That We Ought Not to Put Our Trust in Doctors or Drugs, but in God; and Conform Ourselves to His Will Not Only in the Sickness Itself, but in All the Incidents of the Same

THAT has been said of sickness is to be said also of all other things that are apt to occur in time of sickness.

St. Basil gives a very good lesson for us when we are sick. He says that in availing ourselves of medical men and medical appliances we should not put all our trust in them. Thereof Holy Scripture makes it a fault in King Asa: And in his sickness he sought not the Lord, but trusted rather in the skill of the doctor (II Chron. xvi. 12). We must not attribute to this the whole cause of our getting better or not getting better, but we must put all our trust in God, Who is pleased sometimes to give us health through these medical appliances and sometimes not. And so, when physician and physic alike fail us, St. Basil says that we should not despair of our case on that account either. We read in the holy Gospel that Christ our Redeemer sometimes healed people by His mere will, as, dealing with that leper who petitioned Him: Lord, if thou wilt thou canst make me clean, He answered: I will, be thou made clean (Matt. viii. 2-3). At other times He used some application, as when He made clay with spittle and anointed the eyes of the blind man and told him to go and wash in the pool of Siloe (John ix. 6). At other times He left the sick in their sicknesses and would not heal them, although they had spent all their substance on doctors and drugs (Mark v. 26; Luke viii. 43). So now also at times God heals without physicians or physic by His only will; at other times, by means of these medical appliances; at other times, though the patient consults many doctors, and they apply to him great remedies, God will not give health, that so we may learn to put our trust not in human remedies, but in God. As King Ezechias did not attribute his cure to the plaster of figs that Isaias put on his wound, but to God (IV Kings xx. 7-8), so, when you recover from your illness, you must not attribute your cure to doctors or drugs, but to God, who healeth all our infirmities (Psalm cii. 3). For it is not herb or plaster, but thy word, O Lord, that healeth all (Wisdom xvi. 12). And when you are not cured, neither then either must you complain of doctors and medicines, but in that case also you must attribute all to God, Who does not wish to restore you to health, but that you should remain ill.

In the same way, when the physician has not understood the illness and has erred in the treatment of it—which is a thing that happens often enough even with great doctors and in the case of great personages—you must take that error as a stroke of Providence, as also any neglect or fault which the infirmarian may commit in the care of you. And you must not say that the fever returned because they made such and such a mistake in your treatment, but take it all as coming from the hand of God and say: “It has pleased the Lord that my fever has increased and that such an accident has befallen me;” because it is certain that, though on the part of those who are looking after you there has been a mistake, yet on the part of God it has not been without a set aim and purpose, since on the part of God nothing happens by chance. Think you that the flight of the swallows and their blinding holy Toby with their dung was by chance? It was not without a high decree and a particular will of God, to leave us an example in his person as in that of holy Job. And this the Holy Scripture says: The Lord permitted that this trial should come upon him, to give to posterity an example of patience as in holy Job (Tob. ii. 12). And the angel of the Lord said afterwards: Because thou wert acceptable to God, it was needful that temptation should prove thee (Tob. xii. 13). To prove thee, God permitted this temptation.

In the lives of the Fathers it is related of the Abbot Stephen that once, when he was sick, his companion was fain to make him a little cake; and, thinking that he was making it with good oil, he made it with linseed oil, which is very bitter, and gave it him. Stephen, as he noticed it, ate a little and said nothing. Another time he made him another in the same way; and, when he had tasted it and had no mind to go on eating, the brother said to him: “Eat, father, it is very good.” And he made trial of it to incite him to eat it; and when he felt the bitterness, he began to fret and cry out: “I’m a murderer.” And Stephen said to him: “Do not fret, son; for, if God had willed that you should not make a mistake in taking one oil for another, this would not have happened.” And of many other holy men we read that they took with great conformity and patience the remedies given them, though they were contrary to what their illness required. So in this manner we ought to take all the mistakes and negligences, as well of the doctor as of the nurses, without complaining of the one, or throwing the fault on the other.

This is a thing in which a man’s virtue is revealed and well shown. Great is the edification that a sick religious gives who takes all that is offered him with equanimity and cheerfulness as coming from the hand of God, and lets himself be guided and governed by superiors and infirmarians, forgetting himself and casting off all care of himself. St. Basil says: “You have entrusted your soul to the superior; why not entrust your body also? You have put in his hands your eternal salvation; why not also your temporal well-being?’ And since the rule permits us then wholly to give up the care of our body and bids us do so, we should greatly esteem and profit by so advantageous a permission. On the other hand, a sick religious gives great disedification when he takes much care of himself, and keeps a close reckoning what they are to give him and how they are to give it and whether they keep their appointments with him exactly; and if not, he is master of complaints and murmurs.

Cassian says very well that sickness is no obstacle to purity of heart if the sick man knows how to take it as he ought; but “beware,” he says, “lest the ailment pass from the body to the soul.” If a man behaves in that way and takes occasion of his sickness to do his own will and not be obedient and submissive, then the ailment will pass to the soul and make the superior more concerned about the malady of the soul than about that of the body. You must not cease to show yourself a religious for being ill, nor think that rules do not exist for a sick man and that you may concentrate all your care on your health and comfort and forget your spiritual advancement. “Let him that is sick,” says our holy Father, “by showing great humility and patience take care to give no less edification in time of sickness than in time of perfect health.” St. Chrysostom on those words of the prophet: Lord, thou hast crowned us with the buckler of thy good will (Psalm v. 13), shows how, as long as this life lasts, there is always a conflict, and that we must go armed for it. He says: “This applies alike to the sick and to the healthy; for in time of illness there is particular occasion for this conflict, when pains assail the soul on all sides, when fits of sadness beset it, when the devil is there, inciting us to impatient speech and unmeasured complaints.” So then is the time to exercise and show virtue. So says Seneca that the brave man must practise his fortitude as well in his bed, suffering illnesses, as on the field of battle, fighting against the enemy, since the chief part of fortitude is to endure rather than to accomplish. And the Wise Man: Better is a patient than a strong man; and better is he who is master of his own soul than he who taketh cities by storm (Prov. xvi. 32).