The Orthodox Church is a hospital for a suffering world. Orthodoxy understands salvation to be a process of healing and drawing nearer to God. Attending the Divine Liturgy is like going to the hospital, not going to the courthouse. There is healing for all who seek it, but we must go to the place where there is a Healer.

There is medicine available when you are ready.

Don’t Heal thyself

I’m on a round of antibiotics for an infection. It’s a relatively minor thing, but has the potential to grow much worse if left untreated. For a week or more, I paid no mind to the injury I sustained, or the resulting infection. When it was too painful to be ignored, my wife gently prodded me to go to the doctor. I gave a noncommittal answer.

A painful, sleepless night convinced me to heed her advice. But in a final act of defiance, I skipped a morning appointment and went to work. In pain the whole day, I eventually swallowed my pride and made my way to the emergency care facility.

One day into the antibiotics and I already feel better.

You must decide you’re ready to be healed before the treatment can begin.

The Orthodox Church is a hospital

The Church has given us the sacrament of confession for our healing and reunion with Christ. Through the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist we partake of the flesh and blood of our Savior. We are sustained as we endure the ills of this world.

What is the Church, if not a place where the sick meet their physician? Those sick from sin come to confess their sickness to God the Physician, and to find medicine and healing from Him who is the true Healer from all human suffering and weakness, and the Giver of all good things. – St. Nikolai Velimirovich

The research is complete, and the trials and testing are on record. There is no need to rethink the cure.

But you have to go to the hospital yourself. You must finally reach the point where you give up trying to heal yourself, or ignore the symptoms until they go away. There must be admission that you cannot control sickness, and acknowledgement that it is indeed sickness.

You must come to the hospital to be healed.

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