A “One Evening” Condensed Book; translated from the French by Edwin Hudson
The whole of our inquiry into the meaning of medicine leads us to this: we [physicians] are collaborators with God. He uses us to postpone death, prolonging life in order to procure that merciful respite of which we have spoken. The sole purpose of our labor is to give our patients a supreme opportunity of encountering Jesus Christ and of binding themselves ever more closely to Him through faith. For in the last analysis all our activity is but a temporary expedient. (57)
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One of the best books I re-read this year was Fearfully and Wonderfully Made by Paul Brand and Philip Yancey. The topic of that book—the human body and the amazing God who designed it—was similar to this, though A Doctor’s Casebook pulls the focus away from the body itself out to the pain and pleasures that it feels. It seems directed towards a readership of doctors, though certainly anyone who has ever been touched by an infirmity could benefit from it.
Tournier cover many topics in this book, from sex and purpose to sickness and death, and he does so “in the light of the Bible.” I particularly enjoyed his exposition on man’s personhood, especially as he discusses God’s calling of Abraham from his father’s house and kindred to go to a place He would show him. Tournier compares this event to that of a “savage” from a community-centric culture coming to faith in Christ and making a individual decision that makes him different from the rest.
It is a fact that the savage has no consciousness of himself as a person; he identifies himself with his tribe; he identifies himself also with Nature by mystical participation. For him the microcosm that is himself and the macrocosm that is the world are confused. “The Lord said to Abram, Get thee out of this country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house.” (Gen 12:1). God takes him out of his tribe, out of his impersonal existence, conditioned by his environment; He makes a person of him through his personal obedience to a personal command. The personal God makes man into a person. In the view of the Bible, the link between God and man is a link between persons; it is this that makes man a complete being, responsible for himself before God. Right up to the last page of the Bible you will find men called by God out of the prejudices of their tribe, away from the impulses of their own instincts, so that they no longer live the automatic life of animals but become persons and prophets—prophets in the Biblical sense but also prophets in the philosophical sense of which Bergson speaks—that is to say, emancipated, adult, creative men, discerning the true meaning of things and teaching it to others. God says to Moses: “I know thee by name.” (Ex 33:17) He says to Cyrus: “I am the Lord, which call thee by thy name.” (Isaiah 45:3) These texts express the essences of the personalism of the Bible…The parables of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15:3-7), of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), and of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37) bear particular witness to God’s personal care for every man, but the entire Bible is the reflection of it. (18-19, 22)
Where Tournier truly flourishes, however, is when he discusses sickness and death. The following selection of quotes give a rough sketch of the points he makes throughout the book.
The sceptic will be asking: “Do you claim that disease is sent by God? And if it does not come from God, why do you want me to seek God’s will in it?” His logic is impeccable, but his triumph is sterile and the bitterness in his heart will compromise his recovery. The believer, on the other hand, is so absorbed in seeking what God means to say to him [in the illness] that he does not trouble to ask unanswerable questions. (8)
It frequently happens that the re-establishment of spiritual communion with God is made manifest in a recovery of physical vitality…Our private attitude to life, be it positive or negative, has an effect on our powers of resistance to disease. (27, 29)
The suffering of man is also the suffering of God. That is always my reply to those who tell me that they can’t believe in God in the face of all the suffering that goes on in the world. God is the greatest sufferer; the state of the world causes Him so much suffering that we are told that “it repented the Lord that he had made man in the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.” (Genesis 6:6). Throughout the Bible, evil and death are the enemies of God; “the devil,” we read, “that had the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14), a power hostile to God which He will annihilate in the end: “death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:14) That is to say, the death of death. (Rom 6:23; 6:16; 5:12; James 1:15) (33-34)
Every sickness is a crisis of life. Every sick person who calls for our help is one who has suddenly become aware of his fragility. “What is your life?” says St. James. “For ye are a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” (James 4:14) He is at the same time discovering the fragility of everything that once filled his life: work, money, affections, instincts, and pleasures. If he has regarded them as duties and blessings sent by God, the sudden stoppage caused by sickness will be easier to bear: he still has God and will wait upon new blessings from Him in the spiritual retreat that sickness can become. But if, on the other hand, he has made them his gods, if he has thrown himself frantically into them in order to distract and dope himself, then suddenly and tragically he is faced with the true problems of life and his own life. Sickness sets him for to face with God. (38)
Has not every doctor at some time seen death as a merciful blessing, after awful agony? (53)
This book was a refreshing look at the ailments of life. Despite the book’s age, the lessons Tournier teaches are timeless truths derived from a vast understanding of Scripture. His point that doctors work together with God, so as at least to prolong the patient’s ability to make peace with God is a poignant one. It also helps us to understand our own prayers for the sick and suffering in our lives, something that I think we all need to learn. I recommend this book to leaders especially who desire to be an example in their prayer lives and in their visits with the sick and suffering in their circles.
©2017 E.T.