Anointing of the sick

Table of Contents  Sacrament of Anointment: Hope  What does Anointing Celebrate  God’s Loving Concern: A Gift to the Whole Person  How Do We Know God Really Cares?  The Healing Power of the Faith Community  Hope through Resurrection  Different Rites for Different Circumstances  Common Elements of Anointing  Healing in the Early Church  Anointing Becomes a Preparation for Dying  Original Purpose is Restored

Sacrament of Hope  The Sacrament of Anointing reminds us of the hope-filled reality of Jesus’ own suffering, death, and Resurrection, and allows us to reaffirm our faith in that reality.  The Sacrament of Anointing can be celebrated with a whole faith community, either as a part of a Mass or in a separate healing service.  The sacrament of Anointment of the Sick is a central part of the overall pastoral care the church gives to its weak and ill members.

What does Anointing Celebrate?  When People are sick or close to death, they often talk about a great sense of loneliness and isolation, or worry, depression, and helplessness.  The sacrament of Anointing offers a spiritual antidote to the damaging effects of illness.  Anointing by a priest or a bishop is a statement by the whole Christian community that Gods gracious concern does not leave us in time s of suffering, illness, and even death.

God’s Loving Concern: A Gift to the whole person.  God’s loving concern for sick, suffering, or dying people is the first and foremost truth celebrated in the Sacrament of Anointing.  In this sacrament the people God seek not only to remind sick, and suffering people about the unconditional love and forgiveness but also to reassure them that God cares about their well-being.  The Sacrament of Anointing acknowledges and celebrates the wholeness of the human person, paying attention to both physical and spiritual well-being

How Do We Know God Really Cares?  Two elements lie beneath the Christian belief in God’s compassion. Both come to us from the Gospels, and both involve actions and undertakings by Jesus: Jesus cast out demons, relieved the suffering of people afflicted with many kinds of physical ailments, and actually restored people to life Jesus himself experienced suffering, death, and Resurrection

How Do We Know God Really Cares? Cont.  Examples: In the book of Mark 5:21-43, Jesus brings the daughter of Jairus back to life and cure the woman who has a hemorrhage.  In the book of Matthew 15:21-28, Jesus cures a Canaanite woman’s daughter. Jesus also shows compassion for the Canaanite woman, who in Jesus’ day was marginalized person in society.  From these accounts, we know that Jesus himself, healed because he felt compassion for hurting people  He wanted to show people firsthand the power and depth of God’s compassion

The Healing Power of the Faith Community  When the Christian community brings God’s compassion and love to its members who are in pain or near death, as it does through the Sacrament of Anointing, the Community is acting as an instrument of God’s healing grace  The healing ministry of Jesus is expressed in a variety ways through the church’s Pastoral Care of the Sick.  This includes- visiting the sick, bringing Holy Communion to the sick, and praying for them during Mass and at other times.  Other issues may include the personal and social sides of sickness and truly resolved by healing

Hope through Resurrection  The sacraments of Anointing reminds us of the hope-filled reality of Jesus; own suffering, death, and Resurrection, and allows us to reaffirm our faith in that reality  Life, not death, has the final word: the God of Jesus is the God of Life, and Life not death, will always have the last word  When an entire community takes part in the sacrament of Anointing, all the members of the community can reaffirm Resurrection faith.  A sacrament of hope in its purest form  All of Jesus’ suffering as well as the sacrament of Anointing, stand as testimony to God’s loving presence in the midst of human suffering

Different Rites for Different Circumstances.  There are several different rites that are available for celebrating the sacrament of Anointing.  Offered with the wider faith community present  Offered to nonterminally ill persons  Offered to dying persons  Not just for Dying Persons o The differences allow for the varying circumstances and situations that naturally come up in the community.  Ex. There are even directives for baptizing and confirming sick or dying people, if they wish to receive those sacraments and have not done so before.

Common Elements in Anointing.  A number of elements are common to all forms of celebrating the sacrament of Anointing: 1. Prayers. 2.A Penitential Rite. 3.Reading from the Scriptures. 4.The Laying on of hands by the priest. 5.Anointing with oil on the forehead and hands by the priest. 6.Holy Communion.

Common Elements in Anointing. Cont.  Essential to the sacrament is the anointing by the priest of the person’s forehead and the hands wile praying these words: Through this holy anointing may the Lord in his love and mercy with the grace of the Holy Spirit. Amen. May the Lord who frees you from sin save you and raise you up. Amen.

Healing in the Early Church  As faithful followers of Christ, the Apostles and the first Christian communities carried on his healing mission  During the early period of sacrament’s history, evidence suggests that any Christian could pray for sick people or anoint them with oil or lay hands on them, calling on the Spirit to heal them  The oil, blessed by the Bishop, was used as an ointment on the injured part of the body or as a balm that covered the entire body.  Sometimes it was even Drunk!!  In many instances ill Christians were anointed with the blessed oil on a regular basis

Anointing Becomes a Preparation for Dying  Gradually, from about the 8 th to the 12 th century, significant changes in the sacrament of anointing occurred.  By this time some people had begun treating the blessed oil like a magic potion  This accounts partly for the ministry of Anointing becoming reserved for priests  During this period Anointing also became associated with the sacrament of Penance, which, was generally administered to excommunicated persons only when they were near death, therefore it was seen as a preparation for death rather then a sacrament of healing.  The sacrament was then called officially, an Extreme Unction- the last anointing.

Original Purpose is Restored  Today Anointing’s original purpose- healing- is once again emphasized  The official designation of Anointing as part of the Catholic church’s overall pastoral care and concern for sick and dying people strongly indicates this fact  In the Sacrament of Anointing, Catholics are reminded of God’s healing power that keeps flowing through Jesus into the Christian Community, the church  Participating in the the mysterious truth of Jesus’ life, suffering, sickness, and even death can be part of the healing journey toward resurrected life and wholeness.