We are continuously dissatisfied with various aspects of our living and as a result we have become a blaming generation. In order to compensate for under achievements and upsets, we seek prescriptions through easily available sources such as advertising media or Google search. There is advertisement for every need that we can think of including worldly pleasures, spiritual needs and eternal happiness. Insurance policies are also available in abundance for a hereafter life. We also seek compensations through litigations. Unfortunately, every prescription is not fully validated by controlled trails or evidence-based appraisals. Most people are not sure of what they really need, and they try to gamble and take their chances, hoping that it may workout somehow. When doctors are not certain about a definite diagnosis, they rely on a broad-spectrum of treatment options. This approach may work for a short while, but creates contradictions and complications. We dream of one thing, work for something else; we think of lofty ideals but cultivate opposite attitudes. It is time that we examine our own contradictions. Is it possible for us to appreciate needs of our existence as a seamless whole, like the seamless robe that Jesus worn. Our efforts, most of the time, end up in creating a patchwork of old and new attitudes; each occupying its own space without merging into an organic whole. We are just collectors of thoughts and ideals without living it or experiencing the beauty embodied in these things that we hoard.

Prescription should match diagnosis, we need to know what we really lack and then try to replace the deficiency or excess through focused action. Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of illnesses: diseases due to deficiency (hormonal deficiency) and diseases due to excesses (obesity). In one instance, we lack an important hormone like insulin or in the other we have too much of something like fat. An understanding of this helps us to seek the right kind of experts to prescribe right kind of remedy. Most of the metabolic diseases are due primarily to a breakdown of homeostasis. In 1865 Claude Bernaud recognised the stability of our internal environment in the midst of changing external environment in which we live; he maintained that this stability of the internal environment is a key to a disease free healthy living. Walter Canon then coined the term homeostasis to describe various physiological regulatory systems available to us to maintain the constancy of the internal environment against the challenges from external events. Homeostasis is a concept developed to explain how all sorts of physiological variables in our body such as concentrations of salt, sugar and fat are kept within narrow ranges (normal levels) by the actions of various homeostatic regulatory mechanisms. In our spiritual life as well we need the right level of input and output to regulate our lives and keep it on an even keel. We may also suffer from too much or two little of something which is causing a problem for us in our spiritual journey. We may get bogged down to structural needs of an institutionalised local parish without realising the relational needs of the members of the family or the parish.

We need to identify our needs through cool reflection and analysis and seek right prescriptions and spiritual exercises. Man is not an island is a truism; we are made for community living. In the very beginning the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone.” Interdependence and interactions are essential component of our living. Although we live in big townships and cities we have very little community living. There is loneliness all around us. This loneliness can cause emotional stress and depression. There is much physiological and biochemical information available today regarding how emotional stress, depression, socioeconomic conditions and the sort of community in which we live can affect our health and wellbeing by developing diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.

Studies have very clearly indicated that psychosocial and emotional imbalances influence the development of diseases and outcome of therapy. Sir William Osler wrote in 1897: “In the worry and strain of modern life arterial degeneration is not only very common, but develops often at a relatively early age. For this I believe that the high pressures at which men live, and the habit of working the machine to its maximum capacity, are responsible, rather than excess of eating or drinking.” Therefore, there is strong influence between our emotions and health. Intense emotions such as anger, anxiety and elation affect the heart and circulatory system through nervous and neuro-endocrine involvement. Depression, hostility, lack of family support, and social isolation are very common in patients with heart disease. As a result, morbidity and mortality is several fold higher in this group of people. At the other end of the spectrum, apart from the unknown molecular reasons for the development of Alzheimer’s disease, there is a lack of family and social interactions in the genesis and development of this debilitating condition in old age. It is reasonable to suggest this is a relatively newly identified human condition and it has its origin in human alienation. Its intensity is increasing as we are moving away from human relationships within the family and without. It is a ‘relational anaemia’ of a sort and in old age the body and mind may revert to a state of forgetfulness of present painful realities and take refuge in distant childhood memories. Caring for these wonderful human beings with love and affection is one way of tackling this problem. What they need is human contact and someone to talk to more than expensive medicines.

Therefore, a calm and collective lifestyle is an important factor in developing and integrated healthy life. Spiritual directors may be able to help others in prescribing the right kind of spiritual exercises through meditation, prayer and community living. This aspect of our health also should be part of our pastoral care and often needs doctors, psychologists, teachers, lawyers, estate agents, business people, gardeners, and social workers helping the parish priest to deliver this service. We have these resources available in our communities; we need the humility in identifying these and making use of these for the common good our communities. It is time that every parish irrespective of denominational and religious boundaries develop voluntary pastoral care teams for meeting relational needs of the community. One of the most important needs is listening, we need people to listen. We need special skills to create trust so that people can open up to release their tension and to feel human again. We need to learn to live together and valuing the worthiness of others; otherwise we will be creating more and more behavioural disorders. We need to reinvent families and communities to cope with present day pressures and challenges of life. This is the life that God has given us; this is the place that God has placed us; this is the job that God has entrusted us and we need to live this out with God’s grace to its fullness.