This article first appears in Issue XXVIII: “The Cardinal Virtues” of the Word on Fire Institute’s quarterly journal, Evangelization & Culture.
There has been a long-standing belief in society and in the medical community that living a virtuous life leads to better health. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good.” For physicians and the patients they advise, disposition to do good likely translates into practicing good health habits. Practices such as getting regular exercise, obtaining an adequate amount of sleep, and eating a healthy, balanced diet have become the dogma of preventative medicine. (Even as children, we knew that Popeye grew bigger muscles when he ate his spinach!) Conversely, avoiding certain vices, such as overeating, excessive alcohol intake, or smoking cigarettes, can reduce the incidence of a variety of diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, cancer, liver disease, stroke, and hypertension. In this regard, the practice of virtues may contribute to better health. The cardinal virtue of temperance helps us restrict our desire for excess, like foregoing that extra cookie. Fortitude helps us get to the gym when we don’t feel like going. Prudence helps us make wise choices in our lifestyle decisions, like getting to bed on time rather than staying up late to scroll social media. Traditional Lenten practices of almsgiving and fasting may even be associated with certain health benefits.
The Bible also provides examples for this line of thinking. For the ancient Israelites, living virtuously meant following God’s laws for dietary restrictions, ritual bathing, avoidance of blood, and burial guidelines that all protected in some way against illness and disease that was not yet scientifically appreciated. The chosen people may not have understood why God was asking them to follow these rules, but their obedience to God protected them and allowed them to flourish. The psalmist thanks God for this protection: “If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my misery. I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life” (Ps 119:92–93). However, when disease struck, blame was placed on some sin of the victim that must have been the root cause. The laws of Moses list consumption, fever, inflammation, boils, ulcers, scurvy, madness, and blindness as consequences of disobeying the voice of the Lord (Deut 28:22–28). Even Moses’s sister, Miriam, was temporarily struck with leprosy after questioning God about Moses’s prophetic role (Num 12).
This attitude of blaming the patient for her illness continues into modern times. Medical conditions such as mental illness, hypertension, asthma, ulcers, or even cancer were once erroneously linked to personality types, psychosomatic causes, or character flaws. Take, for example, stomach ulcers, which were once attributed to personality style until the infectious cause of H. pylori bacteria was discovered. Today, it is trendy to believe that having a positive attitude and “being a fighter” will overcome susceptibility to illness or suffering. Or if I eat the right diet and follow the perfect exercise plan, all will be well. This insidious version of the false prosperity gospel continues to haunt us: If I have faith in God and live according to Jesus’s teachings, I will have health, wealth, and happiness.
Following Jesus is the way of the cross, but would anyone be crazy enough to suggest that “carrying a cross” sounds like a good health habit?
But Jesus never says any such thing and upends this idea of sin and lack of virtue or faith as the cause of disease. In the Gospel of John, before Jesus heals the blind man, his disciples ask, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him” (John 9:2–3). Instead of health and prosperity, Jesus teaches that following his way, the path of virtue, will lead to hardship and persecution. Jesus encourages any who would follow him to “take up their cross and follow me” (Matt 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23). Following Jesus is the way of the cross, but would anyone be crazy enough to suggest that “carrying a cross” sounds like a good health habit?
This follows more closely our lived experience. The blessing of good health is never so simple to predict, and much of our health is out of our control. None of us has been spared the experience of serious illness, either in ourselves, a loved one, or at least someone we know. A disposition to do good does not at all guarantee good health. We have only to look to the lives of the saints for confirmation that virtue does not lead to freedom from disease. St. John Paul II suffered from debilitating Parkinson’s disease during the last years of his life. Padre Pio, Mother Teresa, and Mother Cabrini were all plagued by poor health while tirelessly serving those in need. Many heroic young saints experienced disease leading to an untimely passing, including St. Thérèse of Lisieux, St. Faustina, and St. Bernadette. Not to mention our newest saints Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati, who both passed away at young ages after brief illnesses. All these saints were among the most virtuous humans who have graced the planet, yet they were not spared the ravages of illness and suffering.
In my own practice caring for patients with cancer, it is not uncommon to hear laments like “I’ve never been sick my whole life! How did I get this cancer?” or “I eat a vegetarian diet, and exercise every day, and don’t drink or smoke. I wasn’t supposed to get cancer!” Such incredulity when confronting a disease can be a step on the way to coping with a new diagnosis, but if one clings to the myth of the prosperity gospel, then anger, judgment, and resentment can develop. However, if we remember the way of the cross, then grace has an opportunity to flow into our suffering, and virtue rises to its highest utility. Archbishop Fulton Sheen aptly noted, “The shock of sorrow comes only to those who think this world is fixed and absolute, that there is nothing beyond. They think everything here below should be perfect. Hence, they ask questions: ‘Why should I suffer? What have I done to deserve this?’ Maybe you did nothing to deserve it. Certainly, Our Lord did nothing to deserve His Cross. But it came, and through it, He went to His glory.”
Rather than promising good health, perhaps living a virtuous life prepares one to face the challenges of illness, suffering, and incapacity with the graces and fruits that those virtues provide, such as compassion, patience, humility, and surrender to God’s providence. Jesus instructs us to “take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt 11:29–30). In God’s permissive will, illness and disease allow us to use our virtues to help carry our crosses, and even more importantly, train us to grow stronger in virtue and better work out our salvation in ways that could never have been achieved otherwise. For as St. Paul encourages us, “Do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure” (2 Cor 4:16–17).
Like the Jewish people, whose obedience to God helped them through their hardships, and those disciples of Jesus who take up the cross to follow him, we too who suffer illness and disease must also trust and follow with obedience, knowing that pain and suffering are not the final outcome. Pope Leo XIII tells us that “it is reasonable, therefore, not to expect an end to troubles in this world, but rather to steel one’s soul to bear troubles, by which we are taught to look forward with certainty to supreme happiness. Christ has not promised eternal bliss in heaven to riches, nor to a life of ease, to honors, or to power, but to long-suffering and to tears, to the love of justice and to cleanness of heart.” Jesus reassures us, “In me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!” (John 16:33). The best answer to the question of whether a virtuous life leads to good health may be both yes and no, but certainly with no guarantee. What is guaranteed is that our virtues give us the strength to carry our crosses with Jesus to the eternal health that is promised in heaven.