When Healing Becomes Educating, Vol. 2 - Waldorf Research Institute

exercises to practice inner calm or letting go of fears will soon relieve those
symptoms.
Finally, it is not difficult to answer the question as to the meaning of
illness in the case of chronic diseases in later life, diseases which are not so
serious as to set real limits to work and everyday life. Anyone with an illness
which he knows will be with him to the end of his life—which is always the
case with chronic diseases—will have to ask himself why he is having to face
up to the mortality of the body at this early stage. He will have to be aware
of the limit set to human life and the transitory nature of the body much
more strongly and in a much more existential way than someone who enjoys
good health well into old age. With chronic disease in old age, people are
faced with the question of whether and how life and existence in the spirit
continue after death.
The three kinds of illnesses we have been considering—harmless acute
infections, the milder kind of psychosomatic illness, and tolerable chronic
disease in old age—show only too clearly that they offer people an opportunity
to learn something to further their development in body, soul and
spirit and that this is helpful and important for their progress in life.
A question that is much harder to answer concerns the meaning of
severe congenital handicaps, incurable or extremely painful conditions, and
also serious accidents that maim and have consequences for the rest of one’s
life. In dealing with such strokes of destiny, which are meaningless at first
sight and cause bitterness and despair, it really matters if one has actually
learned to address one’s questions in a direction from where helpful answers
may be expected to come. Looking for such a direction where questions
serve a pur pose and answers may come, it can be a major help to consider
the case histories given in the gospels. Let us go into this a little.
Reading the case records in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John, we can distinguish three basic types, presenting in pure or combined
form. The type of record does, however, have nothing to do with the
actual disease in each case. It relates solely and entirely to the nature of the
treatment or the way in which healing occurs. The approach to treatment is
always determined by the destiny situation in the given case.
The first type of record involves highly personal destiny situations. An
example is the encounter with the blind man in Jericho.
And they came to Jericho. And when he went forth from Jericho,
followed by his disciples and a large crowd, Bartimaeus, son of
Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the wayside. Hearing that it
was Jesus of Nazareth he called out in a loud voice: “Son of David,
Jesus, have pity on me.” Many of the people threatened him and
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