Leading in Christ through the Medical Field

In this day and age, the field of healing is in a great need of guidance towards the True Physician of humanity, the incarnate Word of God, the Son Of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In an age where atheism, materialism and capitalism dominate Western society, the field of medicine is in crisis facing a new era of health problems. Today’s main risk factors are not from external environmental factors but from within the human mind, it includes human behavior and habits that are contrary to what our creator has intended.

Knowing the brokenness of humanity and the great need for Him as the true Physician, the Lord Christ, on His first encounter of service, entered the temple in His hometown Nazareth, opened the scripture and read this passage from Isaiah:

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” Luke 4:18-19

I framed this passage in my office and often presented it to my patients as “Christ’s mission statement” towards healing mankind from the deepest causes of human illness!

In a generation where the medical field has excelled in preventative medicine, innovative genetic testing, and top notch biomedical engineering, we find ourselves moving into a reality of generalized ill-health from things like stress-related disorders, psychosomatic diseases, mental illnesses, addictions and autoimmune diseases.

In the 80’s when I first studied medicine in Egypt, and even in the late 90s when I repeated my studies while taking my licensing exams in the USA, the risk factors were mainly from the environment, food, toxins, etc. Today’s pathological risk factors that I see in St. Luke’s Clinic (a non-profit mental health ministry in the Archdiocese) are arising from within the human mind, rather than from external factors.

Mindsets such as those of materialism, selfishness, academic competitiveness, egocentrism, pleasure-driven food habits, and the quick-fix mentality are among many of the contemporary life styles that cause the plethora of current health problems. The words of our Savior still ring loud:

“Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” Matthew 15:11

Christian Medical professionals should feel that they have the calling of leading their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ into our faith based meaning of health described by St. Basil the Great as follows: “Health is the stability, proper function and well-being of our natural energies”

By the word “natural” he does not mean what is natural or common, instead what God intended for humans to be and become.

How should a Christian medical professional lead in Christ, guiding his or her patients to this kind of health towards the ultimate healing of the soul?

1. We need to have a special relationship with our divine healer Jesus Christ in order to experience first-hand His healing presence and present it to our patients and coworkers in truth and love.

2. We have to point out to our patients their anthropological components of the material body and the immaterial soul and of their source of nourishments, as our lord taught us:

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4 NKJV

1. Christian medical professionals need to remember that their role in healing is a type of their salvific role of their Savior. St John Chrysostom writes that the role of doctors with their patients, even with those who vilify and insult them, is to add kindness to kindness until he/she succeeds in restoring them to health. He compares that to God’s salvific work with us even when we fall into utter madness against Him.

2. Christian medical professionals need to remember that their profession is a Godly one that is praised by Him, and directly works with His hands, and that the they are called to present Him to their patients by revealing Him in their lives. One of the most beautiful scripture passages depicting these ideas is in the book of the Wisdom of Sirach, in the first six verses of chapter 38:

“Honor doctors for their services, since indeed the Lord created them. Healing comes from the Most High, and the king will reward them. The skill of doctors will make them eminent, and they will be admired in the presence of the great. The Lord created medicines out of the earth, and a sensible person won’t ignore them. Wasn’t water made sweet by means of wood so that the Lord’s strength might be known? And He endowed human beings with skill so that He would be glorified through His marvelous deeds.”

1. Lastly, Christian medical professionals should be aware of the healing sacramental power of the church that was once called to be a “hospital” by St John Chrysostom. For example, St. Ignatius of Antioch calls the Body and Blood of Christ: “The medicine of immortality and the antidote of death.” St James in his epistle says:

“Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”
James 5:14-15  

St John Chrysostom says this about the sacrament of matrimony: “God restored in Cana what was broken in Eden.”

In the litany of the sick of St. Basil’s Liturgy we pray: “As for us too, O Lord, the sicknesses of our souls, heal; and also those of our bodies, cure. O you, the true physician of our souls, bodies, the bishop of all flesh, visits us with Your salvation.”

May the Lord, the True Physician of our souls, bodies, and spirits, teach us to lead in Him as ambassadors through our medical profession.

Fr. Luke Istafanous, MD

Priest, St. Mary & St. Mercurius Coptic Orthodox Church, Belleville, NJ

Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry - Voluntary Faculty

Rutgers University/New Jersey Medical School