Catholic Medical Quarterly Volume 73(4) November 2023
Making the Sick Whole:
The mission of
good medicine?
Dr Adrian Treloar
FRCP, MRCPsych, MRCGP, Consultant in Old Age
Psychiatry
And running through that whole country, they began to carry about in beds those that were sick, where they heard he was. And whithersoever he entered, into towns or into villages or cities, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch but the hem of his garment: and as many as touched him were made whole. Mark 6, 55-56.
Jesus
spent a lot of His time healing the sick and it is very easy to see the
parallels between what we do now as doctors and what He did then. Our Lord
cured many people. Indeed Mark states that “as many as touched him were
made whole” [1]. Evangelist had already told us of the urgency of people
who carried the sick aroundin beds. People desperately strove to keep up
with Our Blessed Lord. The story of lowering the paralytic down through
the roof [2] of a house is but one example.
But modern translations of this passage simply state that those who touched Him were healed or cured. In the older [Douai/Rheims] translation we are told that they were “made whole”. In this difference of translation, we glimpse some very important truths about healing and medicine.
To heal is often construed as getting rid of physical illness.
If we remove a cancerous but pregnant womb, we might easily say that the woman is healed or cured. But we should remember that we often praise those women (like blessed Gianna Molla) who die having kept the baby by delaying treatment. Medicine is about more than just the elimination of disease. Good medicine is holistic and see more than just the index illness."
Our Lord certainly saw the broader dimension of curing and sought to make those whom he helped whole.The Gospels tell us that people desperately strove to keep up with Our Blessed Lord. The story of lowering the paralytic down through the roof [2] of a house speaks volumes of how hard people sought Jesus and his healing.
Translating the original Greek text.
The key passage is in Mark Chapter 6 v 55-6 [1]. In Greek it says “καὶ ὅTrου ἂν εἰσεTrορεύετο εἰς κώμας ἢ εἰς Trόλεις ἢ εἰς ἀγροὺς, ἐν ταῖς ἀγοραῖς ἐτίθεσαν τοὺς ἀσθενοῦντας, καὶ Trαρεκάλουν αὐτὸν ἵνα κἂν τοῦ κρασTrέδου τοῦ ἱματίου αὐτοῦ ἅψωνται· καὶ ὅσοι ἂν ἥψαντο αὐτοῦ ἐσῴζοντο.”
Modern translations of this passage simply state that those who touched Him were healed. But older [Douai/Rheims] (and King James) translations tell us that they were “made whole”.
The key Greek word here is εσωζοντο (esozonto) (= "[they] were made whole"). This is from the verb sozo. The definition of σωζω (Sozo) translates as “save”
Google translates “σώζω” as
- Save (σώζω, αTrοταμιεύω, γλιτώνω, οικονομώ)
- Salve (αλοίφω, σώζω, θεραTrεύω, Trερισώζω)
- Rescue (σώζω, διασώζω)
- Deliver from (αTrελευθερώνω, σώζω)
- Bing translates are “rescue, save and saver”
Strong’s concordance is far more of an authority than Google
translate!.
Strong’s concordance gives the following options: "save,
that is, deliver or protect (literally or figuratively), heal, preserve,
save (self), do well, be (made) whole".
The same challenges of transaltion occur at Bethsaida.(John 5, 1-15) [3]
“At that time, there was a festival day of the Jews: and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem a pond, called Probatica, which in Hebrew is named Bethsaida, having five porches.
And there was a certain man there that had been eight and thirty years under his infirmity. Him when Jesus had seen lying, and knew that he had been now a long time, he saith to him: "Wilt thou be made whole?" The infirm man answered him: "Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pond.
The Jews therefore said to him that was healed: "It is the sabbath. It is not lawful for thee to take up thy bed." He answered them: "He that made me whole, he said to me: Take up thy bed and walk. They asked him therefore: Who is that man who said to thee, Take up thy bed, and walk? But he who was healed, knew not who it was; for Jesus went aside from the multitude standing in the place. Afterwards, Jesus findeth him in the temple, and saith to him: Behold thou art made whole: sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee. The man went his way, and told the Jews, that it was Jesus who had made him whole."
Healing or made whole?
- To heal can be (and often is) construed as getting rid of physical illness. If we remove a cancerous but pregnant womb, we might easily say that the woman is healed or cured.
- Although the popular press regularly praises those women (like blessed Gianna Molla) who die having kept and protected their baby by knowingly delaying treatments that would harm the baby.
- Our Lord saw the broader dimension of curing and sought to make those whom he made whole.
- In the Gospel of St John he specifically advised the man he cured at the side of the pool of Bethsaida to be careful not to misuse his new found health.
- For those who are dying, we know that we will not cure them. Indeed to offer the hope of cure to a person dying of cancer is dishonest.
- But good medicine and good palliative care still offers a real help to those who are dying.
- By symptom relief, enabling people to come to terms with their illness, and of course through prayer and sacraments, people can become more whole.
- In many other branches of medicine we also cannot cure, but we can help to create or restore wholeness.
- Surgeons may cure (though usually strictly by mutilation)
- Medics may cure (but not all that often, but they do do a lot of disease management)
- Antenatal care does not normally cure
- Contraception disrupts the wholeness of fertility as opposed to Natural Family Planning which works with it and enables effective choice.
- Psychiatry is very rarely about cure, but good care and treatment can restore something far more important and profound.
- Learning disability care is clearly about supporting a fuller and better life and does not focus upon cure.
Lourdes- a place of very many miracles as well as a few very remarkable cures.
We could easily deny miracles (as happens to some extent in Lourdes) by saying that a physical cure is rare (not quite as rare as many claim) but that all these things ever did was to make people feel better, rather like a successful psychology session. This would be to deny the many people whom I have met to whom remarkable physical things have happened at Lourdes and elsewhere. But it could also deny the sacramental and grace laden conversions that we see in people who carry on dying, but find themselves reconciled to God in such circumstances.
If someone is cured physically, you can be pretty sure that in doing so there is a huge opportunity for them to deepen their love and service of God as a part of that package. In other words, a physical cure makes them whole in part because to be made physically healthy is to be made whole, but also because it strengthens their union with God.
Care of the dying
For those who are dying, we know that we will not cure them. Indeed to offer the hope of cure to a person dying of cancer is dishonest. But good medicine and good palliative care still offers a real help to those who are dying. By symptom relief, enabling people to come to terms with their illness, and of course through prayer and sacraments, people can become more whole. The dying are not cured, but they are made more whole.
So what is the purpose of modern medicine”?
Our explicit contract with the NHS is to do physical treatments and disease prevention. But the NHS recognizes (as does the World Health Organization) that health is a state of physical psychological and spiritual well-being. Holistic medicine is a central part of what we are trained and expected to deliver.
We, as doctors are called to build that complete wholeness in our patients, not by converting them to Christianity etc, but by helping them to a greater wholeness. That includes a narrow definition of health, but is not only that narrow definition.
If the patient does not recognise God, that does not really change the fundamentals of what we do. Basic NHS healthcare works to bring people to a greater wholeness. We believe that that is where God wants them to be. We promote that within the work and opportunity that our primarily physical focus gives us. We cannot and should not impose faith, but we can and must hope to draw all to be more whole. Our faith tells us that He wants all people to be whole and to be with Him one day.
Oddly enough, our patients often tell us that that is just what we do. We support and hold them at a time of crisis and illness. Many are made whole in a way much broader than just physical illness
It is our privilege to be with people as they come closer to God through their illness, through God’s grace and through our work.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Fr Tim Finigan for advice on the Greek language.
This talk was first given and the Annual Conference of the CMA in Hull, 2019
References
- Mark 6, 55-56
- Mark 2:1-12
- John 5, 1-15