How does the Church approach sickness and death?

"'Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.' Then He who sat on the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new'" (Revelation 21:3-5).

This prayer of St. John in the Book of Revelation definitely defines illness and death, but still today many psychologists have attempted to find the true meaning of illness, suffering, and death. Obviously, as we know, illness and death are very real and no human has resurrected yet. Illness and death are very real; they are inescapable realities of life.

Christ came to establish His Kingdom on earth. Healing of sickness is part of this kingdom. When Christ sent out the seventy, He commanded them to heal and preach the kingdom.

"And he called his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infirmity...And preach as you go saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons" (Mt. 10:1, 7-8).

If we are to understand the Christian view of sickness and sin, we must first come to terms with Jesus Christ.

Psychologists have attempted to find the meaning of illness, suffering, and death. Just the titles of some books by one well-known psychiatrist, Viktor Frankl, illustrate such attempts: Man's Search for meaning (1959); The Will To Meaning (1969); The Unheard Cry For Meaning (1978). Unfortunately, such worthy attempts simply reduce meaning to a human level. Frankl unknowingly states this himself:

"The theological dimension goes beyond the psychological dimension and thus is the higher; . . . his humanness, does not contradict the fact that . . . he is still an animal. The man who knows how to suffer molds his sufferings into a human achievement" (1978).

Following Frankl's logic, if terminal illness and death are merely human achievements, we have ultimate meaninglessness. In the Orthodox funeral service, we pray the “Idiomelon” (Greek: idio, "unique" + melon, "melody"; Church Slavonic: “samoglasen”) — by St. John of Damascus:

"I called to mind the Prophet, as he cried: I am earth and ashes; and I looked again into the graves and beheld the bones laid bare, and I said: Who then is the king or the warrior, the rich man or the needy, the upright or the sinner?"

But St. John of Damascus' prayer does not end there. Because of Christ we have divine eternal meaning. The last line of that “Idiomelon” is, "Yet, O Lord, give rest unto Thy servant with the righteous." Later in the funeral service we pray, "May Christ give thee rest in the land of the living, and open unto thee the gates of Paradise and make thee a citizen of His kingdom." The meaning of illness and death is eternal life.

Jesus graciously provides healing for his people:

“Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” (James 5:14-16)

The sacrament of healing is offered both to people who are physically healthy, and to people who are sick, because all people are diseased in one way or another.

As Christians, how are we to understand sickness and the suffering that comes from prolonged illness? How also are we to understand sin in relation to this? The service for the anointing of the sick, “Holy Unction”, provides a pedagogical tool for understanding the meaning of our suffering. At this point we should remember that all the sacraments of the church are a real participation in the life of the Kingdom here and now. Holy Unction is a transformation of sickness into the victory of the cross. When someone is sick, they experience tremendous loss and disconnection. They become subject to their body's frailty. This can lead to a crisis of faith and a break in relationships. So what does the church do? She refers all of it to Christ in order for it to be transformed in the light of the cross. The oil that is used in the anointing is referred to as a light that illumines. "With the lamp of light divine, in thy mercy make bright, through this Unction, O Christ, him who now, in faith, maketh haste to Thy mercy."

Suffering, sickness, and death are not normal and they are not the punishment from God of personal sinful behavior, per se. We all share in the consequences of sin in this world. There is a definite connection between the two. Death is the result of sin (For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord - Rom. 6:23), and sickness is the body slowly wearing down to its eventual physical death. The seven prayers from the Holy Unction service suggest this connection:

"Look down and hear us, Thine unworthy servants, and where so ever in Thy great name we shall bring this oil, send down the gift of healing, and remission of sins: and heal him, in the multitude of Thy mercies."

We also find this connection in scripture. In the first of the seven epistle readings we hear:

"Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and them them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects" (Js. 5:14-16).

We also hear Christ say to the lame man:

"Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven," then, "Rise, take up your bed and go home" (Mt. 9:2, 6).

Suffering, sickness, and death have direct consequences of the ancestral sin. When the first Adam rebelled against God, it was a rebellion against Life, because God is Life. This rebellion against Life brought suffering, sickness, and death upon Adam, Eve, and all their progeny. Like an infection, death spread to all mankind. And through humanity, death spread to the entire world.

Therefore, all sickness and death have a common root, and if we remember Christ came to establish His Kingdom, we can realize that true healing is the forgiveness of sins. As Christians we have already died and risen with Christ in our baptism. Death has been vanquished and trampled underfoot by Christ. The anointing of the sick always coincides with confession of sin.

The second prayer from the unction service says:

“Do Thou, O tender-hearted master, look down from the height of Thy sanctuary, overshadowing us sinners, who are also Thine unworthy servants, with the grace of the Holy Spirit, at this hour, and take up Thine abode in thy servant, N., who acknowledged his iniquities, and draweth near to Thee in faith; accepting him because of Thy love towards mankind, for giving him whatsoever he hath done amiss, whether by word, or deed, or thought, forgive him, cleanse him, make him pure from every sin; and abiding ever present with him, preserve him all the remaining years of his life; that, walking ever in Thy statutes, he may in no wise again become an object of malignant joy to the devil; and Thy holy name may be glorified in him”.

All suffering, all sickness, and all dying are mere symptoms of a greater underlying problem: man’s alienation from his Creator. The root cause of every ache and funeral can be traced to Adam’s forbidden meal in the third chapter of Genesis. So in a very real sense, all sickness and death is a result of “food poisoning”. (It is thus very fitting that our “medicine of immortality” is likewise food . . . the Eucharist.)

While all sickness and death results from sin, we cannot conclude that every illness a person suffers is due to his own sin, nor that does every person die because of his own sin. A heroin addict can give birth to a very sick baby, even though that baby did nothing to deserve being sick. A drunk driver can kill a child, even if that child did not deserve death. In John 9, Jesus plainly told a blind man that his blindness was not due to his own sin, nor to his parents’ sin:

“And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? 3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. 4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. 6 When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, 7 And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing. 8 The neighbours therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged? 9 Some said, This is he: others said, He is like him: but he said, I am he. 10 Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened? 11 He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight. 12 Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not. 13 They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind. 14 And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes. 15 Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see. 16 Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them. 17 They say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of him, that he hath opened thine eyes? He said, He is a prophet. 18 But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and received his sight, until they called the parents of him that had received his sight. 19 And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? how then doth he now see? 20 His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind:

21 But by what means he now seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself. 22 These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore said his parents, He is of age; ask him. 24 Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner. 25 He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see. 26 Then said they to him again, What did he to thee? how opened he thine eyes? 27 He answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye hear it again? will ye also be his disciples? 28 Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses' disciples. 29 We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is. 30 The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. 31 Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. 32 Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. 33 If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. 34 They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out. 35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? 36 He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? 37 And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. 38 And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. 39 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. 40 And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? 41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.”

And the millions of victims of abortion have done nothing to deserve their fate. It can be very misleading, and therefore very dangerous, to assume that a fellow human being has only himself to blame for the suffering which he endures. This sort of critical spirit is incompatible with the compassion which is needed to facilitate the healing process.

There is a direct connection between sin and disease, but the connection is rarely a simple one-to-one correlation. Of course there are exceptions to this rule. There is a fairly direct connection between the immoral lifestyle and the acquisition of venereal disease. To mention few examples: gluttony is tied closely to obesity, heavy smoking has a close connection to lung cancer and the abuse of alcohol frequently leads to cirrhosis of the liver. However, even cases like these are not necessarily as simple as they may seem. A person may be virtuous, and yet still acquire a venereal disease because of an unfaithful spouse. A person may be overweight due to a glandular defect, rather than due to overeating. Some people get lung cancer without ever smoking a cigarette. Regardless of any disease which is encountered, snap judgments are rarely helpful. The first prescription should always be compassion.

The Church understands sickness and death holistically, approaching healing primarily at the root, not merely at the level of symptoms. While the modern medical field mostly focuses on the physical aspect of disease, the Church focuses on the entire person: body, soul, mind, and spirit. The Church realizes that this or that disease may be temporarily addressed by medical science, but that nothing truly lasting is accomplished until the actual root of the problem is cured. Therefore, the Church always views sickness and healing within the context of sin and redemption. (http://theorthodoxlife.wordpress.com)

The service of Holy Unction reintegrates the sick one back into the church community through the confession of sin and anointing with oil for healing. Healing is primarily for spiritual healing. Physical healing is only temporary, for everyone who is physically healed eventually dies. For the Christian true death is not physical death, but spiritual death. This healing service of the church is for true spiritual healing. The meaning of suffering is changed in Christ. The healing that Christ offers is victory over this world and the devil. One of the prayers even mentions physical death as part of the spiritual healing: "that they who shall be anointed with this oil of regeneration may be terrible unto their adversaries, and may shine in the radiance of thy Saints, having neither spot or wrinkle; and that they may attain unto thy rest everlasting, and receive the prize of their high calling." And in the seventh prayer: "Because thou hast not created man for destruction, but for the keeping of thy commandments, and for inheritance of life incorruptible."

When someone is sick they can either lose their faith or find salvation through their suffering. The healing ministry that the Church offers is guiding the sick one to the cross in order to find victory. We all will face death. The question is, will it be a victory or not. Healing is not necessarily taking away the suffering, but it is through the suffering, through the cross that Christ power is made manifest. As St. Paul says to the Philippians church:

"that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that i, if possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead" (Ph. 3:10-11).

The anointing is a passage from this world into the Kingdom of God where death and suffering no longer win. The suffering is joined to the cross and becomes martyrdom. The Christian who suffers well is the most profound witness of the church to the world. God can and does heal people physically, but what a greater testimony of Christ's victory than the martyrdom of redemptive suffering. We all must face the cross in this life; will it be a victory or the loss of salvation? St. Paul writes to the Corinthians about his own suffering:

"Why, we felt that we had received the sentence of death; but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead; He delivered us from so deadly a peril, and He will deliver us; on Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again" (II Cor. 1: 9-10).

The focus is radically different from the approach taken by medical science, and for this reason, people can easily make the false assumption that medical doctors are the only ones interested in “real” healing, thinking that the Church merely uses sickness as an transition from one thing to another smoothly and without interruption for talking about “unrelated” spiritual issues. For a person who is suffering from physical disease, it can be easy to misunderstand the Church’s intentions. In the mind of the Church, a focus on sin and redemption is the only way to address the root cause of disease and death. But in the mind of a person who does not understand the connection between sin and sickness, it can appear like the Church is changing the subject. For this reason, it is imperative that the connection between sin and death is not only understood by the Church, but is also clearly communicated to the sick person. The biblical texts on healing, and the words in Orthodox healing services, both help to communicate the close connection between sin and sickness, and between redemption and healing.

Of the numerous passages in Scripture which discuss healing, two prominent texts are Mark 6:12-13: “12 And they went out, and preached that men should repent.13 And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them”and James 5:13-16: “13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.“

Both of these passages call for repentance, promise healing, involve the anointing of oil by Christ’s chosen ministers, and are applied broadly to a plurality of sick people. The message is clear: Sin and sickness are closely related problems, and therefore they share a common cure. And just as the problem plagues us all, so the cure is available to all. The ultimate cure for all sickness, all disease, and all death, is nothing less than the life of the risen Christ, mediated to the patient through His body, the Church. In reconciliation to the Church, we are reconciled to Christ.

In “Baptism”, we become heirs of Christ’s victory over death. In “Chrismation”, we receive the healing indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In the Eucharist, we receive the medicine of immortality. In penance, we are cleansed from sin as if in a second baptism, and are restored to communion with Christ and His Church. The sacrament of ordination includes specific reference to the healing which God brings to every infirmity. The sacrament of marriage creates an indissoluble tie which cannot be broken by sickness, and by the sacrament of healing, the sick person is reintegrated into the Church community, given the promise of a hopeful future, and is reminded that Christ has triumphed over death, hell, and the grave, thereby transforming all Christian suffering from defeat into victory.

The Orthodox Church has celebrated the sacrament of healing in many different ways over the centuries. It took far longer for this sacrament’s liturgical expression to be solidified, compared to the other sacraments. The only two constant elements are the two core prayers: the prayer of blessing over the oil, and the prayer of anointing. And even the text of these two prayers exists in several different archaic versions. This sacrament has been concelebrated by 7 priests in a magnificent cathedral, with thousands attending, and this sacrament has been celebrated by a single priest visiting a single sick Christian. Either way, the point is to restore the sick person to the community, either by bringing the sick person to Church, or by bringing the Church to the sick person.

The prayer of blessing over the oil explicitly addresses the connection between soul and body, between sin and sickness. In the prayer, the priest calls upon God to use this blessed oil to bring healing to both flesh and spirit. The prayer makes no division between these two aspects of healing, and does not suggest that the anointing oil would be efficacious for one, but not the other. There is not one substance used only for healing the body, and a separate substance used only for healing the soul. Rather, the single vial of anointing oil is deemed efficacious for both. It is understood that true healing strikes at the very root of the problem, and thereby touches the entire person, both body and soul.

The prayer of anointing likewise incorporates this holistic understanding of healing. Through this single rite of anointing with a single substance, God is beseeched to heal the infirmities of both “body and soul”. The Church on earth is represented in the person(s) of the priest(s) celebrating the sacrament, all the saints and angels are called upon for intercession, and the holy name of the Trinity is invoked. Through prayer and the anointing of oil, the sick person is embraced by Christ and His Church, sins are forgiven, sanctification is given, an ax is brought down upon the very root of all illness and infirmity, and the promise of final, total, ultimate healing is provided.

Healing is realized, regardless of whether the external symptom (the physical malady) is immediately eradicated or not. The important thing is that the underlying cause for sickness has been addressed. The outward, physical sickness may be healed immediately. Or, it may linger. If it lingers, then it does so as a dead plant which has already been severed from its roots. Its leaves may be green for a moment, but its doom has already been decided, and it will wilt, dry up, and blow away. No sickness can remain forever, once the root cause has been cured. In the sacrament of healing, we are reminded that Jesus has defeated death via the cross. Therefore sickness and death have lost their power, have lost their sting, and are able to exert no more than a fleeting hold on God’s people. In Christ, every illness and every death becomes martyrdom, a testimony to the triumph of the cross. “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs, bestowing life!”

What is the connection between sickness, death and sin or better yet what is the relation between sickness and sin? Before the fall of mankind no infirmity of any kind existed; sickness arose only after man had sinned. One can say generally that both sickness and death resulted from sin; for by one man’s trespass sin and death came into the world (Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned - Rom. 5.12). Sickness spread to all men just as did death. Though not all sin in the same way as Adam did, yet because of his transgression, all die. Where there is sin there is also death. In between these two is that which we usually call sickness. This, then, is the factor common to all disease. However, there is actually more than one cause to account for sickness coming upon people. Some sicknesses spring from sin, while others do not. So far as mankind is concerned, sickness does come from sin; but in relation to the individual it may or may not be the case. We need to distinguish between these two applications of sickness. Now it is entirely true that were there no sin there could neither be death nor sickness; for if there were no death in the world, how could there ever be sickness? Death arises through sin, and sickness through the inception of death. Even so, this cannot be specifically and indiscriminately applied to every individual, because while many do fall ill through sin there are others who become ill for reasons other than sin. In this matter of the relationship of sin to sickness we must therefore make a careful distinction between the application of this relationship to mankind as a whole and its application to individual men. We will recall in such Old Testament books as Leviticus and Numbers that God’s promise was, that if the people of Israel obeyed Him, walked in His way, rebelled not against His laws and did not sin against Him, then He would keep them from many diseases. These words plainly teach that many maladies derive from sin or rebellion against God. Yet in the New Testament we discover that some sicknesses are not caused by the person having committed any transgression at all.

Paul once wrote that he would deliver to Satan for the destruction of his flesh that man who had sinned by living with his father’s wife (In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. - 1 Cor. 5.4-5). This definitely indicates that some sickness proceeds from sin. The consequence of sin is either sickness if the sin is light or death if it is serious. Judging from the words of 2 Corinthians 7 this man was not sick to the point of death because, out of godly grief, he produced a repentance which led to salvation and brought no regret (vv.9-10). Paul charged the church at Corinth to forgive such a man (2 Cor. 2.6-7). In 1 Corinthians 5 mention is made of delivering this man’s flesh (not his life) to Satan; he was to be sick but was not to die. Paul further wrote that those in the church at Corinth who ate and drank of the bread and the cup of the Lord without discerning the Lord’s body had become weak and ill and some even had died (6 Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. 7 So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. - 1 Cor. 11.29-30).

This reveals that disobedience to the Lord was the provocation for their sickness. The Scriptures have served sufficient notice that many (but not all) are ill because of sin. Hence the first action we must take when sick is to examine ourselves to determine whether or not we have sinned against God. By searching, many find that their illness is in fact due to sin: on a particular occasion they had rebelled against God or had disobeyed His Word. They had gone astray. Just as soon as that particular sin is found out and confessed, however, the sickness will be over. Countless brothers and sisters in the Lord have encountered such experiences. Shortly after the cause is discovered before God the illness is gone. This is a phenomenon beyond the explanation of medical science. Sickness does not necessarily issue from sin, yet much of it actually does. We acknowledge that many diseases have their natural causes, but we equally maintain that we cannot attribute all sickness to natural reasons.

We unreservedly believe that there are natural explanations for sickness; this has been proven scientifically. We confess nonetheless that many illnesses among God’s children are the consequences of sinning against God such as in the case cited in 1 Corinthians 11. It is consequently essential to ask for forgiveness first, then for healing afterwards. We frequently can detect, soon after we have been struck down with sickness, where we have transgressed against the Lord or how we have been disobedient to His Word. When the sin is confessed and the problem resolved, the sickness fades away. This is truly a most marvelous event. Thus the initial point we need to know is the relation between sin and sickness. Generally sickness results from sin; and individually, too, it may result from sin.

So to summarize:

1) People sin which causes illness; and

2) God offers forgiveness and health;

The scriptures make a clear connection between the relationship of sin and illness and what is needed for healing. These statements sound simple. If you sin, you will get sick. If you are sick, ask for forgiveness, and you will be healed. However, like most things in life and faith, the truth is not as simple as it seems. The relationship between sin and sickness and forgiveness and health is much more complicated, so let’s start by defining what sin is. Sin is any action, attitude, desire, or lack of action which separates us from God, from our neighbor, and from our true selves. Sins that separate us from God are those things, desires, attitudes, possessions, and people upon which we place a greater importance than God. Sins against our neighbor are those actions, attitudes, or lack of actions which harm our neighbor or harm our relationship with our neighbor. Sins against ourselves are those actions, attitudes or lack of actions which harm ourselves, or which make our spirits in hospitable for Christ’s presence inside us.

The most widely practiced sins have been deemed the “seven deadly sins” by the church.

The practice of these sins is so damaging to our perception of what is right and what is wrong, that practicing any one of them can separate us so much from God, from our neighbor or from our true selves, that it becomes difficult for us to allow the saving grace of God to transform our lives. God is always willing to forgive us, but the practice of sin can blind us to the need for forgiveness. The seven deadly sins are: lust (extravagance) gluttony (addiction), greed, sloth (apathy or laziness), wrath (hate), envy, and pride. Some of these sins are sins against our selves; some are sins against others. All are sins against God.

Let me give you some examples.

Probably the ones that are easiest to spot in others are lust, gluttony and greed. Most of us have fallen victim to these sins at one point or another in our lives. Their extremes can be identified as addiction to such things as alcohol, tobacco, drugs, food, power, money, shopping and many other distractions which deaden us to the pain we feel and see in others. All of our addictions make us feel better in the short term, but like any addiction, we can never get enough and we are always looking for our next fix. These three sins can have very costly consequences, not only for us as individual sinners, but also to those around us. If a person is addicted to alcohol and quietly drinks herself to death, the sin is committed against herself and God. If she drinks and drives and kills a child, then the sin is committed against herself, God, the child and the child’s family.

Sloth is a sin that starts off as distraction or procrastination and leads to apathy and laziness. Sloth causes us to fail to be present to those around us. We get distracted by TV, work, the busyness of life, and we forget to appreciate the many blessings in our lives. When we do not appreciate the blessings in life, we begin to not care what happens to ourselves, our family and friends, and our community. We no longer care, and because we no longer care, we have no motivation to do anything. Our relationships with friends and family wither. We stagnate and fester, and eventually die. Like lust, gluttony and greed, sloth is a sin against our selves, God and our neighbors.

Wrath, envy and pride are all related. They deal with our relationships with others, our self-perception and our perceptions of what is due to us. Wrath, or hate, is an unjustified or excessive anger that is directed at an object, person, situation, or group. Anger turns to hate when we are unable to forgive the harm others have done to us or that we have done to ourselves. Hate is grounded in revenge, instead of justice. Ultimately, hate becomes a cancer which eats one up and destroys the hater instead of the hated. Envy is misdirected desire. It is the desire to have something another owns. It is the desire to tear down another in order to build one self-up. It is self-pity and low self-esteem personified. Envy denies the beauty that God created in each of us. Pride is best defined as arrogance. The sin of pride places the highest value upon oneself and one’s accomplishments. The sin of pride separates an individual from the community and convinces the individual that he does not need others or God. At its extreme, pride denies the very existence of God or allows the individual to claim to be God. The consequences of the sins of wrath, envy and pride are the separation of the individual from the community and the destruction of the self. Wrath, envy and pride become idols that are worshiped instead of worshiping God. We fill the space where God belongs with these sins.

However, sin is not just an individual practice. Communities can commit sin as well. We call the sin of a community, corporate sin. Corporate sin is just as destructive, if not more so, as individual sin. All we have to do is look at the financial mess our economy is in to see the results of corporate sin. Corporate greed, gluttony, and lust lead to the abuse and misuse of the financial system. The consequences of these sins have been the collapse of many businesses and a global finical crisis which we each feel in our daily lives. Though we as individuals may not have committed these corporate sins, our inactions sanctioned the sins, and we are therefore responsible for them. Remember, sin is any action or inaction which separates us from God, from our Community and from our true selves. If you know about a sin, and you do nothing to stop the sin, you are guilty of committing a sin.

Let’s see how the Holy Scripture views the sin.

The apostle Paul writes in Romans 3:23:

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Later, he adds, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned" (Romans 5:12).

Sin is universal, and perhaps this is one reason why the term is so frequently ignored. So many are sinning so frequently that it is a way of life! It has become acceptable because everybody is doing it! Sin is not like a disease that some contract and others escape. Some may self-righteously think they are better than others because of outward appearance—living by sight—but we have all been soiled by it. "There is none righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10). Perfection is gone. Because of sin, we have all come short of the glory of God.

The phrase in Romans 5:12, "And thus death spread to all men" can be translated into more modern English as, "When death entered the race, it went throughout." It means death indiscriminately affected all because all sinned. It almost seems as though sin is like an amoebic blob whose tentacles reach out to encompass all in its path, absorbing and sweeping everything to its death.

In Galatians 3:22, Paul adds another picture to the Bible's teaching of the universality of sin:

"But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe."

The Scripture is the Old Testament; it is man's jailer, condemning and confining him because he has sinned. This shows the uselessness of trying to be justified by law keeping. How can one expect the very thing that declares him to be guilty and condemns him to death also to pronounce him innocent? We would no more expect the law of our land to declare a murderer guilty and at the same time acquit him!

Paul refers to sin's power to rule in Romans 5:21: ". . . sin reigned in death." The apostle personifies sin with a nature that is depraved and holding sway. In chapter 6:13-14 this becomes abundantly clear:

“And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

Sin is seen as an intangible entity whose movements we cannot literally see. But, as sin uses the members of our body in exercising its dominion, we can recognize it at work.

In the next chapter, Paul expands this concept of sin's dominion to sobering proportions:

“For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members” (Romans 7:11, 17, 23).

Paul imagines sin as beguiling, enticing and deceitful. We can almost visualize it as Satan himself, and it is certainly satanic in origin. He sees two authorities—the divine nature and the sinful natures—that are passionately opposed to each other, and man is forced to choose between them. The apostle sees sin as a living and malignant power that at one time had complete reign over us. Even after a person is converted, sin still struggles mightily to retain its former dominion.

God's admonishes Cain about sin in Genesis 4:6-7:

“So the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it."

Because God had not accepted his offering or because He had accepted Abel's, Cain was angry and depressed. God tells him that if he changes his ways, he will indeed be accepted. But if he does not change, sin—pictured as a slave crouched just outside the door of his heart, awaiting the bidding of its master—would spring to action. God is describing sin's persistent nearness; it is always ready to extend its dominance by increasing iniquity. Sin strives to pile iniquity upon iniquity, even as one lie usually produces another to keep a facade of deception from crumbling. God's warning is clear. Repent of sin at once, or it has a powerful tendency to grow and thoroughly dominate one who does nothing to stop it. This thought is reinforced in the final sentence of verse 7, "And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it."

In modern terms, God is saying, "Practice makes perfect." Sin's desire is so persistent and its appeal so subtle that, if it is not consciously stopped, one will become a master, a "pro," as we would say today, at sinning. It becomes a way of life. Jeremiah 4:22 makes this principle even clearer:

"For My people are foolish; they have not known Me. They are silly children and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge."

Did not God's warning prove true in Cain's life? We cannot afford to ignore sin's pervasive influence.

So now we have an understanding of what sin is; how then does sickness relate to sin?

Sin produces sickness, pain and degeneracy: The episode involving Jesus and the paralytic makes a distinct connection between sin and sickness:

When He had come back to Capernaum several days afterward, it was heard that He was at home. 2 And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room, not even near the door; and He was speaking the word to them. 3 And they *came, bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four men. 4 Being unable toget to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying. 5 And Jesus seeing their faith *said to the paralytic,]Son, your sins are forgiven.” 6 But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sinsbut God alone?” 8 Immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, *said to them, “Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’? 10 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He *said to the paralytic, (Mark 2:1-10)

This effect is often subtle because an illness or a poor, weak, rundown state of health may not be the result of a specific sin. It may be the product of a series of sins committed over many years or a lifetime. Sin is so subtle that a worldly person, examining himself for the cause of his sickness, may never consider sin at all. Not knowing God, he would have no inclination to look for sin as the cause. Our Savior certainly connects sin with sickness: "Jesus said, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk.' . . . Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, ‘See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you'" (John 5:8, 14). It could hardly be clearer.

Sin produces death: Death is the ultimate in slavery, a bondage so intense no one escapes from it unless the Lord raises him. It is such a powerful enemy that, according to I Corinthians 15:26, it is the last one destroyed. James' vivid portrayal of the course of sin also shows death to be sin's final result:

“Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren” (James 1:13-16)

A person's first sin gives birth to the first death. Repeated sinning without true repentance, especially when one has a knowledge of God, brings forth the second death (Revelation 20:13-15). What more can we add?

As we are involved in this spiritual warfare, we would be well served to observe one of the primary principles of war: The better we know our enemy, the better our chances to defeat him. We need to understand more fully how the Bible perceives sin. It is a formidable and devastating opponent. It lurks within, looking for any opportunity to spring forth and gain dominion over us, seeking to produce more of its kind while it destroys life's God-intended qualities and finally life itself. The law of God exposes and condemns sin. One of the purposes of the law, combined with the Holy Spirit, is to lift the lid from our self-deceived respectability and reveal what we—and sin—are like underneath. Perhaps a weakness of the church is to soft-pedal sin and God's judgment. But sin is rampant in these end times, and the judgment of God has begun upon us (I Peter 4:17)! We do not want to be like the false prophets described in Jeremiah 6:14: "They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly, saying ‘Peace, peace!' when there is no peace." Very likely, the degree of our appreciation of grace and the gospel of the Kingdom of God stands in direct proportion to our understanding and abhorrence of sin. It has been said that the beauty of a pearl cannot be appreciated when there is no conception of the filth of a pit. Only against the inky blackness of the night sky do stars sparkle brilliantly. Thus, it is only against the ugly background of sin and judgment that the beauty of God's grace and His gospel shine. Do not forget: We are all sinners. And our sin makes us sick. We need forgiveness in order to heal. But some sickness is not the result of our own sin. Sometimes sickness is the result of corporate sin or the sin of others. Like the business man who get cancer from a chemical that he was told was safe, even though the company that sold it knew it was not; or the young man who was hit by a driver high on prescription drugs; or the young woman who has post-traumatic stress disorder after being raped. All of these examples leave us questioning why these people who are ill need forgiveness.

We may not need forgiveness of the sins that caused us to be ill, but we do need our sins forgiven. Forgiveness is the first step in developing a healthy relationship with our own selves, with each other and with God. We need God to forgive us so that we have the ability to forgive our own mistakes and the mistakes of others. The act of forgiveness opens the space needed for healing and wholeness. It is impossible to be healed if one is holding onto resentment, hate, anger, envy, addiction, and the many other distractions that keep us from having a healthy whole relationship with God, with others and with our true selves. God offers us forgiveness even though we have done nothing to deserve it.

Forgiveness is an act of God’s grace and love. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the Gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8); “Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them from their distress; he sent out his word and healed them and delivered them from destruction.” (Psalm 107:19-20).

Forgiveness is not easy, but it is the necessary first step toward health and wholeness. The second step toward health and wholeness is to turn away from our sinful ways and take actions toward healing. In our Old Testament lesson, the people who were ill were told to follow a prescription for healing. When bitten by the snakes, they were to “look upon the serpent of Bonze and live” (Numbers 21:9). We are responsible for our health. Our actions matter. We can surrender our addictions to God and seek God’s help and the help of our community to turn away from our addictions. We can take our medications as directed by our doctors, listen to the specialists who are seeking to heal us. We can develop healthy behaviors, pray, move, and grow in Christ. We can know that we are loved and are worthy of being the healthy, happy temples of God. We must all live with the consequences of our actions. God offers healing to all, but sometimes the healing does not come in the fashion we most desire. Sometimes the healing we are offered is the healing of broken relationships. Sometimes the healing offered is the healing of broken spirits. Sometimes we are healed body, mind and soul. Sometimes, the only way to heal the body is in the body’s death and the sprit’s resurrection with Christ. We are not promised eternal life in this life, but we are promised eternal life in the next one.

Often, the workings of God are beyond our comprehension and understanding.

ADDITIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY (via internet search)

CONFESSION AND SPIRITUAL DIRECTION IN THE ORTHODOX CHURCH- ARCHIMANDRITE JOB (GETCHA);

J. ERICKSON, « Penitential discipline in the Orthodox Canonical Tradition », The Challenge of our Past, Crestwood, NY, 1991;

G. WAGNER, « Penitential discipline in the Oriental Tradition;

Canon 12 of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea, the Wonderworker. The Rudder, (D. CUMMINGS, ed.), Chicago, 1957;

J. MEYENDORFF, Introduction to Byzantine Theology, New York, 1987;

N. USPENSKY, « The Collision of Two Theologies in the Revision of Russian Liturgical Books in the Seventeenth Century », Evening Worship in the Orthodox Church, Crestwood, NY, 1985;

BISHOP HIEROTHEOS OF NAFPAKTOS, Orthodox Psychotherapy. The science of the Fathers. Birth of the Theotokos Monastery, Levadia, 1994 ; ID., The illness and cure of the soul in the Orthodox Tradition, Birth of the Theotokos Monastery, Levadia, 1993;

Penance in the Orthodox Church- Liturgical Theology 331 Professor Paul Meyendorff, Spring 1999;

JEAN MORIN AND THE PROBLEM OF PRIVATE PENANCE PAUL F. PALMER, S.J. Woodstock College;

James Dallen, The Reconciling Community: The Rite of Penance, (NY: Pueblo Publishing Company, 1974);

Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent: Journey to Pascha, (Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 1996);

The Fathers of the Church (Washington D.C.: Catholic University), 1953

Charles Joseph Hefele, A History of the Councils of the Church (Edinburgh: Clark, 1895) Volume I

J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1978)

Library of the Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church (Oxford: Parker, 1844), The Epistles of S. Cyprilan).

Absolution prayer written by St. Peter Mohyla. [Trebnyk of Peter Mohyla, Kiev, 1646, p. 356-357.]

« May our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, through the grace and bounties of His love toward mankind, forgive you, my child (name), all your transgressions. And I, an unworthy priest, through His power given to me (cf. Mt 16:19 and Jn 20:23), do forgive and absolve you from all your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen ».

Absolution prayer in Pre-Mohylian Slavonic Euchologia. [Trebnik, P. 1, Moscow, 1991, p. 127-128.]

« O Lord our God, who have granted remission [of sins] to Peter and to the sinful woman because of their tears, and have justified the publican having recognised his own sins. Receive the confession of your servant (name), and if he has committed a sin willingly or unwillingly, in word, or in deed , or in thought, since You are good, ignore it, since You are the only One who has the power to remit sins (cf. Mt 9:6, Mk 2:10 and Lk 5:24). For You are the God of mercy, compassion and love for mankind, and to You we ascribe glory, to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever and to the ages of ages. Amen ».

Council in Trullo (in 692), Canon 102. [The Rudder, (D. CUMMINGS, ed.), Chicago, 1957, p. 409.]

« Those who have received from God authority to bind and loose (Mt 16:19) must take into consideration the quality of the sin and the willingness and readiness of the sinner to return, and thus offer a treatment suited to the sin in question, lest by employing an immoderate adjustment in one direction or the other, they fail in compassing the salvation of the one ailing. For the diseases called sin are not simple affairs, but on the contrary, various and complex, and they produce many offshoots of the injury, as a result whereof the evil becomes widely diffused, and it progresses until it is checked by the power of the one treating it. So that a person who is professing the science of treating ailments as a spiritual physician ought first to examine the disposition of the sinner and ascertain whether he tends to health, or on the contrary, provokes the illness to attack him by his own actions; at the same time bearing in mind that he must provide against any reversion, and considering whether the patient is struggling against the physician, and whether the ulcer of the soul is being aggravated by the application of the remedy; and accordingly to mete out mercy in due proportion to the merits of the case. For all that matters to God and to the person undertaking pastoral leadership consists in the recovery of the straying sheep, and in healing the one wounded by the serpent (cf. Gn 3,13). Accordingly, he ought not to drive the patient to the verge of despair, nor give him rein to dissoluteness and contempt of life, but, on the contrary, in at least one way at any rate, either by resorting to extreme and stringent remedies, or to gentler and milder ones, to curb the disease, and to put up a fight to heal the ulcer for the one tasting the fruits of repentance, and wisely helping him on the way to the splendid rehabilitation to which the man is being invited. We must therefore be versed in both, that is both the requirements of accuracy and the requirements of custom. In the case of those who are obstinately opposed to extremities, we must follow the formula handed down to us, just as sacred Basil teaches us outright ».

The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins, is a classification of objectionable vices (part of Christian ethics) that have been used since early Christian times to educate and instruct Christians concerning fallen humanity's tendency to sin. The currently recognized version of the sins are usually given as wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. The Roman Catholic Church divides sin into two categories: venial sins, in which guilt is relatively minor, and the more severe mortal sins. Theologically, a mortal or deadly sin is believed to destroy the life of grace and charity within a person and thus creates the threat of eternal damnation. "Mortal sin, by attacking the vital principle within us - that is, charity - necessitates a new initiative of God's mercy and a conversion of heart which is normally accomplished [for Catholics] within the setting of the sacrament of reconciliation."[1] To Catholics the seven deadly sins do not belong to an additional category of sin. Rather, they are the sins that are seen as the origin ("capital" comes from the Latin caput, head) of the other sins. A "deadly sin" can be either venial or mortal, depending on the situation; but "they are called 'capital' because they engender other sins, other vices."[2] Beginning in the early 14th century, the popularity of the seven deadly sins as a theme among European artists of the time eventually helped to ingrain them in many areas of Catholic culture and Catholic consciousness in general throughout the world. One means of such ingraining was the creation of the mnemonic "SALIGIA" based on the first letters in Latin of the seven deadly sins: superbia, avaritia, luxuria, invidia, gula, ira, acedia.[3] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins