Augustine in His Own Words (continued)
The Preacher 141
Apostle says, "In Adam all die" (1 Cor 15:22). Back then we were just two human beings, back when we were unwilling to comply with the Doctor's orders so as not to get sick. Let us comply now so that we can get free of the disease. When we were healthy, the Doctor gave us orders. The Doctor gave us orders so that we would not need a Doctor. "The doctor is not needed by the healthy, but by the sick" (Mt 9:12). While healthy, we disregarded His orders, and we tasted from experience how deadly an injury it was to disregard His orders. We began to get sick, we were in pain, we lay in our sickbed, but we must not get discouraged. So because we were not able to go to the Doctor, He Himself deigned to come to us. Though he was disregarded by the healthy, He did not disregard the wounded.37 (ii) Human Doctors vs. Christ the Doctor
Augustine contrasted the medical know-how of human doctors with Christ the Doctor. From Expositions of the Psalms 102: (5) The Lord "heals all your diseases" (Ps 102:3). All your sluggishness and weaknesses will be healed. There's no need to fear. "They are great," you say—but the Doctor is greater. For this all-powerful Doctor, no disease is incurable. . . . A human doctor sometimes makes mistakes and promises health for the human body. Why is he wrong? Because he's not taking care of something he himself made. God made your body. God made your soul. God knows how to re-create whatever He created. He knows how to re-form what He Himself formed.38 (iii) Christ's Diagnostic Skills
In a sermon on Peter's triple denial, Augustine compares Jesus to a doctor whose diagnostic abilities allow him to read the inner workings of the human heart. From Sermon 229O: (1) The Lord, like a highly skilled doctor, knew what was going on in the sick man, knew it better than the sick man himself. Doctors do for the health and well-being of bodies what the Lord does for the health and well-being of souls. So does it seem to you—I ask you—that the patient should expect to hear from the doctor what's going on inside him? The patient is certainly able to know what pains he's suffering, but whether they are dangerous, and what the underlying causes are, whether he can or cannot get past it—well, a doctor listens to the pulse and tells the patient what is happening inside the
37. S. 88.1–7 (PL 38:539–43); my trans. 38. En. Ps. 102.5 (CCL 40:1454–55); my trans.