ROME, OCT. 3, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Good health implies more than a physical and psychological state; the spiritual element needs to be taken into account too, said the vice president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
Monsignor Jean Laffitte said this during a conference on "Health, Technology and the Common Good," which took place on Sept. 28. The gathering was organized by the Acton Institute and the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry.
Monsignor Laffitte's presentation, titled "Health as an Element of Human Prosperity," explained health from the viewpoint of Catholic moral theology.
"Health is a good worth searching for and is like an end in itself," said Monsignor Laffitte. According to the Christian point of view, "health is not the absence of sickness," but "it is an ethically relevant good in the measure in which it brings out the personal responsibility of the subject in relation to other greater goods -- Kingdom of God, eternal goods, communion -- and leads to the increased responsibility of social and heath care authorities."
Quoting Pope John Paul II, the monsignor said that health is linked to "the realization of one's vocation," becoming "a good whose end is salvation."
Monsignor Laffitte said that in the Old Testament, health and sickness are indicative of one's relationship with God in the Old Covenant: "He who gives life is he who can heal sickness. Health becomes a sign of God's action, and therefore takes on a prophetic meaning."
"On the other hand, being far from God creates a privation of health, a spiritual sickness," he added. "Health becomes the object of insistent prayer of one wanting to find peace."
"In the Jewish tradition," the pontifical academy official continued, "sickness is an anomaly, wounding the creature," while in the Psalms, "the prayer for healing is often accompanied by a confession of one's sins."
Something new
Monsignor Laffitte noted that Jesus' public ministry concentrated in a special way on the healing of the sick and forgiveness of sins.
"Healing is an act that renders publicly visible the authority of Jesus' word and his power over life and death," he explained. "Forgiveness, the perfect gift, offers the very substance of salvation.
"In the Gospels, healings often deal with bodily afflictions, but also psychological and spiritual ones. In this last sense, the intervention can cure the lack of faith or free someone from torments of evil spirits."
In this way, the priest continued, "health, for the Christian, is a notion that goes beyond a merely medical meaning: It embraces the whole person, with all of his psycho-spiritual dynamisms […] the healthy person is not only someone in good physical or psychological health, but someone who is also spiritually healthy."
The pontifical academy vice president affirmed, "This does not mean that Christian thought avoids reflecting on the physical aspect of health. Sickness requires a doctor's assistance, because health is a true good of the person, of which the person himself must take care."
Furthermore, he added, "Christian thought adds to this natural approach the conviction that sickness can contribute to a global weakening of the person; but can also offer the occasion for the moral and spiritual growth of the person, who finds the meaning of his life in relation to the future goods. …
"Christ's interactions with the sick and with sinners […] is an example of the attention he gives to every single person."
ZE07100306 - 2007-10-03