‘Heal the sick…’

The Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick is given to those who are seriously ill, writes Cathal Barry

The Church teaches that Christ invites his disciples to follow him by taking up their cross in their turn (Mt 10:38).

“By following him they acquire a new outlook on illness and the sick,” according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

“Jesus associates them with his own life of poverty and service. He makes them share in his ministry of compassion and healing,” the key teaching document states. “So they went out and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them (Mk 6:12-13).”

The Catechism says that the “risen Lord renews this mission and confirms it through the signs that the Church performs by invoking his name”.

Signs

These signs, according to Church teaching, demonstrate in a special way that Jesus is truly “God who saves” (Mt 1:21; Acts 4:12).

The Church teaches that the Holy Spirit “gives to some a special charism of healing so as to make manifest the power of the grace of the risen Lord”.

However, the Catechism notes, “even the most intense prayers do not always obtain the healing of all illnesses”.

“Heal the sick!” (Mt 10:8). The Church, according to the Catechism, “has received this charge from the Lord and strives to carry it out by taking care of the sick as well as by accompanying them with her prayer of intercession”.

“She believes in the life-giving presence of Christ, the physician of souls and bodies. This presence is particularly active through the sacraments, and in an altogether special way through the Eucharist, the bread that gives eternal life and that St Paul suggests is connected with bodily health,” the document states.

The Church believes and confesses that among the seven sacraments there is one especially intended to strengthen those who are being tried by illness, the Anointing of the Sick:

“This sacred anointing of the sick,” according to the Catechism, “was instituted by Christ our Lord as a true and proper sacrament of the New Testament”.

Ancient times

Church teaching notes that from ancient times in the liturgical traditions of both East and West “we have testimonies to the practice of anointing of the sick with blessed oil”.

“Over the centuries the anointing of the sick was conferred more and more exclusively on those at the point of death. Because of this it received the name ‘Extreme Unction’. Notwithstanding this evolution the liturgy has never failed to beg the Lord that the sick person may recover his health if it would be conducive to his salvation.”

The Apostolic Constitution Sacram unctionem infirmorum, following upon the Second Vatican Council, established that henceforth, in the Roman Rite, the following be observed:

“The Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick is given to those who are seriously ill by anointing them on the forehead and hands with duly blessed oil – pressed from olives or from other plants – saying, only once: ‘Through this holy anointing may the Lord in his love and mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit. May the Lord who frees you from sin save you and raise you up.’”