40. Jo. ev. tr. 25.16 (CCL 36:256–57); trans. Rettig, FOTC 79:253.
patient. So when the Lord said to the blessed Peter, "You will deny me three times" (Mk 14:30), He was taking the pulse of Peter's heart.39 (iv) The Pathology Beneath the Symptoms
Augustine also played on the difference between doctors who treat only the symptoms of diseases versus those who see the root cause. For Augustine, the root cause of our diseased humanity is pride. From Tractates on the Gospel of John 25: (16) The source of all diseases is pride because the source of all sins is pride. When a physician clears up an illness, if he should heal what occurred through some cause and not heal the cause itself through which it occurred, the disease may seem to be cured for a time, but since the cause remains, it strikes again. For example—let me express this more clearly—a fluid in the body produces mange or sores; a high fever and no small pain develop in the body. Some medicines are employed which curb the mange and ease the burning of the sores; they are applied and bring results. You see a man who was covered with sores and mange healed, but because that fluid was not eliminated, the sores come back again. The physician, knowing this, gets rid of the fluid, removes the cause, and there will be no sores. From what source does wickedness abound? From pride. Heal pride, and there will be no wickedness. Therefore, in order that the cause of all diseases, that is, pride, might be healed, He came down and the Son of God became humble.40 (v) Christ the Surgeon
Until the twentieth century, surgery was performed without anesthetic. Augustine plays on this grim aspect of ancient medical practice, routinely speaking of Christ as a surgeon who performs painful but life-saving surgery to remove gangrene from our hearts. From Tractates on the First Letter of John 9: (4) Fear of God wounds in the same way as a physician's scalpel does. It removes the purulence and yet seems, as it were, to increase the wound's size. Look, when the purulence was in the body, the wound was smaller but dangerous. The physician's scalpel comes into use. That wound may have hurt less then than it hurts now when it is being cut. It hurts more when it is being cured than when it is being cut. It hurts more when it is being cured than if it were not cured, but with this medical treatment it hurts more for the very purpose that it may never hurt again once good health follows. Therefore, let
39. S. 229O.1 (MA 1:495–96); my trans. See also s. 299A.5 (= Dolbeau 4). 40. Jo. ev. tr. 25.16 (CCL 36:256–57); trans. Rettig, FOTC 79:253.