Talking About the Body 3: When the Body Attacks Itself

My twelve-year-old son Dominic has Type-1 Diabetes, an auto-immune disease. An auto-immune disease is when the body's immune system - which normally fights off infection - turns against the body for some reason. With Diabetes the immune system attacks and destroys the beta cells in the pancreas which produce insulin, rendering the body incapable of regulating its own blood-sugar levels without outside assistance.

We still don't know exactly why the body does this. This is one of the major factors preventing the discovery of a cure for Type-1 Diabetes.

What does this do to any theology of the body? How can we trust something that can turn against itself so quickly, becoming its own worst enemy?

Part of the answer here, at least for me, is that there are so many things we just don't know. We think we have a handle on how our bodies work, and there has been incredible work done exploring our biology, but we are still largely in the dark about our own selves. We likely always will be, as there will always be more to discover.

One of the mottoes of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund in Canada is, "In Research We Trust." I love the research that is going into diabetes and other diseases, and our family raises funds and prays regularly for cures to be found. (I get angry when people suggest there is an inherent contradiction between faith and medical care. Such nonsense. Look at the names of most hospitals!) But as much as I have hope for medical breakthroughs, and will rejoice if and when a cure to diabetes and other diseases are found, it is not research into which I ultimately put my trust.

Terry Pratchett, speaking about dementia before he succumbed to the disease, said that everyone told him there will be a pill for it in five years. But he didn't believe it. He believed rather that in five years everyone would say there would be a pill for it in another five years.

With regards to the mystery of illness and the frailness of the human body we can work and hope for cures; we can pray for miracles; but we also must learn to accept our bodies for what they are and find ways to carry on through the baffling vicissitudes of our physical, emotional, and social existence. This includes the painful realities of suffering, sickness, and death. We can't live our lives in the vain hope that we will just find a pill to take care of these things.

My son is in hospital right now with Diabetes-related issues, which could have long-term impacts on his heart and kidney health. Please pray for him, and for our family.