A Theology of Health

Interpersonal love arguably involves two different aspects: both a unitive dimension and a contributory dimension. Love’s unitive dimension seeks to be with, and in some sense, to be one with the other person. Love’s contributory dimension seeks to provide what is good for the beloved. We might say that love involves both seeking the good that is constituted by the other, and seeking the good for the other. That love for another person, both in its unitive and contributory aspects, can bring healing to the beloved. Both in promoting the other’s good, and in being with the other person, the beloved’s experience of that love can itself bring healing. In being loved, one knows that one is valued and cared for. The goodness of one’s very being is affirmed.

Seeking of the good for others may of course be constituted by providing for their material needs. But it may extend beyond this so as to include the flourishing of the beloved more broadly, seeking to enable some measure of happiness, meaning, a sense of relational connectedness, and possibly growth in character. Parts of the Christian traditions distinguish between corporal “alms” – acts of mercy and love constituted by the provision or meeting of material needs contributing to another’s good – and spiritual alms – acts of mercy contributing to another’s spiritual good. Corporal alms were sometimes enumerated as feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, visiting the sick, ransoming the captive, and burying the dead; and spiritual alms as instructing the ignorant, counseling the doubtful, comforting the sorrowful, reproving the sinner, forgiving injuries, bearing with those who trouble us, and praying for all. All of these can of course contribute to the good of the other. All of these meet some sort of material or spiritual need for the other. Acts of goodwill can of course extend beyond these and beyond a clear evident material lack on the part of another. When actions are taken to help improve relationships, to help others attain a sense of meaning, to bring others happiness, these too contribute to their good. Loving one’s neighbor can thus contribute both to the health of the body and also to the health of the person.

In seeking to help others flourish, seeking their well-being, will, in most cases, make it more likely for the other person’s well-being to be enhanced. Moreover desiring to be with the other person, and spending time with the other person, is what allows relationships themselves to form, develop, and deepen. There is a joy that comes in loving, and a joy that comes in loving relationships. There is a sharing of life, a delighting in, and a deepening understanding of the other person and an enjoying of their presence. Loving and loving relationships again affirm to the other the goodness of their being. The unitive aspect of love involves a recognition of, and a delighting in, the goodness of the other person. Contributory love involves the recognition of some good that is absent in the life of another and that might be bestowed. Both unitive and contributory love concern goodness, and both affirm the goodness of the other’s being.

Loving others, and seeking the good of others, not only contributes to their own good, but also tends to prompt and promote similar acts of kindness and love in others as well. There can be a powerful reciprocity and contagion of love and of loving action that, when operative, can extend not just between two individuals but can in fact spread through an entire community and beyond. Love can bring healing to individuals, and can have the capacity to expand, bringing love and healing yet further.

Love ultimately extends beyond beneficent or prosocial acts, however. Love is the consistent desire to both be with and contribute to the good of the other. Love recognizes, is drawn by, and affirms the goodness of being of the other. Love persists in good action even amidst challenges and difficulties. Love arising from the recognition of the goodness, dignity, and worth of the other allows us to contribute to the needs of the other while preserving their dignity and respect since recognizing the inherent worth of the other, and thereby desiring to be present or united with the other, affirms to the other their value and worth.

Jesus makes yet more radical the command to love one’s neighbor by teaching that we are to love one another as Jesus loved us: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). Jesus’ followers are to love as Jesus loved. Jesus provided the perfect example of a life lived in love and one that involved also a giving of his life for the sake of others. Jesus’ love is the love we are called to imitate. That love brought powerful healing to those Jesus encountered in his earthly life and work and furthermore, as discussed in the next section, brought salvation and healing to all mankind in his death and resurrection. God in Jesus showed his love to us and we are likewise to give our lives in love for others. To do so is to help bring healing and wholeness to our neighbor, to all those around us.

(excerpted from part 3, chapter 2)