20th Sunday after Pentecost – October 30, 2011
(Jn. 4: 46-53)
“And prayed Him to come down and heal his son.”
A reading of St. Luke’s Gospel will tell you that every step of the Lord was marked by an act of benefaction. A benefaction is the giving of a benefit. In Luke’s Gospel we see one miracle after another: curing diseases, raising people from the dead, preaching with the authority that only God could have. Everyone who came to him was helped, every sinner heard his consoling words, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.”
What our Saviour was to the sick and needy while He walked on earth, he still is to them today. We are assured of this because St. Paul tells us, “Jesus Christ, yesterday, and today: and the same for ever.” (Hebrews 13: 8) He is still our consoler, helper, Savior and dispenser of grace in good times and in bad. Just as He once healed the sick with His own hands, so now he allows them to receive His grace and His aid in a Sacrament which He instituted and established for the consolation of the sick. This is the Sacrament of Extreme Unction.
When we are ill and lying in pain and discomfort on our sickbeds we are in great need of consolation and aid and ease of mind. If we are very ill, thoughts of eternity fill our mind and our sins weigh heavily upon us. We are uneasy and anxious. We think of our coming judgment, and that is when we especially need a consoler to give rest to our suffering soul. We will find that consoler with Jesus. “Come to me, all ye that are heavily laden and weary and I will refresh you.” (Matthew 11: 28)
In His great charity, Jesus would not have left us without help and consolation in the most critical hour of our lives. That is why He instituted a special Sacrament for the sick and dying. St. James assures us that Extreme Unction is a Sacrament of the Church when he writes: “Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man: and the Lord shall raise him up: and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him.” (St. James 5: 14,15) These are the words in the Bible with regard to Extreme Unction. Unction means an anointing. The Apostle James would not have instructed the faithful to turn to the priests of the Church so they might receive God’s grace and forgiveness for their sins through this Sacrament if they had not been empowered and ordered to do so by Jesus Christ. Consider also that the remission of sins is one of the chief effects of this anointing and prayer. No man, not even the Apostles, could order or establish a means to forgive sins. Only Christ, who has been given all power in heaven and in earth (Matthew 28: 18), could do this. Therefore, Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Extreme Unction.
A partial listing of Church Fathers who wrote of this Sacrament includes: Tertullian (200 A.D.), Hippolytus of Rome (215), Origen (244), St. Ahtanasius of Alexandria (341), St. John Chrysostum (386), St. Ambrose (390), Cyril of Alexandria (412) and Pope Innocent (416).There were many others.
Having first been absolved of his sins in the Sacrament of Penance, the first effect of holy Unction is an increase in sanctifying grace, bringing the person closer to God. The patient also obtains the mental relief of his sins and alleviation of his suffering. One effect then is that holy Unction will assist the patient in regaining health. It is also the will of God that we do all we can to heal our sickness. We should honor and obey our physician because he, too, was sent from God.
“As sure as Christ is the son of God, so surely will He help a sick person in this Sacrament, if it is received in true faith, with a lively confidence and a contrite heart. Of course, many who have received Extreme Unction have not recovered, but that is not the fault of the Sacrament. They have either not received it in the proper spirit, or, it was not best for the salvation of their souls that they should be restored to health.” There are many who have led Godless lives and are thrown upon a sickbed to face eternity in order that they will reform and come to God. Many do come to Him in this situation, arriving at a knowledge of their sins and doing penance. Many of these God does not return to health because he knows that if they are healthy again they will return to their lives of sin and forfeit their inheritance, their salvation. (1 Peter 1: 3,4 & 10)
If a sick person is unconscious and unable confess his sins to the priest, the Sacrament of Extreme Unction will also forgive those sins as St. James has told us. Holy Unction makes us worthy to be received into heaven, into which nothing impure shall enter. (Apocalypse 21: 27) All baptized Catholics have this Sacrament available to them, whereby we may partake of all the graces and mercies of our Lord, and which will “give us aid and consolation, relief and ease of mind, purification from our sins and courage to combat victoriously the terrors of death. Amen” +++
We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass
Established in Perpetuity July 14, 1570, A.D., by Pope St. Pius V in his Bull Quo Primum Tempore.
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