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St. Sava Serbian Orthodox School of Theology

M 410 Mission & Senior Seminar – Spring Semester

Visiting the Sick by Patti Normile:

Summary and an Orthodox Critical
approach

Student: (Acácio) Gilberto Andrade. Instructor: Rev. Aleksandar Novaković, D. Min.

Libertyville, 2010
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Introduction.

This brief summary-essay aims in twofold parts to present a summary of

the book Visiting the Sick: A Guide for Parish Ministers by the Catholic minister

of Pastoral Care Patti Normile. The book comprises six chapters, one

introduction and an additional bibliographical reference at the end. The last

chapter, the sixth chapter, comprises a collection of prayers and benedictions.

Therefore, this chapter will not be studied and summarized here. Each sub-

section of this essay corresponds to a summary of each chapter of Visiting the

Sick. The second part of this essay will draw some reflections about sickness and

healing as they are afforded in the original writings (and then, languages) and

thinking of the New Testament and how sickness and healing was understood by

the early Christian and their contemporary inheritors, the Orthodox Christians. It

is basically an Orthodox reflection about sickness and healing. One concluding

remark is a short commentary on Normile’s approaches to the theme and some of

her theological insights.

Chapter 1: Am I a minister to the sick? Identifying oneself in Pastoral

Mission to the Sick.

Patti Normile begins his exposition on pastoral ministry to the sick by

evoking the centrality and importance place of prayer at the core of the Pastoral

Ministry for those who suffer some illness. These same prayers are provided at

the end of the book, more precisely in the chapter six. Patti also mentions that her

own ministry started by recognizing her own inability, or even fear, at visiting

Dick, who had been suffering of sclerosis. This two important aspects – prayer
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and self-recognition of her own limitations (whether psychological, physical or

professional) – are quite appreciate, because prayer and humility are the nucleus

of any Christian ministry. “Without me, you cannot do anything.” (John 15), said

our Lord Jesus Christ. However, what would be the advantages for us? Ministry

to the sick does not necessarily imply personal benefits, though it can help the

minister out, as Patti mention the of the Michigan Survey Research Center in

1988, in which it was shown that people who aid the sick in hospitals or nurseries

homes live more. Beyond this personal benefices, other factors, like the lack of

ordained priests and the lack of emotional and affection preparation by hospital

staffs (doctors, nurses and so on), call the Christian faithful to carry out a

comprehensive program at hospitals and nursing homes. Latter on, on pages 10

to 14, the author will add that visiting and caring the sick will be a valuable mean

of self-knowing and self-identification.

Patti indentifies the pastoral minister to the sick as the sublime Christian

vocation. We help the sick because we are Christian. When we are visiting the

sick, “we come as Christians” (p. 5). The ministry to the sick is identified with

the healing ministry of our Lord during His earthy life, and we called to be herald

of God’s love to the sick person, as she herself asserts on page 16, “The goal of

pastoral care is to bring the love of Jesus to the individual so that fear may be

expressed and begin to abate – so that healing occurs.” She enforces her opinion

on the New Testament passage (Matthew 25: 34-37a, 40) and two ecclesial

documents issued by the Vatican City, Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity and

The Vocation and Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World.
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Ministering to the sick, thus, according to Patti Normile, is a sacred vocation of

all Christian, a divine commandment given by our Lord Himself.

After considering that this ministry is a Christian vocation, what are the

features and traces that convince us that we are called to this ministry? The

author enlists several reasons, being the main ones: the sacerdotal an priestly

ministry as an unmovable aspect of pastoral to the ill people; personal

(sometimes tragic) experiences, and above all sensibility of seeing and

appreciating the importance and active role played by the patients (word that

comes Latin and means “passive one”) as those who teach indirectly through

their painful experiences how to live humbly today. But, how can we confirm our

call? Advices and guidance of a spiritual father, priest, mentor or hospital director

along with the signals of the Holy Spirit may guide us to find out positive

answers. Others signals are: the positive and negative ways by which suffering,

illness and pain react and influence upon our emotional and affective self-reality;

how the terrific and ultimate reality of death helps us to understand our own

mortality and frailty. Patti concludes by providing such inquiries in order to know

oneself if one is truly able to engage in ministering to the sick (p. 10).

 “What is my personal experience of illness, suffering and death?”

 “Where is God in that experience?”

 “Who am I? Do I know myself intimately?”

 “Why I am seeking this ministry now?”

 “What do I hope to gain? What do I hope to give in this ministry?”

 “What do I expect to learn from this experience?”

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 “Who will guide me and support me in this ministry?”

After explaining the reasons and ways of engaging and confirming

whether one is really able to care the sick, Patti provides a theology of the

pastoral care as afforded by some Christian authors. Her main thesis and topic

throughout the whole book is “Your task in pastoral care is to be present to

patients as they attempt to find God in their life situation, to listen as they grow

in awareness and understanding of themselves an their God, to encourage them to

grow in faith.” (p. 15). Anselm of Canterbury is used by the author as affirming

theologically that sickness of water that is poured forth upon the little faith of the

patient in order to grow up into a fortified confidence. Patients are also called to

do theology, to be theologizing and theologians, according to Fr. Joseph Goetz in

his book Mirrors of God. Illness as way directing one’s life to God is used as an

example of participative theology of the Jesuit Karl Rahner.

Christian pastoral care undertakers are those who bring peace, shalom,

to the sick people. They have to offer to sick three outstanding gifts,

confidentiality, respect and acceptance. Moreover, other more sublime gifts are

also necessary, like sympathy (to fell sorry for one bad condition of a person),

empathy (to put oneself in the situation of another person, to attempt at really

experiencing what he or she is suffering) and compassion (to fell pain with

other).

It is also important to keep in mind that the pastoral care for the sick is

not, according to Patti Normile, a “solo-act” an independent activity. All

Christians are members of the Church, the Body of Christ. When visiting the
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sick, the minister must always keep in sight that patients have right to privacy

and not being disturbed. Sometime, avoiding inconveniences and invasion of

privacy is the best way of truly aiding a sick person.

Chapter 2: “Preparing yourself”

After enlisting requisites and individual features of a potential pastoral

care in hospitals, the author engages in explaining more practical activities that

involve the visit to the sick at hospitals and nursing homes as an expression of

pastoral care.

She begins the second chapter by asserting what is the purpose of the

visit in practical way. It is necessary, she advises, that the pastoral visitor should

take into consideration fundamental pieces of information, like time of visiting,

who is the one to be visited and the most important of all not to attempt at

drawing on mentally how the patient actually is. People are different from each

other and diverse, and one pastoral “method” to one might not work out for

another. This is the underlying premise throughout the whole chapter: people,

better to say, the patient are different, thus different approaches to ministry to the

sick must be taken into account. Individual is always the unique and sole object

of pastoral concern and care.

Not only patients are different, but also the visitor himself or herself.

The author in the section “How are you today?” advises that “in preparing for the

visit it is important to deal with personal issues in your life. An argument at home

may carry over to your pastoral visit. Acknowledge the incident. Seek whatever
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reconciliation is possible. Then proceed with the understanding that the event is a

factor in your relationships with other at that particular time.” (p. 31-32). Thus, it

is important that the visitor should be able to sort out personal and individual

issues from his pastoral activity. Without this awareness, the whole ministry of

visiting the sick would be disastrous.

Then, the next parts of the chapter are dedicated to a theological and

philosophical reflection about illness, suffering and loss. Patti starts up by

making the human nature of Christ our Lord as the source of the divine

participation with out suffering humanity and, more closely, human flesh.

Because, Christ has become human through Incarnation, He knows the meaning

of suffering and pain. Pain is an inalienable part of humanity; it cannot be

avoided. However, how does pain – and by extension, suffering – react in the

patient? What are the psychological features and disturbances? The author enlists

several ones: blame oneself, guilty, fear of loneliness and for the so-individual

American society, a hard blow on self-esteem and self-determinacy. On page 35,

she quotes a list of the most common symptoms that follow a patient at his/her

first stages of hospitalization: “anxiety in unfamiliar surroundings; longing to go

home; anger at self, doctor, God, Church, family; impatience; sadness; guilt, self-

blame for illness; bitterness, resentment; loneliness; helpless…” All these

psychological factors can be found in the patient to be visited and vary depending

on the person. The visitor might keep in mind these factors, their causes, how

they work out in the individual and how to deal with them.
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Regarding the loss and grief, Patti Normile mentions an outstanding

research that was performed by Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, psychiatrist from

Chicago, who had observed how different people used to react to the loss and

grief. Actually, the sick individual, when finds himself sick or limited by an

illness, runs over five distinct and psychological stages: 1) denial (the first and

immediate reaction when a person faces an overwhelming negative or painful

experience of loss), 2) anger (reaction and extravasations of the denial. People

use to take aggressive attitude towards oneself or another; or punching pillows

and walls, for instance), 3) bargaining (when seen with the unavoideness of the

sad occurrence, individuals try to bargain some metaphysical entity or God

mentally through promises and bargains). 4) depression (when those former

feelings subsumed, a period of recollection of past harmful habits and vices runs

through the intellect of the patient. In this stage, he blames himself for much

eating, drinking, smoking… Patti Normile advises that, at this stage, silence or let

the patient put out his inner depressive feelings are the best ways of dealing with

the sick) and 5) acceptance (a positive final reaction. Loss and pain cannot be

avoided. They cannot be measured. They are part of our human experience).

As a conclusion of this chapter, which Patti expresses concretely as a

“prayer-paration for visit,” she counsels that “if we are to be helpful companions

for others during times related to illness, we must be willing to permit the

grieving person to go through these stages of grieving process. We cannot

‘should’ or ‘ought’ them through pain (…) Our presence and our encouragement
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to share the feelings that surround hospitalization make the time of awaiting

emotional and spiritual healing meaningfully.” (p. 39).

Chapter 3: “The Pastoral Visit”

After being prepared for the visit, how should the care visitor proceed?

What tips should he use? When to visit? And, while visiting, what should he say

or converse with the patient?

Patti Normile says that it is advisable to avoid times of breakfasts and

clinical treatment, like showering or changing linen sheets. When we arrive the

hospital, we must proceed to inquire from nurses and doctors who is the patient,

at what level of infirmity he or she is in or, at least, how he passed the previous

night. Once again, it is fundamental that the privacy of the sick person must be

kept. If we approach a closed door, knock lightly and wait for answers. If there is

no answer, open quietly and slowly and announce who we are, why we came

there and, if necessary or relevant, which Church affiliation we belong to.

Always address the patient by the surname, “Mr. Johnson” or “Mrs. Normile,”

unless of course we are very intimate to the patient. Patti advises that we should

follow our instincts and feelings when we are first experiencing a pastoral-care

visit.

If there is a roommate, this is a quite good opportunity to express

concretely the reality of God and His Church as a community, as a group of

people who are sharing the same fate and goals: to be healed. If we attempt to
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pray, it is good to invite the roommate for a prayer with the patient whom you are

assigned to visit.

Not only the roommate is a signal of the situation (I mean, psychological

and spiritual situation) of the patient. It is necessary to observe how the physical

appearance of the room is: are the curtains opened or shut in? Is the room

illumination gloomy or bright? Is the patient performing any activity that implies

he is interest on the out-side world or nor? All these physical features might help

the visitor to glimpse an idea of how the patient is and who he really is. Patti

advises not to take extremes at the first verbal contact with the patient. “A soft

cheerfulness is a safe tone for your entry. A too-cheerful approach may stir

resentment (…) A too-dour attitude may depress the patient.’ (p. 48). Comments

on the patient’s appearance are required to be avoided, they are inopportune.

Now, Patti engages in describing the main process of pastorally visiting:

conversation, dialogue. It is crucial that the patient himself or herself sets the

tone and the content of the conversation. Your first and immediate role to be

played of is that of a listener, to listen. Moreover, addressing first by simple

remarks, like “I stopped to see how you are feeling today” might call out several

and varied answers. Some patients may simply reply with an “O.K.” or tell you

the whole successful process of being healed or having been overtaken by a

serious surgery. Sometimes, and not infrequently, it is advisable to keep silence,

to “create silence” as Normile asserts in her book. This aspect of vital role of

silence and its unique importance is happily stressed on by Normile when she

quotes a note by the philosopher Kierkegaard on page 52. Nevertheless, it is

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always good to set a plan, to draw steps and possibilities before meeting a

patient. Naturally, talking about God is not always easy and welcomed but the

patient himself, even unwilling, can lead the way to express his or her own

religious connectedness. “The fact that an individual indicated a religious

preference on the hospital admitting form does not necessarily indicate a strong

spiritual connection with that religion. Likewise, a lack of religious identification

may not signify an absence of faith. Because we cannot assume the level of

religious connectedness, we must always rely on the patient to articulate it.” (p.

51). It is not a curious causality that listen and silent are only one word with the

letter rearranged.

After that, let the body language communicate. Each small bodily

gesture performed during the conversation can point out how the patient is really

feeling, even though their words express something completely opposite. Also,

these bodily movements might inspire the visitor to invite the patient for a

conversation about his or her inner feelings. Are the hands shaking and grabbing

toughly the edge of the bed? When the patient is talking, his eyes glance to the

floor or far away from the speaker, which signals depression? When is he or she

smiling and saying “Oh, no, everything is alright!”, is there any tears dropping

down on cheek? Nevertheless, it is important to keep mind other factor. The

author mentions that the personality and emotional strength of the person do not

let him to speak. Some people are inner-sighted than other. Medications and

harshness of treatment should also be taken into consideration.

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Just listening does not necessarily mean that the visitor should not speak

or gives an opinion. Pastoral visiting of a hospital is not a psychoanalyst session

treatment. Visitor and patient are communicating, dialoguing with each other.

Normile defines clearly what she calls “active listening” as a part of

communicating understanding: “Active listening means responding to what you

hear. Your response assures the patient that your are with him or her at this

moment.” (p. 57). This active listening is also important to lead the people to

know themselves. This self-knowledge process is made concrete when the visitor

– through using adequately questions, answers and commentaries – leads the

patient to know his or her hidden troubles and feelings. It is what Normile say by

using the expression “naming the demons” after the Gospel narrative when our

Lord asked the name of the demons that were possessing the pigs. This “devil-

naming” help the patient to discover his limitations and interior complexes and

troubles that sometimes is related to the illness itself. After coming to realize his

or her own inner limitations, the patient realizes fully how he really is. In this

process of “evoking feelings,” the visitor is only an intermediate agent, not a

psychologist who falsely attempts to analyze clinically the emotional condition of

the patient. This is throughout the book strongly avoided: to invade the spiritual

and psychological intimacy of the patient.

Only when the patient takes a full realization of his or her own is that the

appropriate time to speak about God, about faith. Normile sets her approach to

the ministering to the sick upon a relationship between faith and experience

(which is broadly understood as our daily experiences and even feelings). The
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individual himself is an act of faith, a concrete realization of the will and creative

act of God. He came into existence through the will and creation of God. The

visitor, as foremost a messenger of a faith, as a God-News bearer of God to one

patient, should not be afraid to induce the patient to talk about God. “Where is

God in all this for you?” is an adequate inquiry to the patient. As they are varied

and different, their answers are also expected to be. Some may say that He is a

Loving Father Who sent those wonderful people to take care of them and their

families. Other can angrily tell the visitor that God does not exist at all. Even this

negative approach should not completely neglected by the pastoral visitor. He

himself is a God’s gift to that person; a tool of Providence to tell the ill that God

loves him. “Many patients are not ready to speak of God. Life’s hurt, rejections,

failures have dimmed their concept of God. God-talk may only solidify their

God’s presence in their lives. In such cases – as indeed in all pastoral care visits –

we are called to Christ to the patient.” (p. 68).

Chapter 4: the Elderly and how to minister to them.

After dealing with the sick people in general, whether young or old, Patti

Normile sets the whole chapter 4 apart to talk about the elderly people in nursing

home and elderly-care centers. Elderly, according to Patti, have their peculiar

problems and circumstances that usually differ from the sick patients in general.

These problems can be regarded on from different perspectives. From the

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physical perspective, the elderly individuals usually do not bear the same

physical aptitude and performance that young people have. Their sight, hearing,

smelling, legs and touch have possibly have been degrading through the passing

of years. Mental disfunctions might also occur. From the emotional and

psychological point-of-view, some old and sick individuals still feel need of

human company and love, which usually their own relatives do not provide them.

They are lonely and isolated individuals who need our love and care. The

pastoral-care visitor should be aware of all these obstacles. “Loneliness and

isolation are primary enemies of the elderly. As the years go on, friends and

family move away or become involved in their own busy lives. Some die.

Retirement comes; responsibilities at homes are reduced. Social gatherings are

fewer. Diminished hearing and sight may further narrow the world of the elderly.

Physical limitations begin to make it difficult to attend the church. (…) Thus the

experience of Church shrivels unless someone seeks to be Church with the

elderly in nursing facilities or in their homes.” (p. 90). This is the diagnosis that

Normile draws for the elderly; however it gives the key to identify and

characterize the mission of the pastoral-care for the elderly: “someone seeks to

be Church with the elderly in nursing facilities or in their homes.”

Patti Normile, in this chapter, concentrate more on practical actions and

develops less theologically as she did on the previous chapter. Yet the

practiceness of visiting and caring the elderly does not exclude the theological

insight that the pastoral visitor and elderly care-takers are primarily the Body of

Christ in the nursing homes and hospitals, the active Church inviting the sick
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and elderly to be and stay in communion with Christ and God. But, what are

these practical tips?

The first one is to taken into consideration that, although the elderly

present the physical and emotional limitations listed above, it does not

necessarily mean that they are automatically disabled. Normile advises the reader

to speak normally to the old patient at the nursing home, for instance. Speaking

aloud or mimically with expansive gestures and words might sometime become a

caricaturized and ridiculous. The old one may hear you quite well and converse

with you spontaneously about several things. Regarding the childish and

pathetical scenes in which elderly are presumably playing the role of solitary and

defenseless kids, Normile narrates the story of an old patient whose

granddaughter had felt offended when the nurse asked if her grandfather was

ready to make “wee-wee” (p. 93). Patti summarizes the whole matter like this:

“To treat an aged or bedridden person as a child in speech or demeanor is to

offend the dignity of that individual.” (p. 93).

The second tip is to avoid a self-opinioned presumption about the state

of the elderly, that is, to visualize previously how he or she “might” be feeling or

actually is. In this situation, Patti advises to avoid to discuss about the physical

appearance of the elderly or to imply through your remarks something of the age

or life-long experiences of the person.

The third tips (in plural) involve a more physical and practical actions

that can make visiting the elderly pretty successful: in sum, to bridge a sincere
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friendship with the elderly. They are: (1) Establishing a rapport, (2) to be

pleasant, (3) to listen frequently, (4) bringing gifts and (5) touching.

In caring for the elderly, Normile successfully concludes this

magnificent chapter by bringing about the theological nature of visiting those

who are unable to attend the Church for several reasons: “You bring Church, that

gathering of two or more in the name of Jesus, to one who is unable to attend

worship services. As a pastoral care visitor you bring your own personal

charisma: your smile, your touch, your compassion conveyed face-to-face. (…)

You come in the name of the Church; your visit represents the concern of many.

Your visit enables communion, union with the Body of Christ.” (p.99)

Chapter 5: And what about the Care-Givers?

It is impossible to sets all our attention and care only to victims of

sickness, age or loneliness. Humans need other humans, especially when we are

sick. After brilliantly describing her own and others’ experiences of dealing with,

living and ministering to the sick and elderly individuals, Normile now begins

briefly to draws attention to the opposite group: the health one, those who care

and treat our limited brothers and sisters: doctors, nurses, care-takers in general.

Caring for them is as essential as caring for the sick and elderly.

In this chapter, Patti Normile only enlists cases and incidents that

involve a relationship between the emotionally and psychologically personal

situation of the caretaker and how this “personalness” can become involved in his

or her job. It is fundamental that personal dilemmas and problems do not

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interfere in our daily caring and life-saving job at hospitals and nursing homes.

However, a personal contact with those being cared aid the person to known

himself or herself. Caring is also a way of redemption of knowing oneself and

knowing God. Experiences in hospitals and nursing homes aid at our upbringing

and spiritual maturation. “This baggage [knowing and hearing another’s

experiences] becomes a part of your life’s journey. How you process your visit

determines how it will affect your life and your ministry. What you learn from

each visit will guide and shape your ministry to the sick and to their families.

Feelings and emotions that are not dealt with will weigh you down.

Unrecognized feelings fuel emotional burnout in ministry to the sick.” (p. 107)

This was the experience of Mary which is narrated by Normile at the end

of the chapter, from pages 107 to 109. From her own experience of caring her

own mother, she had decided to take a practicum at pastoral caring to hospitals

and nursing homes. It was not an easy experience. Many feelings and traumas

kept hidden in her heart and sentiments. Being a strongly sensitive person, Maria

realized that it was necessary to deal with this sensitiveness in order to not take it

to sick individual whom she would eventually minister to. Thus, Maria plans out

a strategy of pastorally caring the sick.

The crucial question in Maria’s experience of caring the sick is “What

did I like about what I did?” Maria puts her spiritual and emotional reality at the

core of her ministering. Thus, she was able to grow both personally and also be

tool of growing to others. Maria could get equilibrium. Normile summarizes

thus: “Beware of the tendency of ministry to the sick to draw you into a vortex.
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Take time for yourself. Laugh, pray, love, gather vitality into yourself. You will

then have joy and peace, energy and life to share through your presence.” (p.109)

Visiting the Sick: an Orthodox Perspective.

Per nature and theological leaning, Orthodox Christianity tends to stress

on the ontological reality of man and how this ontologically created man relates

to the ontologically uncreated God. The whole history of creation, salvation,

redemption and glorification – which the Orthodox wholeness understands as

deification – is nothing less than the history of two fundamental realities: God

and His creation; God and the crown of His creation, the man.

It is undeniable that man – exactly for being the crown of God’s creation

both visible and invisible – must be the core of the universe, the goal and aim of

the deification and participation in Christ. All human created reality, I means,

ontos, whether it is physical or spiritual, must be placed as the goal of Divine

care and attention, to bring back the primeval deified and pure condition of Adam

in Paradise. Within this framework, how did the early Christians, as being Greco-

Roman and speakers of Greek, understand illness? What is it? How do the Holy

Scriptures, specifically in the Gospels and the Epistles, communicate about this

topic?

In antique Greek through which the New Testament Holy Writs were

written, “illness” was usually signified by using the item ασθενής (in modern

Greek, one has ασθένεια). This item meant any kind of sickness and had a broad

meaning; sickness was understood not only in healthy sense, but also morally or
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economically. One finds this item, for instance, in the Gospel of Mathew, chapter

25 verse 43, when our Lord identifies Himself with the naked, destitute and sick

among human beings: “I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye

clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not” (ξένος ἤμην, καὶ οὐ

συνηγάγετέ με, γυμνός, καὶ οὐ περιεβάλετέ με, ἀσθενὴς καὶ ἐν φυλακῇ, καὶ οὐκ

ἐπεσκέψασθέ με). In the apostolic tradition that is found in the New Testament, it

can also be found, for instance, in the Book of Acts (5: 15f): “Insomuch that they

brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at

the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them” ( ὥστε

κατὰ τὰς πλατείας ἐκφέρειν τοὺς ἀσθενεῖς καὶ τιθέναι ἐπὶ κλινῶν καὶ κραβάττων, ἵνα

ἐρχομένου Πέτρου κἂν ἡ σκιὰ ἐπισκιάσῃ τινὶ αὐτῶν.). Thus, the early Christian

understood and defined sickness not only as a simple physical disease, but as a

whole negative reality that comprised physical sickness, moral and economical

weakness, the anti-totality of one’s own being.

This is the main implication that the Holy Apostles applied when they

were writing the Gospels and the Epistles. Healing ministry, in the New

Testament, simply means “becoming wholly again.” Healing is not only freedom

from a negative and contrary limitation, but an ontological (wholeness)

transformation. Although all modern Christian languages translate John 5:6 as

“Do you wish to be healed?” or “Do you wish to be made well?”, the originals of

the Gospel make it as “Do you wish to be made new?” θέλεις ὑγιὴς γενέσθαι;

Healing is a rebirth. It is to be born again. And the beginning of our whole

existence is in our birth, our coming to existence. Illness is non-existence.

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Naturally, the New Testament recognized the relationship between

sickness and sin. This is one of the many inheritances that Jewish Christianity

had brought from its Jewish past and gave to the Orthodox Church. In the First

Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians (11:30), he uses the Greek item άρρωστος

(“powerless”) as meaning illness as consequences of the sin. In the original, the

passage says: διὰ τοῦτο ἐν ὑμῖν πολλοὶ ἀσθενεῖς καὶ ἄρρωστοι καὶ κοιμῶνται ἱκανοί

(“For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep”).

Exactly because sickness is seen as result of sin that the healing ministry of the

Orthodox Church is primarily and foremost a sacramental one. The Orthodox

Church bases this sacramental reality of healing on the Holy Unction upon the

Enferm, as one finds in the Epistle of the Apostle James (5:13-15). Therefore, the

New Testament develops an understanding of illness as a consequence of sin, and

both of them, due to the fact they are related, are a twofold part of the decayed

created condition of man after the Fall.

Even though Patti Normile provides an excellent practical guide for

visiting and ministering to the sick, her book would become more valuable if she

added this ontological theology of relationship between man and God, between

sickness and sin, healing and salvation. Sin, Fall, Repentance and Confession are

never mentioned throughout her booklets, at least when she deals with

theological reflections. Sickness and illness make up only a superficial and

limited approach of her theological thinking, which sometimes is characterized

by a romantic and idealized approach of Church and Communion. For instance,

the Holy Mysteries of Eucharist and Holy Unction mentioned at the end of the
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chapter 3, assume a social-like or romantic-like view of a friendly relationship

between the visitor and the sick. It would be more necessary to draw them as the

sacramental tool and way of healing and redemption; as ways of God’s action of

grace.

Sickness is not punishment or crude will of God’s wrath. It might

become a pathway to salvation; especially it is seen within the tense reality of our

createdness of man with the uncreatedness of God.

References

Bauer, Walter. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early
Christian Literature, trans. William F. Arndt, and F. Wilbur Gingrich. Chicago:
the University of Chicago Press, 1979.

Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. “Greek New Testament.”

http://www.goarch.org/chapel/biblegreek (accessed April 18, 2010).

Normile, Patti. Visiting the Sick: a Guide for Parish Ministers. Cincinatti: St.
Anthony Messanger Press. 1992.