Archive of Oncology (Jan 2013)
Enterprise of fasting and vocation of a physician
Abstract
In this paper, the author considers the enterprise of fasting, in which the man faces the important issues of his existence, the purpose and worldly life. The author is aware that all social, philosophical and theological phenomena are very complex, profound and obscure and quotes the French philosopher and scientist Pascal, who claimed: “We do not possess enough knowledge to…understand the life of human body…While in nature everything is closely intertwined … No part can be recognized unless we have studied the unit. The life of each body will be understood only when we learn all that it needs; and in order to achieve this, it is necessary to study the universe. But the universe is infinite and it is beyond the human ability to grasp it…”It is clear from this quotation that we are facing many complex issues whenever we try to reveal one of the secrets of Christian life - the secret of fasting. The second part of the essay has to do with people and the time we live in, the relations between believing doctors and their profession and whether and to what extent a believing doctor who observes fasts is closer to the Truth and Goodness that the one who does not believe. The author argues that the doctor who is a believer and who observes a fast seeing it as the time when values of human life should be put to test and the meaning of medical profession reconsidered is closer to the truth of Existence and love of the world. There is no duty that is more important for a modern, egotistic, materialistic man than resuming fasts. A fast as a profound rethinking of the whole of a human being, as a human effort, as Solzhenitsyn would say, to self-restriction, abstinence, nurturing of his own freedom.
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