Vigils Reading

HEAL THE SICK; CAST OUT THE DEMONS

An address by Paul Tillich to his graduating seminarians4 ◊◊◊

People often ask, in passionate despair, why the divine order of things includes sickness, if sickness is one of the things to be healed by divine order. This very natural question, which, for many of us, is the stumbling block of our faith, points to the riddle of evil in the world of God… the mystery of evil. But… evil in the divine order is not only mystery; it is also revelation. It reveals the greatness and danger of life. He who can become sick is greater than he who cannot… He alone who is free is able to surrender to the demonic forces that turn his freedom into bondage. The gift of freedom implies the danger of servitude; and the abundance of life implies the danger of sickness…

When Jesus asks the disciples to heal and to cast out demons, he does not distinguish between bodily and mental or spiritual diseases. But every page of the gospels demonstrates that he means all of them, and many stories show that he sees their interrelationship, their unity. We see this unity today more clearly than many generations just behind us… Illness is a consequence of the estrangement of man’s spirit from the divine Spirit… No sickness can be healed nor any demon cast out without the reunion of the human spirit with the divine Spirit… the healing and demon-conquering power implied in the message of the Christ, the message of forgiveness and of a new reality…

Can you represent the Christian message?… Should you ask me–can we heal without being healed ourselves? —I would answer–you can! For neither the disciples nor you could ever say we are healed, so let us heal others. He who would believe this of himself is least fit to heal others; for he would be separating himself from them. Show them whom you counsel that their predicament is also your predicament.

And should you ask me–can we cast out demons without being liberated from demonic power ourselves? –I would answer–you can! Unless you are aware of the demonic possibility in yourselves, you cannot recognize the demon in others, and cannot do battle against it by knowing its name and thus depriving it of its power. And there will be no period in your life, so long as it remains creative and has healing power, in which demons will not split your souls and produce doubts about your faith, your vocation, your whole being. If they fail to succeed, they may accomplish something else–self-assurance and pride with respect to your power to heal and to cast out demons. Against this pride Jesus warns–“Do not rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” And “written in heaven” means written in spite of what is written against you in the records of your life…

There is no greater vocation on earth than to be called to heal and to cast out demons. Be joyous in this vocation! Do not be depressed by its burden, nor even by the burden of having to deal with those who do not want to be healed. Rejoice in your calling. In spite of your own sickness, in spite of the demons working within you and your churches, you have a glimpse of what can heal ultimately, of him in Whom God made manifest His power over demons and disease, of him who represents the healing power that is in the world, and sustains the world and lifts it up to God. Rejoice that you are his messengers..