Day 205: Christ the Physician

"By the sacred anointing of the sick and the prayer of the priests the whole Church commends those who are ill to the suffering and glorified Lord, that he may raise them up and save them. And indeed she exhorts them to contribute to the good of the People of God by freely uniting themselves to the Passion and death of Christ." CCC 1499

In today's reading, the Catechism discusses the background to the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. There is an old joke that there are only two sure things in life: death and taxes. While the latter may vary from time to time and from culture to culture, the former is definite. We all will get sick at times and will one day die (Heb 9:27). That is not a matter of faith, but one of easily provable reality. Getting sick, in a word, sucks. Or to put it as the Catechism does, "man experiences his powerlessness, his limitations, and his finitude" (CCC 1500). Sickness can spark different reactions in different people, or even the same person depending upon various things like the time of their life it happens or the severity of the illness. As the Catechism states:

Illness can lead to anguish, self-absorption, sometimes even despair, and revolt against God. It can also make a person more mature, helping him discern in his life what is not essential so that he can turn toward that which is. Very often illness provokes a search for God and a return to him. (CCC 1501)

In the times of much of the Scriptures, illness was seen as a result of sin and God's anger (Ps 38:3-5). The Catechism Compendium elaborates:

In the Old Testament sickness was experienced as a sign of weakness and at the same time perceived as mysteriously bound up with sin. The prophets intuited that sickness could also have a redemptive value for one’s own sins and those of others. Thus sickness was lived out in the presence of God from whom people implored healing. (#313)

In the New Testament, Jesus is shown as healing physical illnesses (e.g. Lk 4:40), healing the sickness from sin (e.g. Lk 5:31-32), healing as a sign of salvation (e.g. Jn 9:1-7), and His healing continues in the Sacraments (Jam 5:14-15). For this reason, Jesus is often referred to as the Divine Physician in the Church. 

The Catechism Compendium summarizes the Church's belief concerning our suffering and Christ:

The compassion of Jesus toward the sick and his many healings of the infirm were a clear sign that with him had come the Kingdom of God and therefore victory over sin, over suffering, and over death. By his own passion and death, he gave new meaning to our suffering which, when united with his own, can become a means of purification and of salvation for us and for others. (#314)