Ninety-nine percent of the reasons for what is currently happening in each person’s life are in the future, not the past (as we will discuss in detail in the second part about divine providence, we will see that all 100% of the present is a consequence of the future. We are not talking about fate, destiny, or predestination—these are pagan fantasies, born of irresponsibility. You might ask: what about my free will, isn’t my current state determined by my actions in the past?! So how can you say that everything comes from the future? The reason for the creation of the world is in eternity, in God. God is the cause and goal, the purpose of everything that exists: everything comes from Him, by Him, and for Him. This “now” is influenced by the past only in the sense that the causes, which come from the future, take into account the past, the free choice of a person in the past. The purpose of my existence is happiness, which is inconceivable without the integrity of the personality, which implies or necessitates spiritual-psychological-physical health. For example: now I am having a cast applied because yesterday I broke my arm. But the purpose or reason for applying the cast is not the fracture, but the health of the arm. To better understand this thought, which is very important in spiritual life, let us delve a bit into theology. The Lord, having created Adam, placed him in paradise. Adam lacked nothing objectively, by nature, for spiritual growth. In the best conditions that could have been created for Adam (of course, considering his spiritual level), Adam made his first and all subsequent free acts of self-realization. As a child grows and according to growth they are dressed in clothes of the appropriate size. So too in spiritual life, the Lord creates the best conditions for further development, considering the previous spiritual state. The state, this “now,” in which Adam conceived the idea of self-deification, was entirely conditioned by the future, that is, by eternity. Adam fell, sinned— in this spiritual state, in which mankind found itself, God again creates the best conditions for achieving the goal—deification of the world… Thus, initially eternity, the future—first, and only then—my free choice, which again is taken into account by the future. We, as Christians, ask not “why?” but “for what purpose?” Even this “now” dictates the method of achieving “for what purpose.” We saw in previous chapters that God does not punish and cares for us every moment. “For what?”—for salvation, deification! Surgery is done not for something, but for something: not to give according to deeds, but to heal. (But if I were born healthy and led a healthy lifestyle, there would be no need to perform surgery for me to be healthy.
Unfortunately (or fortunately—it was in God’s plans even before the creation of the world; the Lord, even before the creation of the world, knew which path Adam would take, how he would realize his free will; and Love created man…), we are all born sick to some extent (original damage and original sin) and then many of us personally sin—therefore we suffer the sorrows of diseases caused by our unrighteous lives, and heredity weighs in (adds—V.A.). Therefore, sin is the cause of disease, suffering, mental anguish. To be healthy, one must not sin (“go and sin no more…”), not increase (aggravate) one’s wounds, not add diseases to the diseases in which you already find yourself, and treat those you already have.
In the Gospel, we hear how a sick person immediately became healthy: do you believe?—get up and walk; your sins are forgiven… Therefore, to be healthy, you need to have your sins forgiven, as the sole cause of disease. There is no primary cause of disease and there is correct living (faith)—there is no disease. Diseases in essence do not exist, or they “exist” as long as I nurture them, that is, live incorrectly, unrighteously, godlessly, without God. Faith—restoration of communion with God, as the opposite action to sin, which is the disruption of unity with God. If I am with God— all diseases are doomed to destruction. A person is a whole personality, not separately a soul and separately a body. Thus there is one disease—spiritual-physical. In secular medicine its own classification: physical diseases, mental diseases, and “treatment” is conducted in autonomous mode: the body separately and the soul separately… But, since a person is a whole personality, all diseases, mental and physical—are symptoms of one “disease” of the spirit, which primarily affects the soul, and then the body. Thus, we can remove symptoms of the disease at the level of the body or soul, but not get to the true cause of the symptoms, not to mention healing the disease. Symptoms only indicate the disease, but are not themselves the disease, so there may be no symptoms (this is the most dangerous state), and the disease progresses. For example, the thyroid gland may be sick, but there are no symptoms (does not hurt), we learn about problems in this system through the diseases of other organs. (For example, if we remove the signs that show the way to Kyiv, it does not mean that Kyiv has ceased to exist, or if there are no recognizable signs—then there is no Kyiv…). All earthly doctors do one thing—remove symptoms: mental diseases, treating physical (which are symptoms of mental passions) and spiritual disease, treating mental diseases, which are only symptoms of sin… Therefore, doctors who treat the body separately (as is now the case), ignoring the source of the disease, the cause of which is not in the body, but in the soul (at the first level of the hierarchy of human being), are engaged in cosmetically decorating a corpse. Therefore, it is a great mercy of God that people are sick, that symptoms of disease cannot even be completely removed by modern medicine, and a person has the opportunity to reach the real disease—death, symptoms of which are spiritual-physical diseases-suffering. The cause of death is sin. Therefore, sin is the cause of all diseases-suffering. As long as there is sin—there are diseases at all levels of being. Therefore, treatment (even of the body and soul—we speak, considering human weakness) is impossible without repentance—proper Eucharistic church life. Doctors create an illusion of health, which is very dangerous if a person does not live a correct spiritual life. The cause of any disease is not outside, but inside: not in the body, but in the soul, not in the soul—but in the wrong personal self-realization in being. Therefore, it is a great mercy of God when we are sick at the level of body and soul, when we can through these diseases-symptoms, pain, discomfort in this form of existence and reveal the real disease (sin, pride, godlessness) and heal, cure it. In our organism at the level of the body, it happens that some system (e.g., the thyroid gland) or organ does not work, is sick, and there are no pains, certain symptoms of the disease, and then, when other organs begin to suffer and through their pain, through the diseases of the affected organs (which will make themselves known) and attempts to treat them (because there are few specialists who can see the non-obvious), and failures in attempts to cure (because no matter how much you treat those organs—they will continue to be sick, because the cause of the diseaseis not in them, but beyond them) may prompt doctors to look for the causes of the disease beyond the clearly expressed sick organs, and through their pain will be able to detect a more dangerous, non-obvious disease.