Pastorația ortodoxă în contextul pandemiei actuale. Reflecții teologice și filozofice
Orthodox pastoral care within the context of the current pandemic. Theological and philosophical considerations.

Summary/Abstract: The Holy Scriptures, the Holy Fathers as well as the entire post-patristic literature show us that all physical and mental illnesses and sufferings are consequences of the ancestral sin, of the “Adamic rebellion”, that is: of man's departure from the sphere of his Creator’s authority. Saint Basil the Great summed up these undoubted truths, showing in his suggestive homily, God is not the cause of evil, that disease was not created by God, that to consider God the author of the evils inflicted on us is a blasphemy against all divine goodness: “God Who made the body, did not make the disease; as He made the soul, but He did not make the sin at all”. The disease, (as any suffering) is an interrogation, a profound interpellation, and is part of an ontological experience that is often tormenting. Illness has bivalent meanings: it can be a misunderstood and frustrating burden, but, on the other hand, it can help the human being to understand the priorities of life and it can bring him or her closer to the Truth / God. As other serious and widespread diseases, the current pandemic brutally reveals the limits and the weaknesses of our bodily fabric and also shows us that postmodern man seems more devoid of spiritual means compared to the Christians of old. Using a multidisciplinary approach of the current pandemic, not only through the prism of medical sciences but also from a theological perspective, we observe that not only a contagious condition makes us choose isolation, but mostly the spiritual states that we go through. And this takes us back to Christ The Savior, Who aimed at a complete liberation and full healing of mankind – his deliverance from the slavery of the evil one, from sin, the relief and healing of bodily sufferance, the spiritual edification and the moral perfection. And even though the pandemic – like all human diseases and sufferings – is a consequence of the fall of the forefathers, we must not forget that “Adam fell, but the love of God never falls!”.

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