Hieromonk Anatoly (Berestov). Sin, sickness, healing. Conversations with an Orthodox doctor. Sin and sickness

“Any disease, especially a long-term one that poses a threat to life, is often incomprehensible and undesirable, becomes a shock, brings anxiety, excitement, fear and grief. Mainly today, in the modern era, in a society of hyperconsumption, in a world full of comfort, an unquenchable thirst for pleasure, satisfaction of material goods and the search for easy solutions, various “painkillers”, the great sacrament of pain becomes a failure, misfortune, punishment, curse, and we we approach him only with fear and horror. And sometimes with great bewilderment, a lot of difficult questions and doubts. Even the mind of a wise person is tormented by reflections and thoughts, because of which his pain increases instead of decreasing: "because in much wisdom there is much sorrow."

The way out of this situation is the spiritual path, the Christian faith, the Orthodox tradition. The gospel illuminates the human drama without leaving a person in loneliness, alienation and despair. St. John Chrysostom characteristically emphasizes: “There is no person who, spending this changeable life, would be without sorrows; if not today, then tomorrow, if not tomorrow, then later, sorrows come. Just as it is impossible for a person not to experience death, so it is impossible for a person to live without sorrows.”

“Sickness is not, as some believe, the punishment of an angry, irritated, punishing and vengeful God sent to the sinner. After all, we also know sick saints. There is a certain erroneous view that God sends only gifts, wealth, health, longevity and cloudless happiness. Even for Christians, vicissitudes, trials, temptations, illnesses and sufferings are a temptation. There is also an incorrect attitude laid in us that in life we ​​will always be the first, we will not experience unrest, difficulties, suffering, misfortunes, and even in some way - we say this in a low voice - we will not die. But having come down to earth, having become objective realists, we must recognize that failure still prevails in our lives.

“Today, diseases are especially disturbing for a person. However, sickness is not God's punishment. Cancer today torments many people and often causes psychological problems. The fear of death of a cancer patient exacerbates the situation. Only faith in God can help a person patiently endure illness and not be afraid of death. Doctors, medical staff, relatives and patients should have respect for death and its correct perception. The correct attitude of the patient to his illness can give health to his soul, as a result of which death will be seen not as a tragic event, but as a transition from sorrow to joy.

There is something mystical and incomprehensible in cancer. It always seemed to me that this is God's punishment to mankind for its sins and unrighteous behavior. And it also seemed to me that this punishment was too cruel, even if a not very good person fell ill. Therefore, cancer patients have always caused me special pity and sympathy, and, being already a student at the medical institute, I always paid more attention to them than to other patients. Often, when collecting an anamnesis and asking a patient to fill out a medical history, I had to hear a rather typical story: how difficult it was to live while we were young, to study, raise children, there was no apartment, we stood on the waiting list for many years. Finally, everything worked out: they got a good apartment, furnished it with beautiful furniture, the children grew up, now they just want to live for themselves - no, it doesn’t work, cancer has developed.
In our country and abroad, ethical issues are resolved differently about whether to tell a patient that he has cancer or not. Since many patients (and not without reason) perceive the diagnosis of cancer as a sentence and panic, our domestic medicine believes that it is necessary to inform the patient very carefully, to tell the full truth only in cases where the patient refuses surgery or radiation. Abroad, in connection with the commercial basis of treatment, the patient is informed of the exact diagnosis of cancer and the full cost of treatment, so that he can put his affairs in order and raise money for treatment.
Although in Russia we try to hide the truth about his diagnosis from the patient, many patients guess about it, but they do not want to hear officially that they have cancer. Therefore, when coming to the ward to bypass patients, the doctor has to be on the alert all the time so as not to let it slip. Patients ask all sorts of tricky, leading, cross questions, and the doctor must behave like a psychologist or even an artist, so as not to say too much and keep a good face on a bad game. The situation is facilitated by the fact that, as a rule, patients with malignant and benign tumors, polyps, lipomas, fibroids, etc. are in the wards at the same time. This gives the doctor the opportunity to logically maneuver. The truth about the diagnosis of a malignant tumor can only be reported to the closest relatives, and then with the consent of the patient and very carefully, since in families relations between spouses are not always trusting. One day, after we informed my husband that his wife had cancer, he, without waiting for the completion of treatment, began a divorce process and the division of property, which greatly worsened the emotional and physical condition of the patient. Women, on the contrary, show more tact, care and sympathy for their ill husbands than contribute to their speedy recovery.
By the time I graduated from medical school, I had already chosen my future specialty - I wanted to become an oncologist, I dreamed of discovering the cause of cancer, finding a method for its treatment and receiving recognition from all mankind for this. In youth, we are often very bold in our dreams and maximalists, and maybe this is not bad, as it helps a young person to choose the right path and persistently go towards the goal. I graduated with honors from the Saratov Medical Institute and, although I was invited to stay in graduate school at the Department of Endocrinology, I asked to be sent as a surgeon to an oncological dispensary.
After working as an oncologist for two years, I entered the graduate school of the Kazakh Institute of Oncology and Radiology, also majoring in oncosurgery, and three years later successfully defended my PhD thesis. The topic of my dissertation was the treatment of advanced tumors, this is a very important and complex problem, since even now medicine often refuses to treat these patients.
It was believed that the cause of cancer and methods of its cure would be found by the end of the twentieth century. But here we are already in the twenty-first century, and progress in the treatment of cancer is still small and malignant neoplasms are the second leading cause of death in the population after cardiovascular diseases. Many patients die from cancer, including high-ranking and rich people, both in Russia and in other countries - in Germany, Israel, the USA, which indicates that the problem of cancer is still far from being completely resolved, although they are working tirelessly on it many scientists from different countries.
Until now, it is not completely clear what is the cause of the formation of tumors. There are several theories of the onset of cancer - exposure to carcinogens, exposure to radiation, the viral theory, the impact of bad habits, primarily smoking, stress, dietary habits and lifestyle of the population of various regions, environmental pollution, and others. The viral theory of the occurrence of cancer arose back in the thirties of the last century and hardly proved its right to exist, and today girls in their teens are already being vaccinated against the human papillomavirus, which should prevent them from developing cervical cancer in the future. That is, there is scientific progress.
Only a small part of the tumors are directly related to exposure to harmful, including production factors - for example, bladder cancer in chemical plants that produce dyes, or the development of various tumors in factories where work is related to radioactive substances. There is also a connection with bad habits - cancer of the lower lip has been described in smokers, oral cancer in people who use nasvay on the cheek (a mixture of lime and tobacco), esophageal cancer, common in Kazakhstan and Central Asia due to the use of hot tea and dough with meat. Many scientists also associate the development of lung cancer with smoking. In youth, many people are fond of tanning, often without knowing the measure, in the future this leads to the development of papillomas, moles and skin cancer. In most cases of cancer, there is no obvious association with harmful factors, or it will take many years for this association to manifest itself. The influence of stress on the development of cancer has not been directly proven either, but in life such cases are not uncommon. For example, leaving the husband's family after many years of successful family life can cause extreme stress and cancer in the wife. It is possible that tumors develop under the influence of several harmful factors at once, or a number of factors create conditions for the activation of tumor viruses that were previously in the body without showing themselves. Free radicals (oxidants), which are much written about now, can play a large negative role in cell damage and their degeneration.
Therefore, personal cancer prevention measures such as eating organic foods, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, giving up bad habits, reducing the amount of smoked meats in the diet, using fresh or frozen foods, eating enough fruits and vegetables, storing food in glass, and not in plastic containers or plastic bags, careful handling of household chemicals, preservatives, pesticides, etc.
In the human body, throughout life, there is a continuous process of cell renewal by dividing, growing and replacing old cells with new ones. Cell division is a responsible and complex process, during which various deviations can occur, defective cells appear, but there is also a control system in the body, defective cells are detected and destroyed. This happens normally, but sometimes a genetic failure occurs and cells arise that do not become a replacement for existing working cells, but begin to divide intensively “in adolescence”. This is how tumor cells appear, the purpose of which is unlimited reproduction, for which nutrients, oxygen, and all the energy of the body are spent, which leads to its exhaustion. When the mass of the tumor reaches one kilogram, it leads the body to death. Since tumor cells arise from materials native to the body, the immune system, aimed at destroying everything foreign (remember the rejection of organs during transplantation), does not work against tumor cells. This is one of the most important difficulties in developing methods for diagnosing and treating cancer.
Despite the fact that progress in cancer treatment is achieved slowly and with great difficulty, treated cancer patients often already live five, ten or more years after treatment and cases of complete cure are not uncommon, especially when cancer is detected in the early stages. Cases are even described when a patient who has recovered from one cancer can develop cancer of another localization in ten years. Cancer patients now no longer look thin, pale and haggard, as they used to be. At the reception of the oncology institute, I noticed that people in the queue for specialists were quite healthy outwardly and did not differ much in appearance from most other people, so if you meet them on the street, it will be difficult to distinguish them from healthy ones. This is also due to advances in the treatment of cancer, not only increases life expectancy after treatment, but also improves their quality of life. Many return to work in their specialty, women who have successfully completed a course of treatment can give birth to a healthy child. The number of organ-preserving operations is growing, the volume of operations is decreasing. In case of sarcomas of the extremities, instead of crippling amputation, they began to remove the affected area of ​​the bone with the joint, simultaneously implanting an artificial joint. In case of breast cancer, especially in the initial stages, they are limited to resection of the affected area of ​​the gland, and do not make an extended mastectomy that cripples a woman, as it was before. True, these modern methods are used so far only in large scientific centers.
The most pressing issue remains the detection of tumors at an early stage or even at the cellular level, which guarantees the success of further treatment. But, despite the promotion of knowledge about cancer, despite the high educational level of our population, most tumors are still diagnosed in the third or fourth stages, often already with metastases, which makes recovery problematic. The reason for this is the unwillingness of the population to apply for an examination - "suddenly they find something terrible" on the one hand, and the asymptomatic course of tumors in the early stages, on the other hand. A small tumor that does not grow into the wall of the organ, does not close its lumen, may not manifest itself for a long time. Pain appears only when the tumor goes beyond the organ, for example, the stomach, grows into the bones, touches the nerve nodes and trunks. Treatment in this case will be ineffective, and the patient's condition will quickly deteriorate, excruciating pain occurs.
Preventive examinations play an important role in the early detection of tumors, especially with the use of modern equipment. Thus, thanks to the introduction of gastroscopy with biopsy, it was possible to reduce the incidence of stomach cancer and mortality from it all over the world, since tumors are detected at an early stage, in the form of polyps, sometimes in the form of an ulcer that has just begun to degenerate and with such early detection, the patient is completely cured. . The same thing happens with diseases of the colon and rectum - the detection and removal of polyps, which are precancerous diseases, reduces the incidence of cancer in this localization, and the detection of small tumors also increases the chances of a cure. Mammography machines help in the early detection of breast cancer in women and have already saved many lives.
Since malignant tumors are treated with great difficulty, the best method of cancer prevention is the removal of all precancers, which are a variety of benign tumors: adenomas, fibroids, cysts, atheromas, lipomas, polyps, papillomas, etc. Caution should be exercised only in relation to moles, especially dark ones. colors. When such moles are removed, a particularly malignant tumor, melanoma, can develop, which in a short time leads patients to death. Occasionally, non-pigmented melanomas also occur. If a mole suddenly begins to change color, or grow, or disturb the patient, you should not go to cosmetic clinics, but urgently go to an oncologist. Only a specialist will correctly assess the situation and offer the necessary treatment.
If removal of the mole is necessary, it will be performed with a wide excision of the skin flap, followed by a histological examination. If tumor cells are again found at the edges of the incision, the excision will be repeated again. This approach will ensure the recovery of the patient.
Progress in the treatment of malignant neoplasms is associated with new technologies, in particular, with the creation of new methods of neutron beam radiation therapy, as well as with nanotechnologies that will deliver the right drug directly to tumor cells, which will avoid damage to surrounding healthy tissues, which is often observed now with external irradiation. and chemotherapy. The difference between the therapeutic and toxic dose of radiation and chemotherapy drugs used in the treatment of tumors is very small, which leads to damage to healthy tissues around the tumor and the development of complications that weaken the patient and prevent the patient from reaching the desired therapeutic dose necessary for recovery. The development of modern treatment technologies will give many patients a chance for a full recovery in the future, but this will require a lot of time and effort.

Spiritually, the body and soul are a single mechanism. Therefore, there are spiritual causes of disease.

Despite the fact that psychology and Orthodoxy look at them differently, they are very similar.

Here are some reasons that may lie in the occurrence of a particular disease.

Psychological causes of diseases

Psychologists look at the causes of illness differently than the church. According to psychologists, complexes, emotions that a person restrains and does not show are guilty of most diseases.

For example, women's illnesses often turn out to be a manifestation of unwillingness for intimacy and hidden hostility towards men on the part of a woman. They often suffer from those who marry for convenience or are afraid of sexual relations.

Similarly, other diseases arise: eye diseases - when the body defends itself from negative emotions caused by vision, ear diseases - when a person hears something that injures him.

Sore throats are considered to be associated with unspoken anger and discontent, when you can not openly show anger just like that.

However, the church does not agree with everything that is written. Many scientists who believe in Orthodoxy have a different point of view about diseases.

Metaphysics of disease

The body malfunctions if the outflow of energy is disturbed and something negatively affects organs and tissues. For example, a person wants to go to the toilet, but he has to restrain himself for a long time. If this happens quite often, diseases of the intestines and stomach can develop.

Or a person experiences certain negative emotions. Some of them cause crying, suffering. As a result, hormonal balance is disturbed and disease occurs.

It is never possible to say for sure whether the physical cause caused the disease or the mental one.

Sins and diseases connection - table

Orthodox experts write a lot about the relationship between sins and illnesses, but they advise not to trust such a relationship too much, since the exact causes of illnesses have not been fully studied, so you should not hope that by stopping committing some kind of sin, you will get rid of a bodily ailment, addiction or mental illness. diseases.

Table of possible connection between sins and illnesses (click to enlarge)

Therefore, it is worth not committing sins and leading a correct lifestyle. After all, diseases arise not only as retribution for sins, but also as a violation of the usual rules of hygiene and health, the use of the wrong foods, the abuse of fatty, spicy and fried foods.

Yet there is some relationship between sickness and sin. For example, if a person violates his freedom, falls into addiction, for example, drunkenness, then his lungs and heart can get sick.

Longing destroys the heart, as well as conflicts with others. And anger often causes heart attacks and strokes.

But the causes of diseases do not always lie on the surface in Orthodoxy, therefore the church has a negative attitude towards interpretations related to the sinful causes of diseases, unless it is scientifically proven and calls for the treatment of diseases with official medicine, and not just confession and read prayers.

Spiritual causes of diseases according to Torsunov

Oleg Torsunov writes that some behaviors cause the following diseases. In the church, many of them are called sins.

Oleg Gennadyevich Torsunov is a specialist in the field of family psychology and personal growth practices

Here is how he interprets the relationship between illnesses and emotional states, including sins:

1. Greed - often causes cancer and bumelia, overweight.
2. Anger - peptic ulcers, gastritis, colitis, hepatitis, insomnia and gastritis.
3. Despondency - lung diseases, inflammatory diseases.
4. Depressive state - can provoke diseases that destroy the lungs.
5. Envy - mental disorders, cancer, heart disease and strokes.
6. Anger - sore throats, pharyngitis, loss of voice, stomach diseases, increased acidity.
7. Condemnation - arthritis, liver and kidney disease, inflammation of the pancreas.
8. Perjury - allergies, alcoholism, lowered immunity and fungal infections, various skin inflammations.
9. Depravity - female diseases, metabolic disorders.
10. Hatred and intransigence - various heart diseases, strokes, oncology and much more.
11. Resentment - diabetes, cystitis and chronic diseases.

Right Healing Thoughts

The first thing to do is sincerely repent and reconsider your life. Only in this case you will be able to release energy to give the body the strength to fight the disease.

To begin with, think over quite earthly reasons that could lead to illness. For example, gluttony, smoking, abuse of spicy foods and much more.

Very often, excessive eating and drinking, which are sins (drunkenness, gluttony), leads to illness.

The next step is to put the spirit in order. In the church it is considered a sin to violate any law of love, including for oneself. Even priests sometimes ask in confession if you have harmed your health.

Therefore, you should try to forgive the offenders, not violate the daily routine and take care of your body. Right thoughts - love for yourself and your loved ones, forgiveness of sins for yourself and others, spiritual growth.

Diseases of the spine for what sin

Most often, diseases of the spine are based not on spiritual, but on physical causes - injuries, falls, improper wearing of heavy objects, such as backpacks. Therefore, such diseases are rarely associated with sins.

But in any case, in order to give the body a chance to recover, repentance and a healthy spirit are needed - only in this case the disease can be defeated.

- In our time, as you know, there are no healthy people. We are all sick to one degree or another. What is a disease from a spiritual point of view, father?

- Man was created by God sinless and immortal. This means that illness (and the resulting death) is not created by God. But the damage of the soul of a person, his falling away from God through sin, were the cause of illness and death. Thus, illness is not a natural process, but a lack of integrity of a person, a lack of unity of a person with God and with himself, because even the word “heal” means “become whole”.

- What is the cause of diseases - is it punishment, retribution for personal sins?

- This is not entirely and not always the case. There is also such a story in the Gospel: when, at the sight of a man born blind, “His disciples asked Him: Rabbi! who sinned, he or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered: neither he nor his parents sinned, but it was so that the works of God might appear on him” (John 9:2-3). And he healed the blind man. That is, illness is not always the result of personal sins.

- Many say that all diseases are from nerves. Is it so?

- What are nerves? First of all, these are manifestations of our passions, that is, constant readiness, inclination to sin. If a person is easily irritated, the passion of anger is at work in him; if he cannot tear himself away from a cigarette, from a bottle, the passion of gluttony, drunkenness dominates in him ... And many diseases come from passions, as their natural consequence.
A person with passions can either fight, conquer with spiritual life, or indulge them, and then the passions grow, and the person becomes their slave. Just as there is no limit to perfection in goodness, so sin can bring a person to the extreme degree of slavery, when he has no spiritual freedom left. And today everywhere we see how the "civilized world", the media constantly deceive people, calling for "freedom". What is meant by freedom? Satisfaction of all desires and whims, indulgence of one's passions. But if only a person tries to overcome, conquer sin, he will immediately see how heavily dependent on his passions he is.

It's not about nerves, not that we have such a weak nervous system, but that we ourselves give free rein to our passions, do not fight them, and therefore, sooner or later, such a life gives its bitter fruits.

- Why do little children suffer, who have not yet had time to lose their freedom, becoming slaves of passions?

- Children are not cut off from human society. Even having retired to a desert island, a person bears the stamp of this universal damage by sin, and as a result, a tendency to disease. The Apostle Paul has these words: “if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it” (1 Cor. 12-26). We know that blood poisoning in one finger can lead to infection of the entire body and even death of a person.

First of all, the child is not separated from his parents. When the baby is in the mother's womb, he is connected with her bodily, he breathes and eats what the mother breathes and eats. If she smokes, drinks, watches obscene films, etc., this one cannot but affect the baby. When a baby is born, the connection with the parents is not interrupted. The way of life of parents, their intra-family relations affect not only the spiritual development of children, but also their bodily health.

- It turns out that children are paying for the sins of their parents? Is it fair?

- You can't say that either. The fact is that such a problem as the illness of children is insoluble from the point of view of human justice. Therefore, godless people constantly speculate on it, for them this problem is a stumbling block. With God there is nothing useless and meaningless. Every Divine act is revealed in the perspective of Eternity, Eternal Life, the good Providence of God. For each specific person, this means concern for the salvation of his soul, healing and protection from sin. Often the illness of a small person is that saving shield, which in our difficult conditions can protect a person from many sins and temptations. After all, often we simply cannot take part in some sinful deeds because of our health.

In addition, when a sick child appears in the family, parents begin to rethink their lives, realizing its sinfulness, they begin to treat each other with greater understanding. From the godless point of view, the suffering of an infant is injustice, nonsense, but from the point of view of Divine Providence, they have a deep meaning. As in the story of the man born blind, next to the sick child is the glory of God: destroyed families are united, spouses turn to God, depart from a sinful life. Seeing the diligence of parents, heeding their prayers, the Lord can heal the child. But if He sees that this disease leads to common salvation, that without it the family will again turn to destruction, He can also leave the disease.

- According to the teachings of the holy fathers, illness is the time when God visits a person; It brings a bodily ailment to a person, as a bitter medicine for a mental and spiritual ailment. Does this mean that people who are healthy, living well, do not suffer from mental and spiritual ailments? Or has the Lord left them and they will not be saved?

- Indeed, in the lives of the saints there are stories about how the monks wept bitterly and lamented that everything was going well for them for a long time, and even illnesses did not visit them. But, of course, no person lives without sorrows. It is only in movies that you can see people who are healthy, rich, happy and live happily ever after. In our world, this is impossible. “For we know that the whole creation groans and travails together,” said the Apostle Paul (Rom. 8:22). And wealth, according to one of the saints, is like salt water that you drink, but you want to drink even more.
It is impossible to run away, to hide from God, as Adam tried to hide from Him. The love of God will overtake us everywhere. He does not need everyone to be healthy, full and rich, although He could do this, as He fed more than five thousand people with five loaves. God needs our soul, but it does not become purer from a prosperous life.

- Tell me, father, who does the Church not bless to be treated?

- A person who has touched the life of the Church intuitively understands whom one should not go to. Firstly, it is quite obvious that you cannot go to all sorts of sorcerers, these are direct servants of Satan. These include a variety of magicians and sorcerers. Previously, if a person resorted to the services of a magician or sorcerer, he was subjected to severe church punishment, he was excommunicated from communion for several years, etc. Today, if a priest sees that a person sincerely repents, decides not to turn to such healers anymore, he is given indulgence.

Secondly, you cannot turn to the so-called traditional healers and other healers who treat with candles, folk remedies, conspiracies, etc. After all, they, unlike ordinary doctors, claim some kind of spiritual guidance: “the damage will be removed”, “the aura will be corrected”, conspiracies are revered. By the way, these conspiracies can even take the form of Orthodox prayers: “Our Father ...”, “Our Mother of God, Virgin ...”, but for them this is not an appeal to God for help, but a mysterious set of words, a conspiracy. After such treatment, there may be a temporary relief of symptoms, but then the disease necessarily returns, and in a much more severe form. Not to mention the soul, which simply perishes from such treatment.

- Father, if a person falls ill, where should he go - to the Church or should he still go to the clinic?

- You don't have to avoid going to the doctor. Physicians are servants of God, and the Bible makes this clear enough: “The Lord has made medicines out of the earth, and a prudent person will not neglect them. For this He gave people knowledge, so that they would glorify Him in His wonderful deeds: with them He heals a person and destroys his illness. He who prepares medicines makes a mixture of them, and his occupations do not end, and through him there is good on the face of the earth. My son! Do not be negligent in your illness, but pray to the Lord and He will heal you.” (Cir. 38:4:6-10).

- And if a person does not want to go to the doctors, because, among other things, not everyone can afford to find a qualified doctor, even to take tests, not to mention medicines? If a person lives without going to doctors, is not treated, and thus starts illnesses, does he commit a sin?

- Of course it's a sin. “Don't you know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit living in you… and you are not your own?” says the Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 6:19). Everyone should take care of their "temple" so as not to be a burden to others, but, on the contrary, to be useful to others, to bring joy and love to people. It is clear that everyone has different opportunities: one can be treated in Switzerland, and the other - only with herbs from the garden, or stand in line for a ticket to the local doctor. But you can’t neglect your health, you need to take care of your body - as much as possible.

Another thing is that bodily healing is impossible without spiritual healing, and treatment by ordinary doctors should be accompanied by healing of the soul, because it is necessary to treat not just symptoms, but the whole person. And the healing of the soul occurs through the sacraments of the Church: Repentance, Communion, and, of course, Unction...

- Father, why is the Unction held? What is this sacrament?

- This is a sacrament that is performed over a sick person, in which the special grace of God is requested, which heals bodily ailments.

- Acupuncture, breathing exercises, homeopathy, herbal treatment - which of these methods are not blessed by the Church, father?

- I personally know priests who have been treated with acupuncture and homeopathy. As far as I know, there is nothing sinful in these methods. Breathing exercises can also be done. In general, if the method is not associated with the worship of some alien spiritual beings or with their invocation, if there are no spells, conspiracies, then such treatment does not contradict Orthodoxy.

- Should the cross be removed from oneself during certain procedures, operations, if the medical staff and doctors insist on this?

- Of course, you can and should ask to leave a cross to strengthen your strength. But this is not always possible. There is nothing seditious in the very fact of removing the cross to provide medical care. The main thing is that the cross should be in the heart. But without the need it is better not to part with the shrine. In extreme cases, you can draw yourself a cross with iodine or brilliant green.

- In what cases can you call the priest?

- The priest is called to the house in case of a serious illness, infirmity, when a person cannot reach the temple. It must be remembered that not calling a priest in cases where there is a threat to life, when the patient's condition deteriorates sharply, is a crime for neighbors. A person must be guided by the Holy Mysteries into Eternal Life. Therefore, not to call a dying priest is a crime and a great sin.

- Father, how can one learn a Christian attitude towards illnesses, towards death, because it is impossible for a person to come to terms with this?

- St. John Chrysostom said: "He who has learned to thank God for his illnesses is not far from holiness." Cultivate a Christian attitude towards illness, sorrow, death, because all this is inevitable in our life. - it means to believe in God's help, to look at any phenomenon in terms of eternity, realizing oneself as an instrument of His Good Providence. The Lord never leaves us, and perhaps in illness we feel Him even more. The people expressed this with a proverb: "The deeper the sorrow the closer God is." Not because God is moving away from us or approaching, just in mournful life circumstances the soul is especially opened to God. Sorrows naturally drive away passions, and to such a soul, cleansed of passions, God can approach and fulfill it with His grace, discover the lost meaning of life, the purpose of suffering.Understanding any sorrow in this way, you see that illness is truly a visitation of God, an amazing spiritual medicine that heals the very The most important thing in a person is his soul.

Interviewed by Svetlana Sergeeva

That is, the sin of disobedience led to the mortality and sickness of every person. In our feeble bodies we carry the striving for death. Therefore, they are objective for us, and we cannot be without sickness and we carry in our mortal members, as the Apostle Paul writes, those of our illnesses that bring us closer to the Lord's sickness on the cross.

“My grace is sufficient for you, my strength is made perfect in weakness” – the apostle Paul heard this from Christ himself. All Christian ascetics, all the apostles, martyrs, reverends were by no means heroes. And this is the main proof that illness is not a punishment.

Let us recall the description known from the acts of the Apostle Paul and his first disciple Thecla (this is apocryphal, but it is one of the oldest and is confirmed in the epistles of the apostle). We see on the icons of the Apostle Paul as a hero with a sword, the word of God double-edged, the Apostle Peter - with the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, and yet they were very weak.

"The Apostle Paul". Part of a polyptych from the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Pisa.

The Apostle Paul was frail, small, bow-legged, overgrown eyebrows, small eyes, a hooked nose, bald, and besides, he stuttered like Moses. His eyes hurt (he writes to the Galatians: well done, Galatians, if you could, you would give me your eyes, because I can't see well). He suffered from epileptic seizures. The fact is that the apostle Paul was a native of Tarsus. And there, in Cilicia, a distant province of the Roman Empire, fever periodically raged. And Paul suffered the consequences of this disease in the form of seizures.

He writes to the Galatians: I thank you that you did not spit while listening to me. This is a literal translation from Greek, in the Russian text it is slightly dissected. Why? Because during the sermon he often fell. It was considered a spiritual disease such as leprosy, and usually people, seeing such an attack, would spit in order to turn away demons, spirits of wickedness in high places. The Apostle Paul was a very sickly person, he even kept his beloved disciple Luke as a doctor, always with him, because he could not travel without a doctor.

So, Paul complained to the Lord himself, about which we read in the epistle to the Corinthians: Lord, why did you give me an angel of Satan, a thorn in the flesh that depresses me? What is a sting in the flesh? Skolops - translated from Greek, this is a stake on which inveterate robbers were impaled. This is the most terrible painful execution. Paul asked, "Lord, deliver me from the thorn in the flesh." There are different opinions about what kind of illness this is, but the main thing is that he suffered from illnesses, and the Lord did not heal the Apostle Paul, but only said: “My grace is sufficient for you, my strength is made perfect in weakness.” Our strength is made perfect in the bearing of sickness on the cross.

Ambrose Optinsky

Most of his life, from the age of forty (and he lived quite a long time - eighty years), lay. All diseases known and unknown to the 19th century nested in his mortal body. And intestinal diseases, and gastric, kidneys, liver, spine - everything suffered. He lay literally on his deathbed for forty years. They offered him a fish for Easter, and he said: “I can’t eat it, let me at least smell this fish for Easter.” Doctors did not know the cause of these diseases.

He suffered on his deathbed, he was seriously ill. We usually read that a reverend very easily gives his pure, holy soul to God. No. Hegumen Sergius of Radonezh suffered greatly before he died.

Take Joasaph of Belgorod. He lived very little, about fifty years, I think. At the end of his life, he said: “What a pity that in my youth I did not take care of my health, I ate only bread and water, and as a result I cannot do what I wanted all my life, do all my work. And he died prematurely.

Because He took upon Himself all the sins of the world, and even the Father turned away (“God, why did you leave me?”). Christ on the cross took all sins upon Himself, and as if in His person He personified the most terrible sinner. In the eyes of his Father, He appeared as the most terrible sinner and died on the cross. And trampled down death with his death. Because without such a death it was impossible to enter hell to stand before Satan there. As he writes, he descended into the abyss below any abyss where the devil was. And with his appearance, and with the breath of his mouth, he conquered the devil. And for that, you had to die on the cross. The Lord died as the very last sinner, having taken upon himself all the sins of the world, being imputed with the thieves on a par. The Lord Himself endured such terrible illnesses.

We can live in truth only by imitating the torments of the Savior on the cross. In order to be human beings, especially Orthodox Christians, we need to bear illnesses. The Apostle Paul writes: “I bear the plagues of my Lord Christ on my body.” And these words are written on the paramana of every monk. Because without it, we cannot be saved. We live in imitation of Christ.

John of Kronstadt

Remember. He also had to get sick a lot, he was by no means a heroic build. But he remained true to his goal to the end. When he was very seriously ill, the doctors said: "If you do not eat fast food, you will die."

And yet, after consulting with his mother, the holy righteous John of Kronstadt decided to refuse the demands of the doctors and not break the fast. And his mother wrote to him that it is better to die, but do not break the fast. And this is also an example for us of enduring sorrows and illnesses.

All the saints, with rare exceptions, suffered illnesses in the form of some kind of grave sorrows or real illnesses, being martyrs for the name of Christ. The Lord Himself, in the Gospel of John in chapter 5, says that we humans bear our image of God in a mortal body. Although this mortal body becomes for us with all its sores a temple of the Holy Spirit living in us.

The fifth chapter speaks of a paralyzed man who was paralyzed for 38 years. We always read this Gospel at the prayer service for the blessing of water. In Jerusalem, on a common font, lay many sick, blind, lame, dry, looking forward to the movement of water.

- this is not only the one who cannot see, it is also blinded, prejudiced, who sees the miracles of Christ and does not perceive. Spiritual illness is, as it were, projected onto a physical illness.

The deaf are those who are sick and cannot hear. When a person is blinkered, does not perceive the word of God, he comes to the temple every Sunday and confesses the same sins, because he cannot tear himself away from sins and commits the same sins that he confesses every week. He hears the word of God, but does not perceive. As a result, he remains deaf all his life.

A dry one is a person who has dried up in his faith. He had faith, but it dried up under the influence of various circumstances, he no longer has life-giving grace, although he often takes communion and confesses, and participates in other sacraments, but he turned to stone in his heart and only formally comes to the temple and sometimes participates in the life of the Church. It all falls on the dried soil of the heart.

Everything is interconnected. Our bodily illnesses and our spiritual illnesses often go hand in hand. We are all sick, grieving. And then the Lord comes and says: “Do you want to be healed?” That is, do you want to harmonize your bodily infirmities and your image of God? You cannot get rid of diseases, it is impossible, because a person carries this charge of death in himself. Sooner or later he dies, and bodily death wins. And death is a sacrament that helps to cross the threshold of eternity and unite with the Lord. That is why the apostle Paul said: “Christ is my life. And death is gain. What death? This is physical death.

-, a short-term dream, which necessarily ends with awakening. This death awaits us all, like a short-term sleep, therefore we call the dead “departed”. That is, a person fell asleep, and until the second Coming he sleeps. And during the second Coming, which will definitely come, the Lord will resurrect all the dead, and the immortal soul will unite with the resurrected, transfigured body.

But the most terrible death is death as a result of a spiritual illness, when a person leaves God on his own. The Apostle Paul recognizes only this death, spiritual. Spiritual death is much more dangerous than all the causes that lead to temporary death, than all the diseases that we carry in our body.

Such deadly diseases visited me in 2005 when I was 55 years old. I was accidentally diagnosed with prostate carcinoma, oncology. And I had to be irradiated. Thank God it's been five years already. Despite the various consequences of such exposure, I am alive. In 2006, a year after the radiation, I had a heart attack and, in order to be able to serve, I agreed to a heart bypass. I had 3 shunts. Moreover, 4 times I had a hernia ring sewn up on each side (inguinal hernia), and then such minor operations as a breast microma.

I myself feel that without the shedding of blood it is impossible to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. But the Kingdom of Heaven is in need, so when the Lord asks, “Do you want to be healed?”

In Greek it turns out like this: do you have the will to be healed? Of course, everyone wants to get rid of the disease, but do you have the will, that is, can you accept the Lord as your God?

And what happens? This paralytic said, "Yes, of course, Lord." And then the Lord says: "Take up your bed and walk." And heals him. Some time passes, as Blessed Augustine writes, and this paralytic becomes the executioner of the Lord Jesus Christ. He strikes him on the cheeks and suffocates him. It turns out that he expressed his desire formally, but in fact betrayed the Lord. And, of course, his death becomes not an easy sleep, but eternal death, a retreat from God.

This dynamic happens in every person's life. We want to be healed, we are ready to give everything for healing, we ask, we pray: “Give us healing!” And the Lord asks: “Do you want it?” That is, do you have the will to keep my commandments? And we say: "Yes, yes, of course." But some time passes, and we retreat. Our dynamics follows a sinusoid.

Sometimes we aspire to perfection, and then we fall into the abyss of the sin of despair, grumbling, cowardice. Then we get up, repent again, take up our cross, ascend again, and fall again. But everything is decided by the vector: either it is directed up or down. The Lord calls us to go up - seek first the Kingdom of God and its Truth, and everything will be added to you.

The free choice and desire to be with the Lord not only with our lips, but also with specific deeds, to fulfill his will depends on us. So, when the Lord heals Peter's mother-in-law, the Russian text says: "And the mother-in-law begins to serve them," that is, the apostles and Christ. The original Greek says, "And she begins to serve Him," that is, Christ. We receive healing in order to serve God.

The Lord sometimes visits us with mortal illnesses to harmonize our form and content. He visits us with sores so that we can direct our spirit to perfection. Sometimes a person who is haunted by terrible diseases begins to look at the world in a different way, and the disease becomes an incentive for its improvement. And he, knowing that he will soon die, is already turning with his whole life, with all the fibers of his soul, to the love of Christ.

The Lord leads each of us to salvation: through illnesses, through sorrows, through horrors, wars, dramas, parting with our neighbors, through family tragedies, so that the outer shell corresponds to the main task of perfecting the image of God, becoming like God.

Our task is to constantly perfect the soul, the mind for truth, the feelings for holiness, the will for good, in order to be like God.

Every person has cancer cells, and we do not know how they will evolve, but the Lord knows. We reach a certain stage when we need a visit from God in the form of illness, without which we cannot become human beings, especially Christians, especially Orthodox Christians.

Often people just hide their illnesses, they try to look courageous so as not to show them. In fact, everyone has sores, everyone has their own infirmities. The Lord, as a caring physician, heals everyone. If the heart of a person does not break, then the Lord breaks the bones of a person for salvation. The prophets also speak of this. The wise Solomon spoke about this. If a person oscillates in his life, his heart becomes a stone, then the Lord, in order to crush the stone heart, crushes the bones of a person - so that this heart becomes able to perceive the life-giving power of the word of God and Divine love.

The anatomy of the disease is beautifully given in the Gospel. A centurion, a centurion, that is, a junior officer in the Roman troops (as a lieutenant), who professes the cult of the emperor, makes sacrifices to the emperor as a god who, in the eyes of the Jews, is an outcast from salvation, who sympathizes with the God of Israel, but also worships many other gods of the pantheon of the pagan world – this centurion comes and turns to Christ, clutching at the last straw: “Lord! My boy is sick, and so I came to you so that you would help me. And the Lord says, "Well, okay." And the pagan replies, “Lord, I am not worthy for you to come under my roof.” And the Lord says: “In Israel I have not seen such a faith as that of this Gentile.” That is why they will come from the East and the West and lie down in the bosom of Abraham, and those who pretend to be sons of the Kingdom of God will be driven out.

The pagan came to intercede for his servant, slave or relative, and such humility is striking: “Lord, you only speak the word, and my boy will be healed. I'm not worthy for you to come under my roof." And the Lord heals. It means that we receive healing not according to our merits. One of the Gospels says that the Jews come and say that this centurion is a secret proselyte, that is, he favors the Jews, he built a synagogue for us, so he is worthy, do a miracle for him. And the Lord, as it were, answers them: “Not according to merit, but exclusively out of necessity.”

Some say: why have I worked so hard for the Church, reached such positions in the hierarchy, for example, and am so terribly ill? But because the Lord heals not because of our merits, but only because of what is necessary for our salvation. So the centurion needed his son to be healed. And we may need more to bear the disease, our cross.

On December 2, 2008, I had to preach in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. They told me: preach longer, because he has not yet arrived (he was returning from the hospital where he was treating his heart).

I had to talk for 40 minutes. He managed to enter the altar. The Lord gave him a few more days of life (he died on December 5), so that he would make the last point. A whole group of priests, deacons, protodeacons was supposed to receive awards that day. And the Patriarch, being in such a painful state, rewarded all the priests, and then, the next day, the fourth, he served in the Assumption Cathedral, and since it was the day of the enthronement of Patriarch Tikhon, he also went to the Danilovsky Monastery, there he performed a prayer service. And only after that the Lord accepted his soul.

God will give us healing not because we perform prayers for health in forty monasteries, we order magpies. If it is necessary for us that we, like the Monk Ambrose of Optina, lie on the deathbed so that the soul enters eternity, then the Lord will grant us exactly this, although we ask for something completely different.

The Savior very often grants us healing through the prayers of people who are completely unknown to us. The priest, who was in a hurry to serve in the Temple in Jerusalem, crossed over to the other side so as not to even touch the dead man with his eyes. The Levite did the same, and only a Samaritan approached and saved the unfortunate Jew, who had fallen from the robbers. Moreover, he tore the last shirt to bandage his wounds, pouring oil and wine, put him on his donkey and took him to the hotel.

– How should the life of a Christian change after he finds out that he is mortally ill? How to come to terms with illness?

“When I found out that I had carcinoma, I wrote papers and hung them in front of me next to the desk on the door and in the kitchen. He wrote this: “The commandment of the Lord: if you want to live, don’t think about anything.” And “Let us commit ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God.” If we think about our sores, they will get worse.

The Lord is with us always. He is in our life. Here we partake of the Body and Blood - He enters us in fullness, and bodily. But what medicine prescribes to us, we must perceive as a gift from God. Moreover, for many, medical prescriptions become the rationale for their special discipline during fasting. If a person is advised to eat some special food during fasting, this food becomes a medicine for him, and he must definitely eat such food. For example, Tsarevich Alexei had to eat meat, he had hemophilia.

If we honor the ancient fathers, they say this: do not attach your heart and do not reject. We don’t need to reject what medicine gives us, we don’t need to put our hearts into it, that is, we need to surrender our whole life to the Lord and at the same time use a medical remedy.

I am sixty years old, and I remember how many priests of seventy, eighty, ninety years old treated their sores. There was such a priest - Archpriest Andrei Uskov, the Church of the Archangel Michael in the village of Mikhailovskoye. He had many illnesses, but he tried not to divulge the fact that the Lord gave him miraculous healing. He had trophic ulcers, his stomach hurt, he had cerebral ischemia, pressure, and he prayed to the Lord, and the Lord gave him strength, because he still had to fulfill the will of God. And he said this: "Never say that you feel better, that the Lord has healed you." This is from the Gospel, when the Lord heals the blind, he says: "Don't tell anyone about this." As soon as a person begins to say, "The Lord gave me healing," the evil one is right there. Therefore, if a person receives healing, it is better not to tell anyone about it. Thank the Lord, but keep it a secret.

How much should a Christian take care of his health? Where is the line after which it is no longer hope in the Lord, but worries about one's sores?

We don't know what will happen tomorrow. We do not know what will happen in a year, in ten years. And tomorrow is in the hands of God. We do not know whether we will be among those five hundred people who die every day in Moscow and the Moscow region. Or among those twenty thousand who die every minute all over the world.

It is better not to think about it, not to apply your heart. Do not reject, but do not apply the heart. The day has passed, and thank God. We do not refuse what medicine offers us, but in no case should we get hung up on this.

- There is an opinion that the will to recover can work wonders. The more you want to get well, the faster you get well. They say that you need to maintain a positive attitude in yourself in order to increase the chances of a speedy recovery. Do you agree with this?

- There is a rational grain in this. In the apostolic age, in the era of the first Christians, this positive was the constant expectation of the Messiah, the coming of Christ. It was this daily expectation of the coming of Christ that gave strength to people. And when we believe in positivity, which is no longer associated with some new medicine, new method of treatment, but with the help of God, this positivity has a beneficial effect on us.

We believe - Lord, tomorrow I will take communion, I will fully fulfill Your commandments, I will change my thoughts. I will make repentance, real repentance, I will treat You differently, I will treat my neighbors differently, my mind will turn 180 degrees, I will move away from sin, I will only rush to you, tomorrow I will meet you and the day after tomorrow I will meet. And so, every day, it has a positive impact.

– Is it right if a person does not spare his health for the sake of good deeds?

“Unfortunately, we are often reckless with ourselves.

I remember one of my teachers of the last century, Vladimir Nikolaevich Paneshnikov, he studied holy springs. Back in 35, he saved the Lavra springs when they wanted to build factories there.

He was 86 years old, and he believed that the water of these holy springs could heal all diseases. And so it really was. I am also following in his footsteps. Every Sunday, already at that age, he went to the springs and brought cans of water. And then one day he took a heavy can of 5 liters and went to two sisters, one of whom was blind, to visit them and give them water. And this risk proved fatal. On the way, I felt bad. When the ambulance arrived, he was dead. We need to calculate, distribute our forces in such a way as to achieve the final goal.

The Apostle Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians: "I am running." It means “I am running a marathon”. You have to live like an athlete who runs a marathon, he knows when to speed up his run, when to slow down, stop for a while and never put himself in mortal risk. Because if an athlete rushes right away, he will immediately fall and can give up the ends. You need to be able to distribute your forces in order to achieve your cherished goal, and not take reckless risks.