the authority of the bishop is not truly an Orthodox medical ministry.[42] In Orthodox medicine, no separation exists between the healing of body and soul or between the Church and the medical facility.
The Orthodox physician carries out his medical ministry alongside the ministry of the priest in the local parish. As the physician of the body provides a treatment plan for the healing of the body, the priests guide the faithful with regard to the reception of the Medicine and the practice of the prayer-centered ascetical therapy of the Church. As different patients, even those who suffer from the same disease, cannot always be given the same medical treatment, so the specific spiritual instructions given by the priest as a spiritual father to the individual believer differ individually.[43] The physician can also prayerfully guide the patient toward the ministry of the priest, although the patient may choose to ignore that guidance. The patient is free to choose the Way of healing or to reject it. Concerning the necessity for a person to freely submit to spiritual care, St. John Chrysostom explained that
“a lot of tact is needed, so that the sick may be persuaded of their own accord to submit to treatment of the priest, and not only that, but be grateful to them for their cure. If a man struggles when he is bound (for he may still choose to do so), he makes his suffers worse. And if he ignores the words which cut like steel, he adds a second wound through his contempt, and the intention to heal becomes the occasion of a more serious disease. For the man does not exist who can by compulsion cure someone else against his will.”[44]
The Challenge of Practicing Orthodox Christian Medicine in a Secular Society
Until such a time when authentically Orthodox Christian healthcare facilities, universities, and medical schools are established, Orthodox Christian physicians will continue to be educated and practice medicine within secular organizations. Medical students in secular schools are not only trained in scientific methods and medical skill, but also indoctrinated to understand healthcare in terms of the “progressive” secular philosophy dominating our society. Therefore, medical education serves as a Trojan horse carrying a secular philosophy opposed to the Orthodox Christian Way. Since secularism is incompatible with the Way of Christ, Orthodox Christian physicians should be prepared to face conflict within secular environments since they (1) possess a radically different ethos and worldview than those around them, (2) will refuse to perform sinful procedures contrary to the Orthodox Christian Way or refer patients to those who do, and (3) will seek to heal the whole person, body and soul, by directing patients toward bodily health and genuine repentance.[45]
Since the origin of all Truth is God, the Creator who reveals to humanity wonders regarding the operation of the universe, Orthodox Christian physicians should make use of scientific advances. St. Gregory of Nyssa referred to the use of pagan knowledge by the Church as “plundering the Egyptians.” He wrote that “many bring to the Church of God their profane learning as a kind of gift. Such a man was the great Basil, who acquired the Egyptian wealth in every respect during his youth and dedicated this wealth to God for the adornment of the Church, the true tabernacle.”[46] The physician must carefully separate the valuable scientific information from any traces of secular philosophy opposed to Holy Orthodoxy which may be attached to it. St. Basil the Great wrote that this discernment is modeled by the bee, since
“after the manner of bees must we use these writings, for the bees do not visit all the flowers without discrimination, nor indeed do they seek to carry away entire those upon which they light, but rather, having taken so much as is adapted to their needs, they let the rest go. So we, if wise, shall take from heathen books whatever befits us and is allied to the truth, and shall pass over the rest. And just as in culling roses we avoid the thorns, from such writings as these we will gather everything useful, and guard against the noxious.”[47]
St. Gregory Palamas offers similar instruction regarding ancient pagan philosophy that also applies well to dealing with science, the philosophy of science, and, specifically, to the practice of medicine:
“Is there then anything of use to us in this philosophy? Certainly. For just as there is much therapeutic value even in substances obtained from the flesh of serpents, and the doctors consider there is no better and more useful medicine than that derived from this source, so there is something of benefit to be had even from the profane philosophers—but somewhat as in a mixture of honey and hemlock. So it is most needful that those who wish to separate out the honey from the mixture should beware that they do not take the deadly residue by mistake. And if you were to examine the problem, you would see that all or most of the harmful heresies derive their origin from this source.”[48]
He explained further,
“In the case of secular wisdom, you must first kill the serpent, in other words, overcome the pride that arises from this philosophy. How difficult that is! ‘The arrogance of philosophy has nothing in common with humility,’ as the saying goes. Having overcome it, then, you must separate and cast away the head and tail, for these things are evil in the highest degree. By the head, I mean manifestly wrong opinions concerning things intelligible and divine and primordial; and by the tail, the fabulous stories concerning created things. As to what lies in between the head and tail, that is, discourses on nature, you must separate out useless ideas by means of the faculties of examination and inspection possessed by the soul, just as pharmacists purify the flesh of serpents with fire and water. Even if you do all this, and make good use of what has been properly set aside, how much trouble and circumspection will be required for the task!”[49]
Both science and theology are central to the physician’s ministry. Since Orthodox Christian physicians care for the body, primarily, while also contributing to the care of the soul within the context of the life of the Church, the physician draws from scientific knowledge, which is a gift from God, while pursing theological knowledge through a life of prayer. Science and theology are very different. Science is limited to the investigation of the created world for the benefit of mankind and to the glory of God. Theology is the experience of the Uncreated One. No contradiction between science and theology exists within the Church. Science involves the investigation of the corruptible, material creation and the collection and interpretation of data for practical use. What can science with its limitations say about the Uncreated One, the immaterial creation, or man and the cosmos prior to our fall into corruption and death?
Since science involves the open questioning and requisitioning of conclusions, scientific conclusions are always changeable. Science is not dogmatic because theories and models are not fixed, but alterable and disposable. Alternately, theology involves knowing God directly with the heart through prayer. Theology is not composed of scholarly information or academic information in the rational mind, but knowledge directly revealed to the human heart. Orthodox theological writings that use intellectual concepts about God are products of the experience of theology. These writings, including the Holy Scripture and writings of the Fathers written across the centuries, describe and lead the faithful toward experiential theology. Although scientific theory changes significantly over time as man’s understanding of the created universe progresses, theology does not change because God does not change.
The Orthodox Christian Way is not a philosophy and cannot be understood in terms of philosophy. Science should not be confused with philosophy (of science). Theology should not be confused with (religious) philosophy. Such confusion exists in our Western culture. Understanding that the Orthodox Way is not a philosophy proves important with regard to the practice of medicine, especially concerning how to use scientific information and medical knowledge rightly for the benefit of the patient. The refusal of an Orthodox Christian physician to, for example, kill a child by abortion or to refer a patient to another doctor who will perform the abortion is not based on concepts about science and the practice of medicine derived from rational philosophy, but revelation that the embryo is a living human person and abortion is a grave sin. The Orthodox physician must not be subtly deceived into viewing medical issues within the context of secular models, but must bring these issues into the Church. Let the physician be continually mindful to view all things in the context of the life, ethos, and worldview of the Orthodox Church.
Beginning with St. Luke the Evangelist, the Physician-Saints of the Church have shined as radiant examples of true devotion to God, have boldly proclaimed the Gospel of Christ, and have loving cared for the sick. St. Luke the Blessed Surgeon, Archbishop of Simferpol and Crimea, is an example of a Physician-Saint from the past century. He served as a bishop, scientist, medical doctor, surgeon, professor of medicine, and author.[50] Orthodox Christian physicians who practice medicine according to the Tradition of the Church continue a long line of physicians who ministered through the medical arts in the name of Jesus Christ. Through the intercessions of the healing Saints, may Orthodox Christian physicians who practice in our contemporary secular world be inspired to carry out their medical ministry with energetic zeal, sober humility, endless prayer, self-sacrificial love, gentle care, eager obedience, and unwavering faith.
Currently, many Orthodox physicians work in secular organizations sustaining a secular culture incompatible with the Orthodox Way and inhospitable to Orthodox Christians who openly express the Orthodox Faith or endeavor to practice medicine planted within the life of the Church for the good of the body and also the soul of the patient. In such environments, physicians are called to love even those who exhibit hostility and, with eyes remaining on the care of the sick, patiently bear the difficulty with humility and prayer. The Orthodox physician does not provide a service to a customer or consumer. Rather, he ministers to those who are sick and in need of good health by bringing them into a physician-patient relationship that mirrors the words of Holy Scripture:
“Honor the physician with the honor due him, and also according to your need of him, for the Lord created him. Healing comes from the Most High, and he will receive a gift from the king. The physician’s skill will lift up his head, and he shall be admired in the presence of the great…. And keep in touch with your physician, for the Lord created him, and do not let him leave you, for you need him. There is a time when success is also in their hands, for they will pray to the Lord to give them success in bringing relief and healing, for the sake of preserving your life. He who sins before the One who made him, may he fall into the hands of a physician.”[51]
Even though our society is dominated by secularism, the Church retains her mission to be the radiant light of Truth in a dark world, a hospital for the sick, the voice proclaiming Christ, and hands of love amidst selfish, narcissistic materialism. An Orthodox Christian physician is not alone, but, as a member of the Church, is joined with other Orthodox physicians who carry out the same ministry. The common life, prayer, fellowship, and work shared by Orthodox physicians, if joined together locally, could form Orthodox networks or build Orthodox medical facilities for the care of Orthodox Christians and our neighbors, all those who seek to enter under the care of the Great Physician. Whatever places the Orthodox Christian physicians finds themselves, may they endeavor to be good doctors who treat patients well and remain good patients themselves, pursuing first the healing of their own souls.
Endnotes
[1] St. Symeon the New Theologian, Homily 45: “Adam and the First Created World,” The First-Created Man, trans. by Fr. Seraphim Rose (Platina, CA: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 2001), 90.
[2] St. Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns on Paradise, Hymn III.10-12, trans. by Sebastian Brock (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1990), 94-95; “Uncreated energy,” also called “grace” or “glory” refers to God Himself – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Although God in His essence is transcendent, beyond human comprehension and reach, as the sun is to those of us standing on earth, we experience God in His energy, like we experience the rays of the sun as warmth, light, and nourishment. Significantly, Uncreated energy/grace/glory is not a power created by God, but is indeed the living God experienced by His creatures.
[3] St. Basil the Great, “Homily Explaining that God is Not the cause of Evil,” On the Human Condition, trans. by Nonna Vera Harrison, Popular Patristics Series (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2005), 74-75; Understanding the nature of our sickness (diagnosis), physical and spiritual death, is critical for understanding the nature of the prescribed therapy that brings healing to the human person.
[4] St. Symeon the New Theologian, “First Ethical Discourse,” Chapter II, On The Mystical Life, Vol. 1: The Church and the Last Things (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1995), 30.
[5] Romans 1.20-23, NKJV
[6] Romans 1.24-31, NKJV; See Robert B. Edgerton, Sick Societies: Challenging the Myth of Primitive Harmony (New York: The Free Press/Macmillan, 1992) regarding the manifestations of spiritual sickness in primitive societies. The text includes sections on physical illness, mental illness, and treatment of sickness.
[7] Acts 17.26-28, NKJV
[8] St. Justin the Philosopher, “The Second Apology of Justin,” chapter 13, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, ed. by Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2004), 192-193; John 14.6
[9] St. Justin the Philosoper, “The Second Apology of Justin,” chapter X, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, ed. by Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2004), 191-192.
[10] Employing a medical analogy, St. Gregory of Nyssa explained why God waited for so many generations after the entrance of death into the human race to apply the medicine of healing. See The Great Catechism, NPNF, Second Series, Vol. 5.
[11] Christ took on our human nature without any change to His Divine Nature. In other words, even while resting in the womb of Mary as a human baby waiting to be born, He did not cease to fill all things and govern the universe as Logos/Tao of God. For a description of the Incarnation of the Word in the form of Chinese verse, see the First Ennead, ch. 6 and the Second Ennead, chs. 10, 13, and 15 in Hieromonk Damascene, Christ the Eternal Tao.
[12] Ultimately, salvation (s&<zw ) refers to the healing and transfiguration of the human person as well as entrance into the eternal kingdom of heaven. In this sense, the term is used in reference to being saved from chaos, corruption, and death. The term is used broadly within the Church, however, to also refer to being saved from the many dangers that could affect us in daily life: physical sickness, conflict in relationships, unemployment, demonic attack, famine, pestilence, earthquakes, floods, fire, foreign invasions, rioting, civil war, persecution, accidents during travel, etc.
[13] The affirmation of the Church that divine energy transforms body and soul explains why the faithful venerate the relics, especially the bones, of the Saints. The Saints are Saints because of the divine energy at work within them. They truly fulfilled the calling to make their bodies temples of the Holy Spirit. Even after the departure of the soul from the body when they fall asleep in the Lord (physical death), the grace of God remains in their bodies.
[14] Sung at the service of Orthros (Morning Prayer) on Holy Friday. “Orthros on Holy Friday (The Twelve Passion Gospels),” The Services of Great and Holy Week and Pascha (Englewood, NJ: Antiochian Archdiocese, 2006), p. 449.
[15] “The Paschal Homily of our Father Among the Saints, John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople,” The Services of Great and Holy Week and Pascha (Englewood, NJ: Antiochian Archdiocese, 2006), p. 787-788. The word Pascha, which literally means Passover in Greek, is the ancient word for the Feast of the Resurrection, called Easter in the West.
[16] The Festal Menaion, “Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross,” trans. by Mother Mary and His Grace, Bishop KALLISTOS (Ware) (St. Tikhon’s Seminary Press, 1998), 140.
[17] 1 Timothy 3.15
[18] St. Justin the Philosopher, “The Second Apology of Justin,” chapter 13, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, ed. by Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2004), 192-193.
[19] St. Ephrem the Syrian, Hymn VI, Hymns on Paradise, trans. by Sebastian Brock (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1990), 111-112.
[20] St. Basil the Great, “Question 55” in “The Long Rules,” St. Basil: Ascetical Works, trans. by M. Monica Wagner, The Fathers of the Church: A New Translation, Vol. 9 (Wash., D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1962), 330-337.
[21] Timothy S. Miller, The Birth of the Hospital in the Byzantine Empire (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985), 61-62. “Gregory of Nazianz” is known in the Orthodox Church as St. Gregory the Theologian; See also David Bentley Hart, Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), 30-31, 72; The word “Byzantine” or “Byzantium” is commonly used in reference to the Eastern Roman Empire which endured for over 1,000 years from the end of the persecution of the Church in the 4th century until 1453. Although the citizens of the Empire are sometimes called “Byzantines,” they are more correctly referred to as Romans. Still today, Orthodox Christians are called “Rum Orthodox” (“Roman-Orthodox”) since the Orthodox Faith is the Faith of the Christian Roman Empire.
[22] The date often given for the Great Schism is AD 1054. The British Isles are considered Orthodox, however, until the Norman Invasion of AD 1066.
[23] St. Ignatius of Antioch, “Letter to the Ephesians,” par. 7, The Apostolic Fathers, ed. by Jack N. Sparks (Minneapolis, MN: Light and Life, 1978), 79-80. Another translation of the above text is available for free at this address: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.txt
[24] St. Ignatius of Antioch, “Letter to the Trallains,” par. 6-11, The Apostolic Fathers, ed. by Jack N. Sparks, (Minneapolis, MN: Light and Life, 1978), 94-95. Another translation of the above text is available for free at this address: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.txt
[25] For an introduction to secularism, read A Secular Age by Charles Taylor or, for a lighter read, How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor by James K.A. Smith
[26] St. Gregory Palamas, The Homilies, edited and translated by Christopher Veniamin, homily 17, “Explaining the Mystery of the Sabbath and of the Lord’s Day and Referring to the Gospel of New Sunday” (Waymart: Mount Thabor Publishing, 2009), 141. (Here St. Gregory comments on the account of Christ’s appearances to his disciples after His Resurrection as recorded in The Gospel of St. John20.19-29).
[27] St. Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns on Paradise, Hymn XII, trans. by Sebastian Brock (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1990), 19-20
[28] St Basil the Great, First Homily: “On the Origin of Humanity, Discourse 1: On That Which Is According to the Image,” section 19, On the Human Condition, trans. by Nonna Verna Harrison, Popular Patristics Series (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary, 2005), 46-47.
[29] St Basil the Great, First Homily: “On the Origin of Humanity, Discourse 1: On That Which Is According to the Image,” section 19, On the Human Condition, trans. by Nonna Verna Harrison, Popular Patristics Series (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary, 2005), 46-47.
[30] See Luke 10.27-37; John 3.16-17; John 14.15-31; 1 John 4; Ephesians 5.21-33; 1 Corinthians 13
[31] Archimandrite Sophrony, St. Silouan the Athonite, trans. by Rosemary Edmons (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1991), 376.
[32] St. Isaac the Syrian, The Wisdom of Saint Isaac the Syrian, Hom. 45, B 321, trans. by Sebastian Brock (Fairacres, Oxford, 1997), 3, 6.
[33] Archimandrite Sophrony, St. Silouan the Athonite, trans. by Rosemary Edmons (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1991), 303, 306, 420-421, 442.
[34] St. Tothoes, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, trans. by Benedicta Ward (Trappist, KY: Cistercian Publications, 1984), 237.
[35] Archimandrite Sophrony, St. Silouan the Athonite, trans. by Rosemary Edmons (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1991), 303, 306, 420-421, 442.
[36] St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrnaeans, par. 8-9, ANF, vol. 1. The instructions of St. Ignatius are valuable in the 21st century, where many local congregations claim to be part of the Christian Church. Answering the question, “Where is the Church?,” will take one (if he takes action) to the place where he can discover by experience the answer to the question, “What is the Church?” If one wishes to know whether a local congregation is truly of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, that is, the Orthodox Christian Church founded by Jesus Christ, the person should ask the leader of the congregation, “Who is your bishop?” The Church founded by Christ is the found in those places under the authority of an Orthodox bishop, a successor of the Holy Apostles.. If one who claims to be a pastor, priest, or bishop is not in communion with the bishops of the Orthodox Church, then the congregation represented by those non-Orthodox religious leaders, however sincere, is not within the canonical boundaries of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. Where the Church is, there is the Great Physician, the divine therapy, and the Life-giving medicines that heals soul and body.
[37] See Timothy S. Miller, The Birth of the Hospital in the Byzantine Empire (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985), 58-61.
[38] Met. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos, Hesychia and Theology (Levadia, GRE: Birth of the Theotokos Monastery, 2007), 166.
[39] St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Ephesians, par. 4-6, ANE, vol. 1.
[40] St. Ignatius of Antioch, “Letter to the Magnesians,” The Apostolic Fathers, ed. by Jack N. Sparks (Minneapolis, MN: Light and Life, 1978), 88.
[41] St. Ignatius of Antioch, “Letter to the Trallians,” The Apostolic Fathers, ed. by Jack N. Sparks (Minneapolis, MN: Light and Life, 1978), 92-93. St. Ignatius also mentioned the deacons in the same letter: “Similarly all are to respect the deacons as Jesus Christ and the bishop as a copy of the Father and the presbyters as the council of God and the band of the apostles. For apart from these no group can be called the church,”93.
[42] The “Bishop” entry in The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, vol. 1, 291-292 notes, “All ecclesiastical properties, charitable institutions, and hospitals of the bishopric were under the bishop’s disposition but were actually managed and administered by various officials, such as the oikonomos.”
[43] See St. John Chrysostom, Six Books on the Priesthood, trans. by Graham Neville (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1964), 56-58. See also Canon CII of the Quinisext Council (Council of Trullo), AD 692.
[44] St. John Chrysostom, Six Books on the Priesthood, trans. by Graham Neville (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1964), 56-57.
[45] H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr., The Foundations of Christian Bioethics (Lisse, The Netherlands: Swets & Zeitlinger Publishers, 2000), 379.
[46] Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses, trans. by Abraham J. Malherbe and Everett Ferguson (San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006), 63-64.
[47] St. Basil the Great, “Address to Young Men on the Right Use of Greek Literature,” Section IV, from Frederick Morgan Padelford, Essays on the Study and Use of Poetry by Plutarch and Basil the Great, Yale Studies in English 15 (1902), pp. 99-120. Note from source (website): “This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, Ipswich, UK, 2002. All material on this page is in the public domain – copy freely.” Source: http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/basil_litterature01.htm.
[48] St. Gregory Palamas, The Triads, trans. by Nicholas Gendle, Classics of Western Spirituality (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1983), 28-30.
[49] Ibid.; See also Fr. Alexis Trader, Ancient Christian Wisdom and Aaron Beck’s Cognitive Therapy: A Meeting of Minds (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2011), 45-46.
[50] Interestingly, a main-belt asteroid, designated “6161 Vojno-Yasenetsky (1971 TY2),” discovered at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in 1971 was named in honor of St. Luke the Blessed Surgeon. (St. Luke’s birth name is “Valentin Felixovich Voino-Yasenetsky”.) A brief biography of St. Luke along with astronomical details of the asteroid, is available on the website of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Database Browser: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=6161
[51] Wisdom of Sirach 38.1-3, 12-15 (LXX, SAAS translation).
Copyright © 2018 by Fr. Symeon D. S. Kees