In this video, Fr. Rafail Noica addresses one of the hardest questions we face: when a loved one is dying, do we keep fighting with every medical tool available, or do we let go? Fr. Rafail reveals the spiritual paradox of healing: how surrendering to God’s will can sometimes lead to physical recovery, or even more wonderfully, to a “Holy Death.” It’s not just about a set of rules; it’s about what happens when our longing for the Kingdom of Heaven becomes stronger than our fear of leaving this life. A beautiful, comforting word for anyone facing illness or grief.
Fr. Rafail Noica is a disciple of St. Sophrony the Athonite, living now as a hermit in Romanian mountains.
Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhL0Bd4zWZs
Conference “What is man? (Ce este omul)?”, Alba Iulia, Romania, Nov. 23, 2006.
Q: Father Raphael, what is the Orthodox attitude in the face of the suffering of our loved ones when it even takes the form of incurable illnesses? Are we duty-bound to do everything to keep them alive, going perhaps even as far as the transplant of vital organs such as the heart?
Fr. Rafail: It is very hard to answer a question like this. Because it depends very, very much on your faith and on the faith of the beloved one. I have never dared to say: “Leave it to God to heal you or something like that, or do not do this, transplant, surgery or this.” And I am not sure to what extent, meaning what is good and right and where we exceed our measure in this scientific line and in the struggle against death.
However, I would like to turn our thinking toward the essential. The essential is, through faith, the understanding of eternal life. And if the orientation toward eternal life lives in a man from now on more powerfully than any other calling, biological, physiological, calling toward this life which we are going to lose anyway someday. So if that searching for eternal life triumphs within the man, curiously, two things can happen.
The most expected is a death, I tell you truly, that is holy. I had under my epitrachelion two unmarried girls. One 33 years old and the other 27 years old with terminal cancer. In a few months they both died. They died like saints and one was smiling in the coffin.
I have known others in the monastery too. A man with, how do you say it, multiple sclerosis, who came to ask for the prayer of Father Sophrony and he prayed intensely, as Father Sophrony used to do, and at the end, feeling that his prayer was not conquering the death working in this man, I don’t remember what it’s called… I think it is in one of the Spiritual Homilies, Father Sophrony says, forgive me, I do not have this prayer that can heal you or something like that. I am not quoting exactly. That man, Constantin was his name, may the Lord rest him and perhaps through his prayers have mercy on us. He says: “Father Sophrony, what are you saying? More than a healing has taken place, I felt the power of God, the presence of God through this prayer and I feel healed, in an essential sense.”
I have known several stories of this kind. When I say known, either the people personally and their life story, or read articles and other things about some who died of cancer and other illnesses and who wanted to leave behind them a testimony of this kind. And I say if man has this faith, I do not want to stop it. But I cannot, I do not feel that I have the right to try to instill it in him.
But paradoxically, sometimes, when the searching for eternal life lives in a man to the point of despising, in a certain sense “despising,” a spiritual sense, not with contempt, yet, no longer letting himself be overly impressed by this life and by its promise and he lives his death now with serenity and perhaps even with humor, as I have seen a few cases. Lo and behold, he gets healed… the doctors cannot even recover from the shock.
So two things can happen. The most paradoxical, that for that very reason he gets healed. The least paradoxical, but wonderful, some holy deaths—may God grant us too a death like some of these people. So again, I do not give you a recipe, but I hope you have some points of reference.
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