Abstract
Ethicist Dan O’Brien explores the biblical and historical roots of the Catholic Church’s belief that both spiritual and physical healing are integral to its mission. To understand the Church’s commitment, he explains, we must start with the Incarnation – the Church’s foundational belief that God assumed our human nature and thereby forever transforms our relationship not only with God but with each other. Nowhere is this illustrated more than in the healing stories and parables of the Gospels. O’Brien explores one such healing story, to show how Jesus touched individuals in all their dimensions – physical, spiritual, emotional and social – a hallmark of palliative care. He then explores the parable of the Good Samaritan, which illustrates how Jesus taught that we are called to comfort and heal all people – to be a neighbor to those in distress – including our enemies and those who do not share our beliefs. O’Brien then examines how healing was viewed by the early Church. Early Christianity was clearly understood by both insiders and outsiders as a healing religion – not just a religion of private faith. This is one of the many reasons it was so subversive to those in civil authority, and explains, in large part, its rapid spread. Love for God and neighbor is key not only to understanding the early Church’s commitment to healing the sick and caring for poor and vulnerable persons, but for understanding the Church’s continued commitment today to the ministry of healing, including its ready adoption of palliative care for the chronically ill and dying.
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- 1.
I do not mean to imply that Christ suffers in his divine nature, but only in and through the hypostatic union of his two natures. Christ, according to ancient Christian teaching, is one divine person with two natures – one human and one divine – in one hypostasis, or one individual concrete existence. In and through this hypostatic union, Christ – on account of his human nature – has truly suffered and died. In a certain analogical sense, we can also say that through his union with humanity, Christ continues to suffer here on earth.
- 2.
“Divinization ” is an ancient concept. It refers to the mystery of humans becoming divine through the action of Divine grace. During every Liturgy of Eucharist celebrated today, Catholics pray with the priest during the preparation of the gifts: “May we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.” This same concept is found in the earliest writings of the Church Fathers, for example, in Ireneus of Lyon (c. 130–200), who wrote, “The Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ , through His transcendent love, became what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.” (Book Five, Preface, in Against the Heresies, in Philip Schaff, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1). Also: “For it was necessary … that what was mortal should be conquered and swallowed up by immortality, and the corruptible by incorruptibility, and that man should be made after the image and likeness of God ” (Book 4, Chapter 38, in Against the Heresies). Likewise, Clement of Alexandria (c. 150–215) wrote, “The Word of God became man, that you may learn from man how man may become God” (Chapter I, Exhortation to the Heathen), and, “For if one knows himself, he will know God; and knowing God, he will be made like God” (Book III, Chapter I, The Instructor).
- 3.
Matthew 9:36, 14:14, 15:32, 18:27, and 20:34; Mark 1:41, 6:34, 8:2, and 9:22; Luke 7:13, 10:33, and 15:20.
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O’Brien, D. (2019). Palliative Care and the Catholic Healing Ministry: Biblical and Historical Roots. In: Cataldo, P., O’Brien, D. (eds) Palliative Care and Catholic Health Care . Philosophy and Medicine, vol 130. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05005-4_2
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