Sacramentum Unctionis Aegrorum

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

Continuing with his series on the Sacraments, Father Kirby spoke on the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick at Our Lady of Grace this Sunday. Today's Scripture Readings for the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time included the following:

• God Never Forgets Us: Isaiah 49:14-15
• Rest in God Alone: Psalm 62:2-9
• The Lord Judges: 1st Corinthians 4:1-5
• Do Not Be Anxious: Matthew 6:24-34

Fr. Kirby opened the homily with a story about a fire in a warehouse. The firetrucks had arrived to put out the blaze, but it appeared all might be lost. The owner had some very important papers within his office inside the burning building. He repeatedly asked the fire chief to rescue those papers at all costs, even if it meant that the rest of the building should burn to the ground. The fire chief calmly responded that his men were doing everything possible to save as much as they could. The owner offered first $100K to rescue the papers and then $200K. Each time the response of the fire chief was the same. Finally a fire truck careened out of control and crashed through the side wall of the warehouse, reaching the office where the safe was located. The men in the truck grabbed the papers, put them on the truck and quickly backed out to safety. The owner was overjoyed to now have his papers and immediately wrote a check for $200K to the rescuers. He asked them for what they would now use the money. The driver of the fire truck responded, "We're going to get the brakes fixed." The moral of the story is that God will rescue us but often not in the way we envision.

In today's Gospel reading the Lord tells us not to worry about what we are to eat or drink or wear, for He knows we need all these things and He will provide. We however do not get to tell him how He ought to provide for our needs. The means, though, by which we invoke those graces are the Sacraments. Through them comes the ability by which we cooperate with God in His meeting our needs. One of these needs is often healing of the body, and the means of obtaining the necessary grace is the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. James 5:13-15 states:

Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? He should sing praise.Is anyone among you sick? He should summon the presbyters 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.

Fr. Kirby went on to explain that Protestants do not have the Sacraments, and thus do not have the graces of this Sacrament. When a Protestant minister or pastor meets with the sick and his family, it is for prayer, consolation and counselling. It is not to obtain the graces necessary for healing or for preparing for a holy death. While some Protestants like Pentecostals do a form of anointing of the sick, it is treated more as a magic formula: "You get sick, the Pastor anoints you, and you get miraculously healed." That can happen, but often does not. In fact, Fr. Kirby explained that recently at a healing Mass he had anointed more than 100 people and only three reports of divine healing were received. This account led me to recall what both my biological father (himself a Pentecostal) and my second AA sponsor of some 30 years ago said to me: we do not get to tell God how to heal. He usually chooses one of three ways: (a) divinely and instantaneously, or (b) through medical science or (c) by means of calling a person to be home with Him forever. The decision on which method should be used rests solely with God. We need to be purged of the arrogance and hubris that makes us think we can dictate to God: "The Pastor anointed him, now heal him immediately." My AA sponsor said that it may not be God's will to heal someone in that way, and I should learn a little humility, leaving the big decisions up to God because as an alcoholic I made a wreck of my unmanageable life.

Fr. Kirby also explained that one of the stumbling blocks he observed was at hospitals whose staff - educated solely in scientific materialism - often did not understand why a priest should be allowed into intensive care or the emergency room regardless of the condition of the patient. The idea that a man has a spiritual side which must be cared for is completely foreign to such staff. The one happy exception are Filipina nurses. Perhaps this is because the Republic of the Philippines is a Catholic country. No matter; when Father enters the hospital and a Filipina nurse is there, she automatically clears the way between him and the patient to perform the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick in order to prepare the man for whatever God may have in store for him: divine healing, healing by medical science, or a holy death.

ASIDE: my daughter-in-law, Abegael, is a nurse in the Philippines, so Father's story struck a resonant chord with me for I know how hard Abegael works and how devoted she is to her patients, and what a good Christian woman she is. END ASIDE

Father also gave a story about how he got sick one time in Rome and had to travel back to the US for surgery. The surgeon who would perform the operation had been called away from his vacation (or whatever) to work on Father, for which Father was grateful. Nevertheless, Father forbade the commencement of surgery until he himself made a good Confession (the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation) and received the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. Father recalled the surgeon pacing back and forth, but Father was insistent that he wasn't going under the knife until he made his peace with God.

Lastly, Father used the example of a terminally ill man given six months to live. Some people in this condition wait until the last minute to receive the Sacrament. This is a horrible practice because sometimes a priest may not be available at the last minute. Furthermore, often the person who waits to the last minute for requesting the Sacrament often ends up facing death in abject terror and that isn't what the Lord Jesus wants. The right thing to do is to ask for the Sacrament immediately on learning of the diagnosis so that the Church can accompany one on the journey to a happy and holy death if that is God's will.

In conclusion, the Sacrament is not about getting magically healed on the spot. It is about getting the graces needed to cooperate with God's will for one's life. That reminds me of something else my second AA sponsor would always say to me: "Lucius, you turned your will and your life over to the care of God as you understood Him in the 3rd step. That means that what God does with your life from here on out is none of your darn business. Your job is to cooperate with Him. As the 11th step says, '....praying ONLY for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.' That is all you are ever entitled to ask for."