We continue with part four of the answer to the question posed by a parishioner: “ Who is a person to call if somebody needs the last rites before death” if the Pastor is gone? Part one noted that although the Bishop entrusts a specific group of people – members of a parish – to the care of a particular Priest as Pastor, nevertheless every Priest as part of the diocesan college or body of Priests (called the presbyterate) stands ready to meet the pastoral needs of anyone should the Pastor be unavailable. And with most Priests shepherding multiple parishes plus having responsibilities beyond their communities, the lay faithful today appreciate just how common it is to have their spiritual needs met by the “team” of diocesan Priests! Part two exhorted you to instruct your family now that you want a Priest to be notified should you experience a health crisis and reviewed the many means by which I am able to be reached directly or with the help of our staff. Yet again this week the practical reality of what I have been describing played out! A family in a neighboring parish could not reach their Pastor to minister to their dying mother. The family then called me so I dropped everything and went to the Plum City Care Center to pray with the family and celebrate the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick for their dying mother.

Last week’s part three of the answer noted the scriptural indications of the care of the sick in the Old Testament and above all in the life and ministry of Jesus. Even a cursory examination of the New Testament reveals that Jesus’ many deeds of physically healing the infirm were a sign of the Kingdom of God and connected with the even more fundamental spiritual healing, namely, the forgiveness of sins. In turn, Jesus gave to the Apostles the power to heal through signs – anointing with oil (Mark 6:12) and laying on of hands (Mark 16:18). That the Apostles understood that Jesus did not intend this gift and mission of healing to be limited to the beginnings of the Church is clear from the actual practice described in the Letter of Saint James: “Is anyone among you sick? He should summon the priests of the Church, and they should pray over him and anoint [him] with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven” (5:14-15). With the vicissitudes of history and a growing emphasis on its penitential character in the Latin West, by the twelfth century the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick was not so much administered for the healing of the sick but as an immediate preparation for death. Reflecting this change of pastoral practice, this sacrament came to be referred to as “ Extreme Unction” – a name from the Latin meaning “final anointing” or “anointing at the very end (of life).” In English the complex of rituals with which priests accompanied the dying – including the actual anointing – were also commonly called the “Last Rites.”

Without denying the importance of this sacrament for those near death, discussions at the Council of Trent (1545-1563) demonstrated the desire to move away from its celebration exclusively for those whose death was imminent. However, it was the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) that enunciated the principles that finally led to this long-anticipated reform of the pastoral practice of this sacrament: “‘Extreme Unction’ which can also and better be called “Anointing of the Sick” is not a sacrament exclusively for those who are involved in the final crisis of life and death. There can therefore be no doubt that the point when a Christian begins to be in danger of death, either through illness or old age, is already a suitable time to receive it” ( Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, 73). The same Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church continued in the same vein: “ Through the sacred Anointing of the Sick and the prayer of the priests, the whole Church commends the sick to the suffering and glorified Lord that He might relieve them and restore them to health (see James 5:14-16), and indeed it exhorts them freely to associate themselves with the Passion and Death of Christ (see Romans 8:17; Colossians 1:24; 2 Timothy 2:11-12; 1 Peter 4:13), and so contribute to the good of the People of God” (11). In 1972 – with his Apostolic Constitution on the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick and the Latin typical edition of the revised Order of Anointing of the Sick and the Pastoral Care of the Sick – Blessed Paul VI brought to fruition the reform desired by Trent and Vatican II. A provisional English edition of the Order of Anointing of the Sick and the Pastoral Care of the Sick was approved in 1973. This temporary text was replaced in 1983 with the definitive English version which is still in effect today. To be continued!

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us! Saint Luke, pray for us!
Very Rev. Kevin C. Louis, STL