March: Day 10: Teaching 1: Holy Martyr Kodratos

March: Day 10: Teaching 1:
Holy Martyr Kodratos
 
(It's Not a Sin To Get Treatment)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Martyr Kodratos, whose memory is celebrated today, was found as a newborn infant in the wilderness near the city of Corinth. Here he was born to Rufina, the wife of a Corinthian citizen who hid in the wilderness during the persecution of Christians in the third century, and died. When Kodratos grew up, with the obvious help of Divine Providence, he learned to heal diseases, but out of love for solitude he withdrew to the mountains, where he struggled in fasting and prayer. From time to time he still visited the city to heal diseases, since, living in the wilderness, he studied many healing herbs and plants, and, moved by love for his neighbors, he shared his knowledge, helping the poor. When Decius raised a persecution of Christians, Jason, the royal official, who arrived in Corinth, summoned Kodratos and his friends and demanded that they renounce Christ. When they refused, he ordered them to be hung upside down, beaten, their bodies scraped and burned, and finally, their heads cut off. At the place of execution, where the ground was stained with the blood of the martyrs, a spring of clean water suddenly appeared.

II. From the short life of this Holy Martyr you have seen, brethren, that he, having been in the desert for a long time and having learned the healing properties of many plants, rendered medical aid to people with God's help. This teaches us the truth that it is not a sin to be treated, contrary to the prejudice of some who consider the treatment of diseases a sin.

a) Even the ancient Old Testament sage said: “Honor physicians for their services, for the Lord created them, for their gift of healing comes from the Most High, and they are rewarded by the king. The skill of physicians makes them distinguished, and in the presence of the great they are admired. The Lord created medicines out of the earth, and the sensible will not despise them. Was not water made sweet with a tree in order that its power might be known? And he gave skill to human beings that he might be glorified in his marvelous works. By them the physician heals and takes away pain; the pharmacist makes a mixture from them. God’s works will never be finished, and from him health spreads over all the earth. My child, when you are ill, do not delay, but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you. Give up your faults and direct your hands rightly, and cleanse your heart from all sin. Offer a sweet-smelling sacrifice and a memorial portion of choice flour, and pour oil on your offering, as much as you can afford. Then give physicians their place, for the Lord created them; do not let them leave you, for you need them. There may come a time when recovery lies in the hands of physicians, for they, too, pray to the Lord that he grant them success in diagnosis and in healing, for the sake of preserving life” (Sir. 38:1-14). This is the advice of a man of great experience, possessing spiritual insight. Is it possible to disagree with this advice, is it possible to reject the benefit brought by medical science and its ministers?

b) Considerations of common sense speak for the same benefit. At present, only the most ignorant people are prejudiced and distrustful of doctors; only those who are most stubborn in their hereditary errors do not trust doctors and do not want to use preventive measures against illness. In fact, doctors who have deliberately studied medical sciences and have had numerous cases of treating all kinds of ailments can help the sick better than anyone else. They know both the type of illness and the means that alleviate it. Therefore, those people who, holding the opinion that what will be, will be, do not want to use the precautions against fatal diseases prescribed by knowledgeable people, act completely wrongly. No, health is our first blessing on earth, and we must use it wisely and carefully, we must take care to preserve it ourselves, not counting on God's miraculous help every time, of which we, due to our sins, may be unworthy. This would be a sign of spiritual pride, which is both sinful and destructive.

c) The Holy Fathers of the Church teach in a similar way.

“Since our body, which is disturbed by everything,” writes Saint Basil the Great, “is subject to many different injuries, both those that happen from outside and those that are infected from within by the food we take, and by its excesses and deficiencies, then God, who controls our whole life, has allowed us the art of medicine, which, as an example of spiritual healing, has the goal of getting rid of the excess and replenishing the deficiency, for the herbs that are in common with each of the infirmities did not sprout by themselves, but, obviously, by the will of the Creator, they were produced with the goal of serving for our benefit. Therefore, the properties contained in the roots, in flowers, in leaves, in fruits and in juices, and what is openly suitable for the use of the flesh in metals and in the sea, all this is like the invention of what is taken as food and drink. It would be bestial nonsense to expect health for oneself only from the hands of a doctor. But even that would be stubbornness if we avoid using the medical art in any case. On the contrary, accepting gifts from God, Who with goodness and wisdom arranges our life, let us ask Him first to know the reasons for which He strikes us, and then to be delivered from sorrows. And let us accept the grace of healing given to us with gratitude."

d) Let us also give an example from Church history, showing that it is not a sin to be treated. The Venerable Macedonius, having become ill, allowed himself to moderate his abstinence somewhat and in his justification reasoned thus before a certain pious woman who refused to take medical remedies: “If I die, I will have to give the righteous Judge an answer for my death, as a man who avoided ascetic struggles and turned away from the labors of service - as a man who could have prevented death with a little food and remained alive in order to work and gather wealth from his labors, but who preferred a death by starvation to a life of wisdom. Frightened by this, wishing to calm the reproaches of conscience, I ordered bread to be brought and when it was brought, I used it. And I ask you not to bring me barley anymore, but bread.” (See “Philotheos History”, Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus).

III. Therefore, in case of illness, let us resort to medical help, having first turned to God and the Holy Church for heavenly blessing and for healing of the soul from sins, on which the illnesses themselves very often depend. 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.