The Terribly Wrong Idea of Sickness as God's Judgment or Punishment
Another terribly wrong idea developed over time— that sickness was not only God's will; it was also God's judgment.
And the idea that sickness is God's judgment was reflected in the 1928 Prayer Book's service for the "Visitation of the Sick" and its language about "chastening."
Here's what Father Massey Hamilton Shepherd, Jr., wrote about that service in The Oxford American Prayer Book Commentary (New York: Oxford University Press, 1950):
"In the older form of the Office, before the 1928 revision, the suffering of the sick person was described as 'God's visitation' for the purpose either of trying his faith or of punishing his sin."
The 1928 revision reinterpreted the meaning of "visitation" from God's visiting sickness to God's visiting mercy in this Collect:
"Hear us, Almighty and most merciful God and Saviour; extend thy accustomed goodness to this thy servant who is grieved with sickness. Visit him, O Lord, with thy loving mercy, and so restore him to his former health, that he may give thanks unto thee in thy holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
Even so, the service retains many elements of the judgment theory of sickness.
For example, here's another Collect in the service (page 310):
"Sanctify, we beseech thee, O Lord, the sickness of this thy servant; that the sense of his weakness may add strength to his faith, and seriousness to his repentance; and grant that he may dwell with thee in life everlasting; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
And this prayer (pages 313-314):
"O most merciful God, who, according to the multitude of thy mercies, dost so put away the sins of those who truly repent, that thou rememberest them no more; Open thine eye of mercy upon this thy servant, who most earnestly desireth pardon and forgiveness. Renew in him, most loving Father, whatsoever hath been decayed by the fraud and malice of the devil, or by his [the sick person's] own carnal will and frailness; preserve and continue this sick member in the unity of the Church; consider his contrition, accept his tears, assuage his pain, as shall seem to thee most expedient for him. And forasmuch as he putteth his full trust only in thy mercy, impute not unto him his former sins, but strengthen him with thy blessed Spirit; and, when thou art pleased to take him hence, take him unto thy favor; through the merits of thy most dearly beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
This terrible understanding of Sickness as God's judgment or testing is sometimes called the "Chastisement Theory of Sickness," or as the "Moral" or "Educational" Theory of Sickness.
To deal with this awful misconception, we begin by remembering that sickness falls under the category of "Suffering as a consequence of living in a Real World with Real People."
Living in a Real World puts us at risk to all the ambiguities of nature— to bacteria and viruses, cancers, genetic mutations, and chromosomal defects.
Living among Real People puts us at risk in other ways— environmental pollution (pesticides, lead-based paint, asbestos, and smoking); road rage; drug abuse; antibiotic misuse, producing new resistant super-bugs; verbal and physical abuse; domestic and international terrorism. The list goes on and on.
Tomorrow: Examining the Relationship Between Sin and Suffering
In 1963, a racist bomb attack on an Alabama church killed four black girls.
John Petts, in Llansteffan, Carmarthenshire, designed this window,
with Jesus' words from Matthew 25:40: "You did it to me."
This window from the people of Wales was installed in 1965.
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