ON SICKNESS, DEATH AND RESTORATION


 Jason Caros  |  January 30, 2026

“Weep, and with tears lament when with understanding I think on death, and see how in the graves there sleeps the beauty which once for us was fashioned in the image of God, but now is shapeless, ignoble, and bare of all the graces. O how strange a thing; what is this mystery which concerns us humans? Why were we given up to decay? And why to death united in wedlock? Truly, as it is written, these things come to pass by ordinance of God, Who to him (her) now gone gives rest”

-Funeral Service Hymn, by St. John of Damascus

 

 

According to the book of Genesis, God created the heavens and the earth and all living things culminating with the creation of man. Made in the image and according to the likeness of God, man enjoyed a special status in the created order, an order that God proclaimed as ‘good.’ For a time, Adam and Eve lived in paradise and shared an existence where they communed with God and one another enjoying the fruits of God’s love with no concept of suffering, sorrow, sickness, and death. All this changed, of course, with the primordial sin and fall in the garden as described in the third chapter of Genesis. 

 

The reality of the fallen world in which we live is that sin abounds, and sickness and death, two fruits of the primordial sin and subsequent sin are an inherent part of our fallen existence [Ware (2) pp. 59-62]. In the Old Testament, one can read and find a sign of what is known by Eastern Orthodox Christians as “Ancestral Sin.” In Genesis, we read: “When Adam had lived a hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness” [5:3], and in the Psalms, echoes of this theme are to be found in chapter 50(51) where King David writes, “I was born in iniquity and in sin did my mother bear me.” But it is in St. Paul’s epistle to the Romans where we get a clearer image of how the disobedience of our ancestors led to corruption and how sin is passed on: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all have sinned…” [5:12].[1]

 

Saint Paul’s commentary in Romans reveals the sad reality of the effects of the fall, namely death, but he also went on a little later in that same chapter and offered the antidote, so to speak, to our fallen condition when he taught: 

 

“Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life… Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” [5:18].

 

So, despite man’s seemingly hopeless condition after the fall, there is hope for restoration and union in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Man is indeed given new life in Baptism and the grace to live lives in Christ as members of the Body of Christ.[2]

 

In a hymn from the Orthodox funeral service, one can hear the sadness associated with man’s fallen condition, but also the hope of restoration: 

 

“Of old you have created me from nothing, And honored me with your divine image; But when I disobeyed your commandment, You have returned me to the earth from where I was taken, Lead me back again to your likeness, Refashioning my ancient beauty.”

 

According to Orthodox teaching death is tragic; man was not created to die, but in the post-fall world death can also be seen as a blessing. Even though death was not a part of God’s original plan, it is part of His gift, an expression of His mercy and compassion. The alternative, which is to live forever in a fallen world, would be a terrible existence, and so God provided mankind with a way of escape [Ware (1), pp. 30-31] as revealed in one of the prayers of the funeral service, “O Lord, give rest in a place of light, in a place of green pasture, in a place of refreshment, from where pain and sorrow and mourning are fled away…”  

 

Prior to death, however, there is the process of dying where sickness and physical decay are evident. Here the Church again looks to the merciful God, the Healer and Physician of our souls and bodies, not with the sure expectation that our physical maladies will be cured, although the scripture and history of the Church are filled with examples of physical healing, but more important, that we may be healed spiritually and restored to the Kingdom of Heaven [Schmemann, pp. 102-103]. In the Epistle of James read at the Holy Unction service, this truth about healing is established:

 

“Is any among you sick, let him call for the presbyters 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 man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed [5:14-16].

 

In today’s service for the Sacrament of Holy Unction, or anointing of the sick, the prayer of the oil prayed by the bishop or priest reveals the purpose of healing in the Orthodox Church which corresponds to the teaching of Saint James,

 

“O Lord who, in Your mercies and bounties, heals the disorders of our souls and bodies; Do You, the same Master, sanctify this oil, that it may be effectual for those who shall be anointed there with, unto healing, and unto relief from every passion, every malady of the flesh and of the spirit, and every ill; and that therein may be glorified Your most holy Name, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the Ages of Ages.  Amen.” 

 

The words of the service of Holy Unction clearly point to its ultimate goal—forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God, and it is interesting to note its connection to another Sacrament, that of Confession. Holy Confession is above all else a sacrament of healing and in some Byzantine liturgical commentaries Holy Confession and Holy Unction are treated as complementary aspects of a single mystery of healing. What is sought in Confession is not some legalistic absolution, which it is not, but rather a medicine for our spiritual illness [Ware (1), p. 50]. Likewise, one can observe a medicinal theme in the words of the prayer of anointing in the Unction service, “O Holy Father, Physician of souls and bodies, who did send Your only Begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to heal every infirmity and deliver from death: Heal also Your servants from the ills of body and soul which do hinder them…” 

 

In the famous Resurrection hymn of the Orthodox Church, we sing the following words for forty days after Pascha, “Christ is risen from the dead trampling down death by death granting life to those in the tombs.” This is the truth and good news the Church has to offer the world about our life and death. This is the truth expressed in both the healing and funeral services of the Church—that sickness and eventual death caused by sin are overcome by the Source of Life, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.


Jason Caros is a husband, father and long-time educator who served as a classical school headmaster for twelve years. He is a cradle Orthodox Christian who has taught classes on Orthodox theology, worship, and spirituality to high school students and adults in his churches in Florida and Texas. 



[1] Eastern Orthodox read the end of Romans 5:12, specifically the Greek phrase ἐφ’ ᾧ πάντες ἥμαρτον (eph' ho pantes hemarton) as "because all have sinned" or "inasmuch as all have sinned," rather than the erroneous Latin Vulgate translation of the original Greek into “…in quo omnes peccaverunt,” meaning "in whom all have sinned." This mistranslation led St. Augustine to teach that all men were present in Adam and sinned with him, establishing the doctrine of Original Sin as “inherited guilt” that came to influence a more pessimistic Roman Catholic and Protestant view of human anthropology. The Greek meaning and proper English translation highlights that death passed to all, causing humans to sin, rather than inheriting Adam's guilt. 

 

[2] Read about the Christian life in the essays entitled God, Man, and Union, Illumination—Baptism and Chrismation, Illumination—Holy Communion, The Battle of the Soul, and others at www.headmasterjc.com.


Works Cited

Ware, Kallistos.  The Inner Kingdom.  St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, Crestwood, 2000.

 

Ware, Kallistos.  The Orthodox Way.  St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, Crestwood, 1995.

 

Schmemann, Alexander.  For the Life of the World. St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, Crestwood, 1973.