Spiritual Disease
- Jul 24
- 5 min read
“The Tradition of the Eastern Church largely avoided the concept of the guilty man that came to dominate the Christian West. Instead, sin was largely understood in terms of disease, a force that comes from outside us and yet is within us, corrupting us like a cancer. Sin is a “disease,” and the ministry of the Church is the “science of spiritual medicine…the sacraments and life of the Church are more accurately understood in a medical model. What truly takes place within the soul reveals the nature of the sacrament. Thus, it is more important to ask in the sacrament, “What is the state of my heart?” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“In these times, we think of disease in medical terms. We speak in terms of infections, cancers, and disorders of the heart and other organs. But when we speak of sin, we use words like transgressions, shortcomings, disobedience and “missing the mark.” However, the…Church tends to talk about sin as a disease that needs healing and the corruption that needs cleansing.” (Fr. Basil)
“Seeing disease and suffering as not the problem of humanity, but the symptom of a deeper problem frames the entire understanding of humanity in a particularly Christian way. The Church is engaged in a healing ministry…The Church recognizes that God provided in the world herbs and elements for healing, and gifted some humans such as nurses, pharmacologists and doctors with the knowledge and gift of healing, all of which are blessings from God. But the Church also acknowledges that ultimately such healing too has a temporary nature to it, just like disease. For humans despite healing, despite Christ being the incarnate God, continue to age, become diseased and die. Disease and death are but the symptoms of the underlying problem of humanity – we are separated from God. Both illness and medical healing belong to temporal creation and do not answer ultimate questions.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh)
“It is also true, and not only when the body is concerned but when the soul is concerned as well. We have already stated that spiritual impurity is sin, which functions as a kind of parasite that pollutes and poisons our inner being. If this parasite is not removed from the soul, over time it produces a spiritual disease that becomes more difficult to heal the longer it lasts. Particularly difficult to heal is the condition in which a person becomes accustomed to sin to such a degree that it becomes his second nature—in that case we are no longer speaking merely of a committed sin, but of a passion that has taken root in a person and attached itself to his soul. In medical terminology, if a person commits a particular sin only occasionally, it is an acute condition; if he commits a certain sin regularly over a long period of time, it is a chronic condition of the soul’s illness; and if a person becomes enslaved to sin to the extent that it has become his second nature, then we are dealing with the terminal stage of a spiritual disease.” (Rev. Dr. Oliver Subotic)
“Repentance, which is terrible and formidable to the sinner, is a medicine to trespasses, a destruction to lawlessness, and the end to tears, courage before God, a weapon against the devil, a knife that decapitates his head, the hope of salvation, the abolishment of despair. Repentance opens heavens, admits into paradise, defeats the devil (which is why I frequently discourse about it) just as boldness causes us to trip and fall. Are you a sinner? Do not become discouraged. I never cease to administer these medicines, because I know very well how our lack of despair is an important weapon against the devil. If you have sins, do not become discouraged. I never stop saying these things; and if you sin every day, repent every day. … If today you have grown old due to sin, rejuvenate yourself with repentance.” (St. John Chrysostom)
“Self-importance, according to St. Basil, is a spiritual disease that “matures,” that gets stronger over time. It is a disease that becomes “rooted by habit in the mind” for those who suffer from it. It begins, in my experience, after life thrusts us into a position of authority or importance. At first, we are timid and uncertain, we know our weaknesses, we know we can only try to do our best. However, almost right away, others begin treating us differently. Others seek our advice, follow our instructions, are subject to our decisions (grades, assignments, schedules, opportunities or responsibilities that we now have the authority to distribute). Now we are treated as an important person (often in small or subtle ways—but it doesn’t take much for this disease to get started). The disease begins with a shift in my self-perception. I start to see myself as the personification of my role. That is, the honor and respect that comes to me because of my position, I start to ascribe to myself; or as a friend of mine in California would say it, we start to believe our own press. This is a very subtle shift.” (Fr. Michael Gillis)
“…consider the words of Saint Theophan the Recluse concerning self-reliance: “this spiritual disease of ours, so hard to perceive and acknowledge, is more abhorrent to God than all else in us, as being the first offspring of our self-hood and self-love, and the source, root and cause of all passions and of all our downfalls and wrong doing.” (Dynamis 9/27/2022)
“At the root of the experience of sin are the passions, which incline us to “miss the mark” and can develop into spiritual disease or sin. The understanding of sin as illness conforms to the spirit of Christ . Speaking to the Pharisees who were mocking Him, He said: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” (Mt 9:12)” (Fr. George Morelli)
“The spiritual disease that afflicts us, can primarily be described as a lack of love. We are imprisoned by our passions so that we are a mass of desires. Passions are disordered desires. It is of great note that the rejection of veneration is a rejection of order – and an invitation to disorder. We simply cannot bear the shame of inequality. Loved equally by God, we resent the excellence of others, as though their excellence came at our expense. Our envy can be heard as we rejoice at the fall of every great one. All of them, “Had it coming.” Veneration is given to us within the Ten Commandments: “Honor your father and your mother.” They are the first persons in our lives to whom we owe gratitude. The commandment also adds this: “…that your days may be long in the land.” Veneration is thus noted as essential for our well-being.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“When we declare ourselves to be disciples of Christ, we claim that we want Him to cure our spiritual and moral disease. Yet in truth we want Him to relieve the symptoms, such as misery, discontent, despair, and so on. Jesus, by contrast, knows that He cannot relieve these symptoms unless He overcomes their deep, inner cause. And this is where the problems arise. While we would like to be rid of the symptoms, we stubbornly resist the efforts of Jesus to penetrate our souls. We do not want our deep-set feelings and attitudes to be changed. But only when we truly open our souls to the transforming grace of God will the symptoms of spiritual disease begin to disappear.” (St. John Chrysostom)
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