There is a line in today’s gospel that catches my attention, “they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.” What we find here is the scriptural basis for the last sacrament many of us will someday receive: the sacrament of the sick.
Many Catholics grew up knowing this sacrament by a different name: Last Rites. As the old name suggest, this sacrament was given to someone who was dying. But as the gospel line points out, the disciples didn’t anoint the dying, they anointed the sick.
Eventually, the focus of this sacrament shifted from healing to the forgiveness of sins so being anointed became a deathbed ritual. Instead of providing for healing, this sacrament served as one’s final preparation for entering heaven. Consequently, anointing the sick was commonly called “Extreme Unction,” which means final anointing. Not until a person was dying would a priest be called to minister this sacrament. You could say that this sacrament became the spiritual equivalent of calling 911. Patients often became apprehensive when a priest showed up to visit them. “You don’t need to visit me today, Father, I’m doing fine! I’m not dying!”
Following Vatican II, this sacrament underwent a significant change. The Council Fathers revived the original intent of the sacrament, which was to anoint the sick. Its opening prayer sums up the purpose and origins of this sacrament: “My dear friends, we are gathered here in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ who is present among us. As the gospels relate, the sick are to come to him for healing; moreover, he loves us so much that he died for our sake. Through the apostle James, he has commanded us; ‘Are there any who are sick among you? Let them send for the priests of the Church, and let the priests pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick persons, and the Lord will raise them up; and if they have committed any sins, their sins will be forgiven them.'”
Unlike in the past, a person need not be dying to receive this sacrament. Rather, the recipient of anointing must be considered either seriously ill or advanced in age. Anyone who is infirmed or struggling with a debilitating illness such as alcoholism or bipolar depression may request the sacrament. So too can those who are about to undergo major surgery, just as I did when I had my heart bypass several years ago.
Unlike Eucharist, which one can receive daily, anointing of the sick is not ministered frequently. Those who have been anointed already are not usually anointed again for the same illness unless their condition has worsened.
When someone is dying, lucid, and able to swallow, the ritual that is to be celebrated is not the anointing of the sick but viaticum, which means “food for the journey.” The dying person is asked to profess his or her faith before receiving communion. If a priest is administering communion, he would also grant an apostolic pardon as part of the penitential rite.
Most of the time when I am called to the bedside of a person who is dying, however, that person is not lucid for any number of reasons. They may be heavily sedated or in a coma so is unable to receive communion, much less renew their baptismal promises. When that is the case, then I would anoint them and include the apostolic pardon, presuming that they are sorry for their sins.
Recall at the start of the gospel, Mark tells us that Jesus sent out the disciples two by two. That brings to mind an incident that happened last Sunday. A parishioner asked me to anoint the husband of a friend who was dying. The two of us then visited him and his wife and had a profound celebration of the sacrament. Unfortunately, the man who was dying was not fully aware of what was going on. He had been away from the Church since returning from Vietnam. I was saddened to learn that he had been ill for over three months for he had missed out on fully appreciating all that the sacrament could have offered him.
Our mission as Church is to do what Jesus did. On many pages of the gospels, we read of Jesus’ concern for the sick and after he ascended into heaven, the Church continued to be a sacrament of healing but out of ignorance, many continue to miss out on this opportunity to experience healing.
Chances are you also have friends or family members who have been away from the faith yet still think of themselves as being Catholic. I doubt Jesus is calling any of us to literally imitate any of the disciples, but he still invites you to preach a gospel of repentance by alerting those who have been away from the faith that there is this beautiful sacrament of healing and forgiveness that would do so much more for them if they ask to be anointed in the early stages of an illness, not on their deathbed.
Today’s gospel invites those who are seriously ill to request this healing sacrament at the onset of the illness so that forgiveness can truly be experienced in more ways than one. Some whom I have anointed have experienced emotional, spiritual and physical healing. Perhaps not in ways they expected to be, yet in ways that convinced many that this sacrament can and does touch people in incredible ways.
At the end of Mass, you often hear me say, “Go and announce the gospel of the Lord.” Well, this is one gospel that needs to be announced and you may be the very one that Jesus is counting on to announce it to someone you know who isn’t sitting here to hear it firsthand.