Anointing of the Sick

1. Anointing of the Sick Matthew Alvidrez David Cruz Christopher Mojica Christian Ortega Vincent Uy

2. What Does Anointing Celebrate? • 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 God’s gracious concern does not leave us in times of suffering, illness, and even death.

3. What Does Anointing Celebrate? • The healing message of the Christian faith: • God loves and cares for us even when we are sick or suffering. • God heals our spirit and gives us comfort through the love of the Christian community. • Jesus’ suffering and death were not his final fate, and neither are they for us. Jesus’ resurrection gives us hope.

4. Healing the Whole Person • Physical illness does not just affect the body. • It often has a damaging effect on the state of mind and spiritual well-being. • Depression can lead to lack of energy. • Stress is linked to ailments such as ulcers and heart disease. • Psychosomatic • Illness that has both physical and emotional causes. • Comes from the Greek words psyche (spirit) and soma (body)

5. Healing the Whole Person • Sacrament of Anointing acknowledges and celebrates the whole of the human person. • Recognizes both physical and spiritual well-being. • Primary purpose is not physical healing. • The meaning of the sacrament is that God is offering the anointed person the grace to overcome anxiety and despair, to find comfort in an uncomfortable situation, to be healed and whole even if their body is diseased or broken. (Martos, Doors to the Sacred)

6. 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, the community is acting as an instrument of God’s healing grace. • The role of the Christian community in carrying on the healing ministry of Jesus is expressed through the church’s Pastoral Care of the Sick. • This includes visiting sick, bringing Holy Communion to the sick, and praying for them during Mass and at other times.

7. Personal and Social Sides of Sickness • Personal Side • Only we as individual persons feel our pain, discomfort, and anxiety. • Illness causes us to spend time asking ourselves why we are sick, what is truly important to us, what our life means, and other soul-searching questions. • Communal/Social Side • Illness is never completely personal. • An individual’s illness can affect a community or society. • Alcoholism

8. Personal and Social Sides of Healing • People who are ill rarely find healing in isolation. • Scientific research suggests that physical touch and presence of others are critical to the recovery of sick persons. • Sharing the burden of an illness is the first step in helping to bring about a cure. • The “cure” can involve actual physical healing or healing of the person’s spirit.

9. The Christian Community as “Wounded Healers” • In the Christian tradition, experiences of suffering and healing are linked to service to others. • Experiences of sickness and suffering can be healing in a sense if the lead to compassion for others. • For example, the best counselors for drug-dependent people are often formerly addicted people, who can find healing by helping others. • Jesus challenges all Christians to transform their suffering into healing for themselves and for those around them. • The Christian community is meant to serve as “wounded healers” - people affected pain, but still offer healing to others.

10. Different Rites for Different Circumstances • Different forms of Anointing allow for varying circumstances and situations that naturally occur. • “Offered with the wider faith community present.” • Celebrated with a whole faith community (Mass) • “Offered to nonterminally ill persons.” • Can be celebrated by people who are seriously, but not terminally, ill. • “Offered to dying persons.” • Brings a special comfort and peace to those persons who suffer from a terminal illness or are close to death.

11. Common Elements in Anointing • These elements are common to all forms of Anointing: • Prayers • Penitential rite • Reading from Scripture • Laying on of hands by the priest • Anointing with oil on the forehead and hands by the priest. • Holy communion • Praying these words is essential to the sacrament: • “Through this holy anointing may the Lord in his love and mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit. Amen. May the Lord who frees you from sin save you and raise you up. Amen.”

12. History of Anointing • The Apostles and the first Christian communities carried on Jesus’ healing mission. • “So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them” (Mark 6:12-13) • During the early period of the sacrament’s history, evidence suggests that any Christian could pray for sick people, anoint them with oil, or lay hands on them, asking the holy spirit to heal them.

13. History of Anointing • From about the 8th to the 12th century, changes in the sacrament occurred. • People treated the oil as a magic potion. • This resulted in Anointing becoming reserved for priests. • The sacrament of Anointing was seen as a preparation for death rather than an act of healing. • It became known as Extreme Unction, which means “last anointing”. • Anointing was associated with death until the Second Vatican Council where the original purpose, healing, was restored.