THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN
VOLUME 5
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus in the region of Caesarea Philippi. (cont.) Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 16
- Chapter 74 -
Questions on illnesses and their cure.
Roklus says, "Lord and Master of all things! Every word from Your mouth is more than the purest gold, and each truth is greater than the other! Also none of Your words of light and life have fallen on infertile ground with me, and I now feel in me that certainly the most blessed fruit will grow out of them for the barns of true life; but since I now have the mercy to talk to You, I would like to have an explanation from You also in the respect of whether we in future should heal the sick from their illnesses through our natural healing medication or simply in the firmest trust possible in Your name? For the though came to me just now that it would not always correspond to Your divine will to heal every sick person. For among them there are some to whom You divine love and wisdom allowed an illness or even some sickness of the soul to come for the improvement of their soul.
2
It is a well-known fact that often people who are physically very healthy are not the most ethically virtuous. Yes, people enjoying physical health are often mischievous, worldly- minded and sensual, while the sick, especially those who are chronically ill, usually linger on, patient, gentle and resigned to the will of God. They seldom complain, are full of humility, and their heart is devoid of envy. Might not the good disposition of their soul undergo a change if they were suddenly made whole?
3
Then there is another thing: certainly everyone is designated to die in the body at some time "and if this were not the case, people since the days of Adam would still live physically. But if we make everything that comes our way that is sick, young or old, immediately fully healthy again, and ourselves at the same time, then gradually dying in this world would soon become something rare, particularly if through Your teaching wars should gradually cease to occur."
4
If we do not heal someone who has sought help from us, we will be scolded as hard and unsympathetic people; but if You do not even allow someone who has been healed many times by us to be healed for perhaps the tenth time again, despite our will and our efforts, either the power of Your name or our own trust in the same will become suspicious and sketchy, and the faith of the people will suffer shipwreck! For we will not manage to get the people once living in matter to begin to despise this earthly life for the gain of a higher life in the great beyond, to do nothing anymore for themselves in the case of sickness.
5
Even the old man of a hundred years and over will grab the drug to extend his life even if he knew that the discarding of his fragile body could be done gracefully. We are taught in general by more than a thousand years of experience that the avarice of a person to live healthily and as long as possible on this mangy world, even in often very poor circumstances, is an insatiable one; and if the people know that more generally that alone through the power of Your name every evil can be healed, yes, that in emergencies even the dead can be brought back to life, then we will have to confront one siege from the people after another!
6
In my opinion it would be not superfluous at all for us and for whomever else to get a nearer instruction in this respect! Or have You somehow completely lifted the old death of the flesh from now on for those people who live fully in Your order, so that the people from now on will live on with already transfigured bodies, but the death of the flesh will remain only a part of the sinners against Your religion and against Your laws?
7
Lord and Master above all things! Behold, the beams of the sun that has set still gild the evening sky very powerfully, and the sickle of the moon and the evening star positively compete to replace the mother of the day that has set. The sight of Your shining works is so super-magnificent, oh Lord; but even more magnificent is the feeling of the inner light that illuminates our dark corners of life from Your mouth! Since there is still time before the evening meal, explain to me what I am never able to explain myself!"