Învățături ale Cuviosului Paisie Aghioritul despre boală și răbdarea ei cu noblețe sufletească

Bodily sufferings are the sign of the beginning of the deterioration of this „this tabernacle (τῷ σκήνει)” (II Cor. 5:4) or the beginning of the ancestral disease called „death (θανάτῳ)”(cf. Gen. 3:4), which is the sickness of diseases in that „were lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:15), all the sons of Adam. Thus, the deterioration of the human body through sickness or through its natural aging is irreversibly, closely linked to the condition of man after the fall, this being the most tragic but also visible somatic consequence of the fall. Sickness reveals to us the fragility of our earthly being and the fact that health and earthly life are transitory, for „our body is destined to weaken, to decay and finally to die”,for „dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return”. (Gen. 3:19). God Himself warned our forefathers of the consequences of disobeying His command, „Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. (Gen. 3:3) Consequently, as St. Simeon the New Theologian said, there is no man who is perfectly healthy in this life, health being nothing but a partial and provisional equilibrium.