Thee alone I follow, Lord Jesus, Who heals my wounds. For what shall separate me from the love of God, which is in Thee? Shall tribulation, or distress, or famine? I am held fast as though by nails, and fettered by the bonds of charity. Remove from me, O Lord Jesus, with Thy potent sword, the corruption of my sins. Secure me in the bonds of Thy love; cut away what is corrupt in me. Come quickly and make an end of my many, my hidden and secret afflictions. Open the wound lest the evil humor spread. With Thy new washing, cleanse in me all that is stained. Hear me, you earthly men, who in your sins bring forth drunken thoughts: I have found a Physician. He dwells in Heaven and distributes His healing on earth. He alone can heal my pains Who Himself has none. He alone Who knows what is hidden can take away the grief of my heart, the fear of my soul: Jesus Christ. Christ is grace! Christ is life! Christ is Resurrection! Amen.
Doctors and Jesus have long been associated with each other. Jesus engaged in a healing ministry, He introduced what a man could do if he was willing to operate in perfect harmony with God. Jesus indirectly confirmed the normal role of a physician with the healing of our physical bodies:
And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Jesus was a living icon, demonstrating truth by action. He ate with sinners (and tax collectors!), because His role was to help sick souls. He had mercy on the sinner, the way a physician has mercy on the sick. The good doctor brings his patient to health and does not work with money as his ultimate reward or goal. During the pandemic of 2020, we see many examples of doctors who work with health as the end goal.* That is the good physician of the body.
Jesus was the good physician of our sick souls, our primary source of troubles.
Just as Jesus cared for the physical and the spiritual man, so has the church. Saint Luke, traditionally called a medical doctor, was an early follower of the Faith. Numerous saints, such as Cosmas and Damien, are called “unmercenary,” because they were physicians who charged nothing. More modern saints, Saint Luke the Physician, a progressive and innovative surgeon, are examples of a seamless integration of medicine and Faith over the history of the Church. Where the Church goes, hospitals are built.
We know, have always known, that a sick person prays for healing of the body, looking for a miracle, and goes to the doctor to find what God has revealed to them. A Christian doctor uses the best methods of her time, but looks to God as the ground for all she does. I have experienced healing that came by prayer and much good healing from medicine. The physician is the normal means for helping the physical! The Church supports this work, but also guides the ethics of the medical doctor. The physicians are God-inspired experts on the body, but knowing what should be, what true healing is? That is the work of the Church.
What does it profit a man to gain his physical health and die inwardly of a sick soul?
The Church has always sent her ministers with her doctors to save the body and the soul! This has had a deep cultural impact.
One reason in the pandemic of 2020 that most Americans still reject saving “the economy” at the cost of human life is the heritage of Judaism and Christianity. At our best, we put people over profit every time. If we rarely are at our best, we at least have the means to condemn our own hypocrisy. The televangelist hawking product that will not cure the body is damning his soul.
This helps us bend the life of the nation toward justice, even if just a bit. Medicine cannot be (fundamentally) for profit in a Christian nation.** The atheism of citizens in a traditionally Christian nation is deeply influenced by the culture they inherit. They are slow to consider certain actions, because they retain so much they did not create! Often, because they are unclouded by sentiment or numerical power, they are more consistent in the application of Christian medical ideals!***
Jesus is the good physician of the body and soul: He came to teach His disciples to heal both. He is always on call and He has already died and now lives, so is immune to our many diseases of body and soul. Every minister and physician takes on part of His job.
Orthodox Christians pray this for all our good physicians tonight:
O Lord Jesus Christ our God, Lover of Mankind, Physician of our souls and bodies, who didst bear the pain of our infirmities, and by whose wounds we are healed; Who gave sight to the man born blind; Who straightened the woman who was bent over for 18 years; Who gave speech and sight to the mute demoniac; Who not only forgave the paralytic his sins, but healed him to walk; Who restored the withered hand of a troubled man; Who stopped the flow of blood of her who bled for 12 years; Who raised Jairus’ daughter to life; And brought the 4-day-dead Lazarus to life; And who heals every infirmity under the sun:
Do now, O Lord, grant Thy grace to all those here gathered who have labored and studied hour upon hour, to go into all the world, and also to heal by the talent Thou hast given to each of them. Strengthen them, by Thy strength, to fear no evil or disease. Enlighten them to do no evil by the works of their hands, and preserve them and those they serve in peace, for Thou art our God, and we know no other, and to Thee we ascribe glory together with Thy Father who is from everlasting, and Thy most Holy, good, and life-creating Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
*If they get their reward of our health, I hope society finds some way to reward them financially!
**Government medicine? I do not favor it, but the profit motive is a bad fit for medicine and education.
***Abortion is one exception. It has become so politicized, sane talk about taking the life of the unborn has become difficult.
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