The Olive Press of Suffering
Anointing of the Sick within the Sacramental Design
In his latest post, Peter Cermak spoke about how the sacrament of Confirmation seems little understood. This sacrament, “in particular seems to fade into the background” of our lives, as if it was simply a quaint coming-of-age ritual instead of the spiritual passage through the blazing fire of faith or the unbloody presage of Christian martyrdom that it is. In a proverbial about-face, however, I would like to turn and address that sacrament which seems to loom beyond the horizon of our lives—the sacrament once formally known as Extreme Unction, which we now call the Anointing of the Sick.
This strange and mysterious sacrament comes from stories about twelve men who, in the name of Jesus Christ, and through his authority, “cast out many demons, and anointed with oil [emphasis added] many who were sick and cured them” (Mk 6:13). Besides the rich symbolism of olive oil in Scriptures and the various examples of Christ healing the sick, this is the only passage in the Gospels where we find the Apostles healing through the medium of oil. A tenuous basis for one of the seven sacraments, one might claim. But the clearest Biblical record of Anointing of the Sick is found outside of the Gospels in James 5:14-15:
“Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.1
It is this example that indicates to us the earliest practice of Anointing of the Sick, even if it is found in looser form than what we see today. The essence and purpose, however, are the same: to supply to those who are suffering from physical ailments the grace and strength they need to unite their suffering to Christ’s own passion and death.
It is clear throughout Christ’s ministry, though, that while his primary goal was the spiritual healing of souls, he also deeply cared for our material healing as well. The material healing was evidence of the inner healing within the sick man or woman, but it was also directly intended. Intrinsic to Anointing of the Sick, then, is also the prayerful hope that, if it is God’s will, one might also be physically healed, or at least granted temporary alleviation from pain.
Additionally, although this sacrament is usually administered to those who are dying, and poignantly so, it has an application to our sacramental lives broader than preparation for death. Allow me to quote from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
“The special grace of the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick has as its effects: the uniting of the sick person to the passion of Christ...the strengthening, peace, and courage to endure in a Christian manner the sufferings of illness or old age; the forgiveness of sins...the restoration of health, if it is conducive to the salvation of his soul; the preparation for passing over to eternal life.” (CCC 1532)
Anointing of the Sick extends beyond the threshold of death, then, even if it’s where most of us tend to receive it, and is more so an active participation in the passion of Jesus Christ than a simple preparation for our passing from this life. It was only in its sojourn through the Medieval and Scholastic period that this sacrament, for prudential reasons, became limited to those who were dying, and this more limited model became cemented as the default over the next millennium until its broader nature was brought out again by Vatican II (with precedence from the Council of Trent, which had pushed back against the Scholastic tendency to limit the sacrament to those who were not just sick but dying).2 Either way, the Church was always aware—if not in practice, then in theory—that this sacrament had a greater role in the sacramental life than death prep.
Yet why does this sacrament entail oil and anointing? In ancient times, it is clear that oil was regularly used, among other things, for restoration and healing. We see evidence of this, for example, in the parable of the Good Samaritan: “He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them” (Lk 10:34). But we never see Christ healing with oil, do we? Why not? It is no coincidence that Christ’s name comes from the Greek word christos, a translation of the Hebrew word mashiyach (“messiah”), which means anointed one (i.e. anointed with oil). Christ is the bread of life, yes, but he is also the oil of anointing.3 While Christ is present to us in the Eucharist in a unique way (it is his body and blood), his presence is still deeply symbolized in the oil of anointing, which is poured out over us as members of His mystical body.
As anointed members of Christ’s mystical body, Anointing of the Sick mysteriously enables us to unite our suffering to Christ’s salvific Passion. It is not simply a passive receiving but an active participation (cf. Cor 12:9). Through this we can declare like St. Paul, “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Col 1:24). According to A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture, Paul’s sufferings, as well as our sufferings, when united to Christ, “are the vehicle for conveying the Passion to the hearts and souls of men, and in this way they bring completeness to the Passion in an external way.” Christ’s Passion lacks nothing in and of itself, but by uniting our suffering to His, and aided by the grace of the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, we can communicate His salvific sacrifice to the world.
As each of us takes our first breaths of divine life in the Trinity through our Baptism, we are anointed with oil—we are Christianized—and adopted as children of God through Christ; yet even while we choke on sickness and death, the oil from Anointing of the Sick signifies our participation in the suffering of Christ. The greater an olive is pressed, the richer the oil is that it produces. In like manner, the greater one is pressed by suffering, the greater opportunity one has to offer up a rich oil for the strengthening and healing of the Church.
“You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”
~ Psalm 23:5 ~
This essay is not intended to be a defense of the Catholic canon of Scripture, so for those of you who reject the “epistle of straw,” I kindly ask that you pocket your protestations for now and read on. I’m of course happy to address our canonical differences elsewhere and I invite you to reach out with any questions about Catholicism.
See Charles Gusmer, And You Visited Me: Sacramental Ministry to the Sick and the Dying (New York: 53 Pueblo Publishing Company, 1984), 33-34.
There is even evidence found in the Didache that during the First Century A.D. the oil was blessed in a manner similar to the Eucharistic blessing, which would seem to further indicate oil’s prominent symbolic role within the Paschal mystery. For reference, see Kurt Niederwimmer, The Didache: A Commentary, trans. Linda Maloney (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998), 165.
Thank you for this beautiful essay James!