Illness In The Old & New Testaments :

[BarbTherese]

https://uno.flocknote.com/note/219077

Day 165 "Catechism in a Year"

 

 

 

How was "sickness" interpreted in the Old Testament?

In the Old Testament sickness was often experienced as a severe trial, against which one could protest but in which one could also see God's hand. In the prophets the thought appears that sufferings are not just a curse and not always the consequence of personal sin, that by patiently bearing sufferings one can also be there for others.

Why did Jesus show so much interest in the sick?

Jesus came in order to show God's love. He often did this in places where we feel especially threatened: in the weakening of our life through sickness. God wants us to become well in body and soul and, therefore, to believe and to acknowledge the coming of God's kingdom.

Sometimes a person has to become sick in order to recognize what we allhealthy or sickneed more than anything else: God. We have no life except in him. That is why sick people and sinners can have a special instinct for the essential things. Already in the New Testament it was precisely the sick people who sought the presence of Jesus; they tried "to touch him, for power came forth from him and healed them all" (Lk 6:19). (YOUCAT questions 240 & 241)

 

 

 

Relevant Paragraphs from the Catholic Catechism (CCC)

http://www.catholiccrossreference.com/catechism/#!/search/1502-1505

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 24, 2014 by BarbaraTherese

[Perigrina]

The book of Job is an exploration of the theme of God's role in illness and suffering.  Job's friends give him a lot of bad advice which is pretty typical in my experience.  This book illustrates the human tendency to assume that illness is a punishment from God.  

 

The tl;dr version is a short passage from the Gospel according to John: 

 

9 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.