Illness

How can it be confronted as a Christian?

Where does illness originate?

The Christian faith affirms that God did not create illness. It entered the world because of the first sin committed by Adam and Eve, when, tempted by the Devil, and abusing their liberty, they disobeyed God. Later on the sins of every single person increased human suffering in the world.

God, therefore, does not will illness; He did not create illness and death.

But, the moment in which they entered the world because of sin, his love reached out fully to restore man to health, to heal him from sin and from every evil and to bring him the fullness of life, peace and joy. For this purpose He sent His Son, Jesus, who died and rose to liberate us from sin and its consequences.

What is the meaning of illness?

• Illness, which affects everyone sooner or later and which involves the person at all levels (physical, psychological, spiritual, moral) is, and will always remain, a mystery, an enigma.

Science and technology can help us respond to illness. They can cure it; alleviate it, eradicate it at least in part, but they can never eliminate it completely. And above all, they can never provide a satisfying answer to the fundamental questions that suffering and death raise in the heart of man.

It is necessary to deepen our understanding of illness, pain and suffering, keeping in mind also their medico-scientific, historical, philosophical, biblical and theological foundations.

It is particularly important to study the scriptural texts concerning suffering and the meaning of death;

The ultimate meaning of such realities can be discovered only in the light of the Christian faith. ''Through Christ and in Christ, the riddles of sorrow and death grow meaningful. Apart from His Gospel, they overwhelmus.'' (Gaudium et spes, 22)

God, in fact, did not spare the suffering and even the death of his divine Son, Jesus, who overcame sin and its effects (illness, suffering, violence and death) through his death on the cross and, above all, through his Resurrection.

And this victory Christ won first of all for himself, destroying death through his Resurrection, and then later also for us. Indeed, through Baptism, instituted by Christ, we are freed from Original Sin and we rise to the new life of the children of God. During, then, the whole course of our life on earth, struggling against sin and its consequences, we win, with Christ, our victory, which for now is partial, while waiting for the definitive victory which Christ will realise for us at the end of the world when he will destroy all suffering, pain, illness and death definitively.

Therefore, suffering can become a serene abandonment to the divine will and a participation in the sacrifice of Christ.

Why do illness and suffering continue to exist in spite of God being good, omnipotent and provident?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says in this regard:

''To this question, as pressing as it is unavoidable and as painful as it is mysterious, no quick answer will suffice. Only Christian faith as a whole constitutes the answer to this question: the goodness of creation, the drama of sin, and the patient love of God who comes to meet man by His covenants, the redemptive Incarnation of His Son, His gift of the Spirit, His gathering of the Church, the power of the sacraments, and His call to a blessed life to which free creatures are invited to consent in advance, but from which, by a terrible mystery, they can also turn away in advance. There is not a single aspect of the Christian message that is not in part an answer to the question of evil.

But with infinite Wisdom and goodness God freely willed to create a world ''in a state of journeying'' towards its ultimate perfection. In God's plan this process of becoming involves the appearance of certain beings and the disappearance of others, the existence of the more perfect alongside the less perfect, both constructive and destructive forces of nature. With physical good there exists also physical evil as long as creation has not reached perfection.

In time we can discover that God in his almighty providence can bring a good from the consequences of an evil, even a moral evil, caused by his creatures. From the greatest moral evil ever committed - the rejection and murder of God's only Son, caused by the sins of all men - God, by His grace that ''abounded all the more'', brought the greatest of goods: the glorification of Christ and our redemption. But for all that, evil never becomes a good.

We firmly believe that God is master of the world and of its history. But the ways of His providence are often unknown to us. Only at the end, when our partial knowledge ceases, when we see God ''face to face'' (1 Cor 13:12), will we fully know the ways by which - even through the dramas of evil and sin - God has guided His creation to that definitive Sabbath rest for which He created heaven and earth.'' (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 309-314)

What is the Church's attitude towards sick people?

The Church, in her constant concern for the sick:

• Proclaims and witnesses to the gospel of suffering illuminated by faith;

Has always accompanied, and continues to accompany, the preaching of the Gospel, with initiatives for the care and the healing of the innumerable people who suffer;

• Offers her own specific contribution through human and spiritual accompaniment of the sick;
• Invites the sick person to be open to the message of the love of God, who is always attentive to the tears of those who turn to him;
• Supports the importance of the pastoral care of the sick, in which the hospital chapels play a special role of relief by contributing to the spiritual well being of those who live in the health structures;
• Favours the growth of that precious contribution made by volunteers who, through their service demonstrate living charity which instils hope even in the human experience of suffering. It is also through such volunteers that Jesus continues today to be present among the sick to help them and to heal them.

What are the positive aspects that come from illness?

Illness can:

Help make us aware of our limits, of our human fragility, of the provisional nature of our journey here on earth;

• Give rise to a deep and wide network of solidarity at the level of the family and society (voluntary);
• Offer the possibility of discerning the plan of God in one's life. The ''key'' to such discernment is the Cross of Christ. The Word Incarnate assumed our weakness, taking it upon himself in the mystery of the Cross. One who accepts suffering in his life, illuminated by faith, becomes a source of hope and of salvation for others;
• Constitute a concrete possibility, offered to our freedom, to decide what conclusion to choose for our existence;
• Have also a redemptive value for oneself and for others. If suffering is united with that of Christ, it becomes a participation in the salvific work of Jesus Christ, it becomes a means of salvation, and it can reap benefits, moral and spiritual, for the patient and for humanity. ''I am completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church.'' (Col 1:24)

What benefits does the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick bring?

Such a sacrament, instituted by Christ not for the dead but for the living, i.e. for the Christian who is gravely ill:

Confers a special gift of the HolySpirit: a grace of comfort, of peace and of courage to:

Confront the difficulties of illness;

Unite oneself more intimately with the passion of Christ;

Contribute to the good of the People of God.

Pardons all sins, if it were not possible to celebrate the sacrament of Confession earlier;

Favours sometimes recovery, if that is good for the spiritual salvation of the sick;

Prepares one for the passage to eternal life;

Allows one to take advantage of the prayers of the whole Church which:

Intercedes for the good of the patient

Suffers together with the patient

It offers, through Christ, to God the Father.

What is the Christian conception of palliative treatment?

The Christian Faith:

Recognises the validity and the necessity in such cases of palliative treatments ''which seek to make suffering more bearable in the final stages of illness and to ensure that the patient is supported and accompanied in his or her ordeal.'' (John Paul II, Evangelium vitae, 65). It is in fact aimed at alleviating, especially in terminal patients, a vast gamut of symptoms of physical, psychological and mental suffering, and so demands the intervention of a team of specialists with medical, psychological and religious competence working closely among themselves to sustain the patient during a critical phase;

• Affirms at the same time the necessity of respecting the freedom of those patients who are in a position and to the extent possible ''to be able to satisfy their moral and family duties, and above all they ought to be able to prepare in a fully conscious way for their definitive meeting with God'' (op.cit., n.65);
• Recommends that the administration of analgesics be effectively proportionate to the intensity and to the treatment of suffering, avoiding every form of euthanasia which they could have while administering enormous doses of analgesics with the aim of causing death;
• Reminds the so-called Double Effect principle in connection with the use of such drugs: if in fact they are used to relieve pain, they could on the other hand possibly induce dependency or even accelerate the lethal effects of the illness;
• Encourages the formation of specialists in palliative care, especially through the creation both of educational structures for those who would be interested, even psychological and pastoral workers, and of houses for terminal patients, remembering that already in the 1st Century, at the time of Pope St Cletus - the third successor of St Peter - the Church had made provisions for their construction.

What does the Christian faith say about aggressive medical treatment?

The Christian faith affirms that:

• The refusal of Aggressive Medical Treatment is not a refusal of the patient or of his life;
• The subject of discussion about whether to commence or to continue a therapeutic treatment is not the value of the patient's life, but the nature of the medical intervention;

The eventual decision not to undertake or to terminate a treatment is held to be ethically correct when this proves ineffective or clearly disproportionate to the aim of the sustenance of life or the improvement of the patient's health;

The refusal of Aggressive Medical Treatment, therefore, is an expression of respect which is proper to every patient.

When will illness, suffering and death have their end?

They will have their end when the Lord Jesus Christ returns at the end of time to liberate the universe from corruption and from death and to renew it with ''the new heavens and a new earth.'' (2Pet 3:13)

NB: In order to deepen the subject, you may read the following pontifical documents:

* The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), 1992.

* John Paul II:

Salvifici doloris, 1984

-Evangelium vitae, 1995

* Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Donum Vitae,1987.