In as much as our body is susceptible to various hurts, some attacking
from without and some from within by reason of the food we eat, and
since the body suffers affliction from both excess and eficiency, the
medical art has been vouchsafed us by God, who directs our whole life,
as a model for the cure of the soul, to guide us in the removal of
what is superfluous and in the addition of what is lacking. Just as we
would have no need of the farmer's labor and toil if we were living
amid the delights of paradise, so also we would not require the
medical art for relief if we were immune to disease, as was the case,
by God's gift, at the time of Creation before the Fall.. After our
banishment to this place, however, and after we had heard the words:
'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread,' through prolonged
effort and hard labor in tilling the soil we devised the art of
agriculture for the alleviation of the miseries which followed the
curse, God vouchsafing us the knowledge and understanding of this art.
And, when we were commanded to return to the earth whence we had been
taken and were united with the pain ridden flesh doomed to destruction
because of sin and, for the same reason, also subject to disease, the
medical art was given to us to relieve the sick, in some degree at
least.
Now, the herbs which are the specifics for each malady do not grow
out of the earth spontaneously; it is evidently the will of the
Creator that they should be brought forth out of the soil to serve our
need. Therefore, the obtaining of that natural virtue which is in the
roots and flowers, leaves, fruits, and juices, or in such metals or
products of the sea as are found especially suitable for bodily
health, is to be viewed in the same way as the procuring of food and
drink. Whatever requires an undue amount of thought or trouble or
involves a large expenditure of effort and causes our whole life to
revolve, as it were, around solicitude for the flesh must be avoided
by Christians. Consequently, we must take great care to employ this
medical art, if it should be necessary, not as making it wholly
accountable for our state of health or illness, but as redounding to
the glory of God and as a parallel to the care given the soul. In the
event that medicine should fail to help, we should not place all hope
for the relief of our distress in this art, but we should rest assured
that He will not allow us to be tried above that which we are able to
bear. Just as in those days the Lord sometimes made clay, and
anointed, and bade wash in Siloe, and on other occasions was content
with the mere command: ‘I will, be thou made clean’ whereas He left
some to struggle against their afflictions, rendering them more worthy
of reward by trial, so it also is with us. He sometimes cures us
secretly and without visible means when He judges this mode of
treatment beneficial to our souls; and again He wills that we use
material remedies for our ills, either to instil in us by the
prolonged nature of the cure an abiding remembrance of the favor
received, or, as I have said, to provide an example for the proper
care of the soul. As in the case of the flesh it is essential to
eliminate foreign elements and add whatever is wanting, so also, where
the soul is concerned, it behooves us to rid ourselves of that which
is alien to it and take unto ourselves that which is in accordance
with its nature; for 'God made man right and He created us for good
works that we might walk in them.
To place the hope of one's health in the hands of the doctor is the
act of an irrational animal. This, nevertheless, is what we observe in
the case of certain unhappy persons who do not hesitate to call their
doctors their saviors. Yet, to reject entirely the benefits to be
derived from this art is the sign of a pettish nature."
When the favor of a cure is granted us, whether by means of wine
mixed with oil, as in the case of the man who fell among the robbers,
or through figs, as with Ezechias, we are to receive it with
thanksgiving. Besides, we shall view the watchful care of God
impartially, whether it comes to us from some invisible source or by a
physical agency, the latter, indeed, frequently engendering in us a
livelier perception of the favor as coming from the hands of God. Very
often, also, the diseases which we contracted were for our correction
and the painful remedies we were obliged to submit to formed part of
the instruction. Right reason dictates, therefore, that we demur
neither at cutting nor at burning, nor at the pains caused by bitter
and disagreeable medicines, nor at abstinence from food, nor at a
strict regimen, nor at being forced to refrain from that which is
hurtful. Nevertheless, we should keep as our objective (again I say
it), our spiritual benefit, in as much as the care of the soul is
being taught in the guise of an analogy. There is no small danger,
however, that we will fall into the error of thinking that every kind
of suffering requires medical relief. Not all sicknesses for whose
treatment we observe medicine to be occasionally beneficial arise from
natural causes, whether from faulty diet or from any other physical
origin.
So, then, we should neither repudiate this art altogether nor does it
behoove us to repose all our confidence in it; but, just as in
practicing the art of agriculture we pray God for the fruits, and as
we entrust the helm to the pilot in the art of navigation, but implore
God that we may end our voyage unharmed by the perils of the sea, so
also, when reason allows, we call in the doctor, but we do not leave
off hoping in God. It seems to me, moreover, that the medical art is
no small aid to continency.
-- Question 55 in "The Long Rules"
