When should the anointing of the sick take place?
The proper time for receiving this holy anointing has certainly arrived when the believer begins to be in danger of death because of illness or old age.
Each time a Christian falls seriously ill, he may receive the Anointing of the Sick, and also when after he has received it, the illness worsens. (1528-1529)
Who is the minister of the Holy Anointing?
Only priests (presbyters and bishops) can give the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick. (1530)
What are the benefits of the Holy Anointing?
In the Anointing of the Sick, the Holy Spirit unites the sick to the passion of Christ for their good and that of the church; prepares them for passage to eternal life; grants forgiveness of sins if the person is unable to receive the Sacrament of Penance; restores health if this be God's will. (1532)
What is Viaticum?
This is communion given to the dying. It comes from the Latin "with one on the way."
Is healing assured?
God gives certain saints and others the charism of healing.
Yet all the sick are not cured despite fervent prayer. Read 2 Cor 12:9.
Our pain can be redemptive. For the Christian, suffering has meaning. Read Col 1:24
What is the sign of the anointing?
Oil blessed by the bishop is used. The practice dates back to instructions from St. James. Read Jas 5:14
What are the effects of the sacrament?
..a renewal of confidence in God ...comfort to cope with illness ...union with Christ's passion. The prayer of the church sanctifies all the members of the church who witness it.
69 What is the sacrament of Anointing?
The sacrament of Anointing is the sacrament of spiritual comfort for the gravely ill whose illness entails danger of death. "It is not a sacrament for those only who are at the point of death. Therefore, as soon as any one of the faithful begins to be in danger of death from sickness or old age, the appropriate time for him to receive this sacrament has certainly arrived." (Liturgy, #73).
Christ's disciples followed Jesus in setting off to preach repentance, "and they cast out devils, and anointed many sick people with oil and cured them" (Mark 6:13). This practice was continued in the early Church: "If one of you is ill, he should send for the elders of the church, and they must anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord and pray over him. The prayer of faith will save the sick man and the Lord will raise him up again; and if he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven" (James 5:14-15).
In the Middle Ages the Rite of Anointing became closely associated with the sacrament of Reconciliation and the rigorous penances which accompanied it. The resulting practice of delaying the confession of sin to the deathbed led also, therefore, to the "sacrament for the sick" becoming the "sacrament for the dying." It became too closely identified with impending death.
Make no mistake about it: Sickness and death are a curse. And that is how the Bible views them. The author of the Book of Genesis clearly identifies suffering and death as the cursed consequence of our first parents' sin. We hear God speaking to Adam and Eve. To the woman he says: ". . . you shall give birth to your children in pain . . . ," and to Adam, "accursed be the soil because of you. With suffering shall you get your food from it . . . until you return to the soil as you were taken from it." (Genesis 3).
And so, when Christ came on earth, he described his mission like this: "The blind see again, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised to life..." (Matthew 11:5). His victory over sickness and death was a sign of his victory over Satan. "He cast out the spirits with a word and cured all who were sick. This was to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah: 'He took our sicknesses away and carried our diseases for us"' (Matthew 8:17). As someone put it: "Every time you meet Jesus in the Gospels he is either actually healing someone, or has just come from healing someone, or is on his way to it."
And it did not end with Christ. On the contrary, he gave that very same mission to his Church assuring his disciples that "they will lay their hands on the sick, who will recover" (Mark 16:18). There is here, perhaps, only a hint of his future intentions. But it is quite clear from the Gospel as a whole that Christ intended his disciples to exercise a special ministry to the sick.
The final instruction of the Lord to his apostles regarding the sick is made known to us in a well-known passage in the letter of Saint James. The Council of Trent declared that this passage teaches us that Christ left his Church a special sacrament for the sick ‹ an anointing with oil accompanied by prayers, to be administered by the priests of the Church for the healing of the sick.
For the first 12 centuries of the Church's history, the emphasis in this sacrament was on healing of body as much as of soul. Around about the 12th century, however, some theologians in the Western Church began describing the sacrament of Anointing as the Last, or Extreme, Anointing, a preparation for death and final glory.
The Second Vatican Council, in its document on the liturgy, quite deliberately reversed this trend: "Extreme Unction which may also and more fittingly be called Anointing of the Sick, is not for those only who are on the point of death...." For centuries this sacrament has been considered as a sacrament for the dying only. Certainly, the Lord comes in this sacrament to those who are awaiting the final and total healing in the heavenly kingdom. But we once again have a sacrament for the sick in which Christ reaches out to bring comfort and relief to all.
Check your understanding of this chapter. (Do the self-correcting quiz #69)
70 What are the effects of the sacrament of Anointing?
The sacrament of Anointing prolongs the concern which the Lord himself showed for the bodily and spiritual welfare of the sick. By the gift of the Holy Spirit the sick person is enabled not only to bear suffering bravely but also to fight against it. By raising up the sick person, anointing leads to a supernatural victory over sickness: the sick person is united with Christ's victory.
The anointing may lead to the restoration of bodily health if this is beneficial to the sick person's salvation. This lifting up prompts the sick person to praise God as the deaf man praised God after being cured by Jesus (see Mark 7:31-37).
If necessary, the anointing also forgives sin. This forgiveness is part of the spiritual healing produced by the sacrament, just as Christ's work of healing was accompanied by the forgiveness of sins (see Mark 2:1-12).
What does the sacrament of Anointing do for a person? The revised Rite, published in 1972, gives us the answer: "The sacrament provides the sick person with the grace of the Holy Spirit by which the whole person is brought back to health, trust in God is encouraged, and strength is given to resist the temptations of the Evil One and anxiety about death. Thus the sick person is able not only to bear his/her suffering bravely, but also to fight against it. A return to physical health may even follow the reception of this sacrament if it will be beneficial for the sick person's salvation. If necessary, the sacrament also provides the sick person with the forgiveness of sins and the completion of Christian penance" (Section 6).
When we are ill we send for the doctor. Why? Because we hope that he will be able to restore us quickly to health. We hope that he will be able to give us something which will either take the pain away, or at least give us some relief from it. Catholics are now encouraged to treat the priest in the same way. The sacrament of Anointing will relieve those temptations which come to us when we are ill; and how much easier it will be if we give God a chancel We need help to carry out our apostolate as a sick person. This, the sacrament gives us. By it, our sins are forgiven, our faith is renewed, we enter into that phase of life (as a sick person which offers us the opportunity of exercising another form of service to God which, perhaps, we have not experienced before. The frailty of old age is recognized too. Old persons may not be desperately ill, but their years do impose burdens that differ from the ones they had when they were younger. Again, the sacrament helps and strengthens them to carry out the apostolate of old age.
Sick children have also special difficulties to overcome. The exuberance of youth is often curtailed to a considerable extent through illness, and some children find this hard to understand and hard to bear. They want to be up and active. Instead, they are confined to bed and a life of boredom. How fitting, then, that the sacrament of Anointing should be administered to them!
What, then, are the grace-filled effects of this sacrament? The best answer is that it brings a strengthening of the whole person. It is a fact that sickness brings with it a marked lack of enthusiasm for the gifts of the Spirit. There is a weariness and lack of vigor which gradually wears us down and can even destroy us. But in this sacrament the Lord grants us the support needed to live the life of the Spirit to the full; he, as it were, puts us together again. And that may mean both a physical and spiritual healing.
71 How is the sacrament of Anointing celebrated?
For the celebration the family should prepare a table, or the corner of a table, in the sickroom, covered with a white cloth on which there should be a crucifix and two lighted candles. There should also be a little bowl of water. The priest will bring the rest.
All those who share in the work of caring for the sick and dying, family, nurses, and others, share, too, in the celebration of the sacrament, in which the sick person is given victory over suffering.
The sacrament of Anointing is administered by anointing the sick person or persons on the forehead and hands with blessed olive oil (or vegetable oil if necessary) and saying once only these words:
The simple statement made by the sister of Lazarus "Lord, he whom you love is sick" expresses, surely, the absolute trust we should have in our Savior. In the case of serious sickness, he is ready with his healing oil, to comfort us, to bring us strength, to be fit to share with him his Passion and, ultimately, the triumph of his glorious Resurrection.
The sacrament can be administered at home, when the sick person is in bed; and a home Mass, according to diocesan regulations, may be celebrated during which the sacrament is given. It can also be administered in church during Holy Mass, so that the sick persons or those who are aged can, in the presence of their brothers and sisters in the parish, share the Church's sacramental life with those assembled.
Let us suppose that the sacrament is given at home, the more usual way. When the priest enters, he asks a blessing on the house, by invoking the peace of Christ. He then sprinkles the room with holy water saying: "Let this water call to mind your baptismal sharing in Christ's redeeming Passion and Resurrection."
The priest explains, briefly, the significance of the sacrament and then asks all present to prepare themselves for its reception, by calling to mind their sins. The "I confess" is recited by all and absolution given by the priest. A passage from Sacred Scripture is read, dealing with sickness and the Christian attitude toward it. Then a litany is recited which asks for God's blessing on the sick in general and the person receiving the sacrament in particular.
Our Lord said, "They will lay their hands on the sick who will recover" (Mark 16:18). In imitation of our Lord, the priest does just this, without saying anything; a symbol of the spiritual recovery given by the sacrament. (If the sick person wishes to confess privately, he or she does so at this time.)
The sick person is anointed on the forehead and the hands, the priest meanwhile praying that God will grant forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation.
A beautiful prayer follows, asking God to restore health, spiritual and physical, to the sick person, to heal any anguish of mind or body and restore him or her to the Lord's service in the Church.
The Rite ends with the recitation of the Lord's Prayer by all who are assembled. Then the priest gives Holy Communion, if it is then to be received. Finally the following lovely blessing is given: May God the Father bless you. May God the Son heal you. May God the Holy Spirit enlighten you. May God protect you from harm and grant you salvation. May he shine on your heart and lead you to eternal life.
Through this holy anointing may the Lord in his love and mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit. Amen. May the Lord who frees you from sin save you and raise you up. Amen.
72 Why must we suffer and die?
Sickness and suffering are the result of original sin. The final suffering is death, which completes the process of pain and the deterioration of the body.
Christ overcame these consequences of original sin by identifying himself with suffering and death, but then rising above them. He was lifted up by the Father to a life of resurrection. By faith and the celebration of the sacraments Christians identify themselves with Christ's glorious death.
At the moment of physical death, then, Christians are recognized by the Father as his children; he lifts them up as he raised up Jesus. Death becomes our final achievement in our ascent to God. Like the repentant thief crucified by Christ's side, the dying person is acknowledged in the words: "Indeed, I promise you . . . today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43).
The Jews, like most people in the ancient world, regarded sickness and suffering as God's punishment for sin. This attitude is crude and primitive. But it is also an attitude which has changed remarkably little!
For the fact is that a surprising number of people regard sickness in others as an intolerable nuisance. If you are ill, most people just don't want to know you. You may not be explicitly excluded from normal society; but it is made clear, none the less, that you must expect to take the full consequences of suffering on your own shoulders. The implicit suggestion, even, is that your sickness is probably your own fault.
The fallacy of such an attitude is only fully exposed, of course, when sickness strikes oneself. But by then it is ho late. The attitude of society, which each one of us has helped to form, has matured into a rigid intolerance of suffering.
The Christian conviction, on the other hand, is that Christ took the full consequences of suffering on his own shoulders. He carried the Cross. As his followers, we can only make every effort to reduce the weight of that Cross, to make up by our suffering, as Saint Paul tells us, "all that has still to be undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the Church" (Colossians 1:24).
By our suffering, in other words, we share in the central mystery of our faith, the death. and Resurrection of Christ. This truth does not ease the physical pain of suffering. Indeed, it makes the problem of suffering even more difficult to unravel. Suffering forces us to enter more deeply into a mystery which we can never fully penetrate.
This Catechism, however, in bringing up the question frequently. has reflected Christ's own preoccupation with suffering. The truth is that there is no easy answer that makes strong faith and deep reflection unnecessary. As the Church reminds us, for the Christian, as for the atheist, "it is in the face of death that the riddle of human existence becomes most acute." (The Church Today, $18).
There is a wonderful prayer by Teilhard de Chardin which will help us to face the experience of suffering in a Christian way:
"When the signs of age begin to mark my body (and still more, when they touch my mind); when the ill that is to diminish me or carry me off strikes from without or is born within me; when the painful moment comes in which I suddenly awaken to the fact that I am ill or growing old; and above all, at that last moment when I feel I am losing hold of myself and am absolutely passive within the hands of the great unknown forces that have formed me; in all those dark moments, O God, grant that I may understand that it is you, provided my faith is strong enough, who are painfully parting the fibers of my being, in order to penetrate to the very marrow of my substance and bear me away within yourself...."
CRACKERBARREL
Open your Bible and have someone read aloud and slowly the following Scripture: Mark 2:3-12
This gives an account of Jesus' healing power both of the body and of the soul. Going around your small group, address the following questions:
1. Why didn't Jesus heal the man directly as the crowd expected?
2. What relationship do you see between sin and health?
3. Are shame, guilt, embarrassment and remorse good qualities? bad? or indifferent?
4. What are your views of faith healing?
5. Discuss your understanding of or experience with the Anointing of the Sick.
6. Why do you think Catholics have been so reluctant to be involved in any form of faith-healing?
7. Do you subscribe to a holistic notion of healing which includes the body, mind and soul?