Dom Prosper Gueranger:
By the first four Sacraments our Saviour provided for the several spiritual necessities of man during this mortal life. Baptism gives him spiritual birth, Confirmation arms him for the battle, the Eucharist is his food, Penance is his cure. But the last moment of life — that most important and terrible of all, and on which depends eternity — does it not seem to require a special sacramental aid?
Could it be that our Redeemer, after so lovingly supplying us with a Sacrament to meet our other wants, would leave us unprovided when we are dying, that is, when we are passing from this to another life and are weighed down with bodily and mental sufferings? No: he has provided a Sacrament for the Dying. The grace of Redemption puts on a new form that it may visit and fortify us in our last struggle.
Even before His Passion He gave us some idea of the Sacrament He intended to institute for the help of the dying. When He sent His disciples before Him, that they might prepare the people for His preaching, He commanded them to anoint the sick with oil: they did so, and the result was the cure of them that were thus anointed (Mark vi. 13). But after His Resurrection, when our Redeemer was preparing the dowry of His Church, He gave her a Sacrament with which this Mother was to administer special grace and consolation to her children when in danger of death.
Oil is the symbol of strength: hence, the wrestlers of old used it as a means for acquiring activity and nerve. Our Saviour chose it as the matter of the Sacrament of Confirmation by which our souls, after being regenerated by Baptism, are strengthened for their future combats. The hour of death is a combat, but one so terrible that it stands apart by itself. It is then that Satan, seeing how the long-coveted prey is soon to be beyond his reach, redoubles his efforts to make it his own forever. The dying Christian, standing as he does on the brink of eternity, is exposed to two temptations: presumption and despair. In a few moments he will be before the Judge, whose sentence is irrevocable. The remnants of sin are still upon him, and clog his soul. How will he comport himself in that last combat on which depends the final success of all the previous ones of his life?
Is not this an occasion for a special Sacrament by which our Jesus may provide his combatant with the help so urgently needed? Yes, and here again it is oil. The first anointing was that of Confirmation, and it gave strength: and the last, or as it is called, Extreme Unction, is equally rich in power: it is the last application made to mankind of the Redeemer’s blood, “which flows in such abundance with this holy oil” (Bossuet, Oraison funebre de Madame Henriette).
Let us consider the effects of Extreme Unction, of which the Apostle Saint James speaks to us in his Epistle. What he there tells us, he had received from Jesus’ own lips. First of all, this Sacrament brings forgiveness of sins (James v. 15), forgiveness of those sins which the conscience, however diligent it may have been in its examination, had overlooked and which, nevertheless, injure the soul: and forgiveness of those remnants of sin, which continue after the guilt of sin has been remitted, like wounds which, though cured, are not quite closed and keep the patient weak. The holy oil anoints each of the senses, each has been the source of sin. Each now receives its special purification. These doors, which, up to this moment had been open to the world, are now closed, so that the soul can be all intent upon eternal things. Let the enemy come now, if he will. His attacks can do no harm. He expected to find his adversary the poor earthly-minded creature of old on whom he had inflicted hundreds of wounds, but lo! he finds a soldier of Christ, vigorous and brave. It is Extreme Unction that has worked the change.
But the effects of this Sacrament do not stop here. Though primarily instituted for imparting strength to the soul, yet has it the power of restoring health to the body. We learn this from the same Apostle Saint James. His words are these: “Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests 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” (James v. 14, 15). The sacred formula which accompanies each anointing in this Sacrament has therefore the power of restoring bodily health, at the same time that it drives away the remnants of sin, which is the chief cause of all man’s miseries, whether of soul or body. Such is the interpretation put by the Church on the words of Saint James, and we have continual proofs that our Divine Master has not forgotten the promise of two-fold efficacy which He gave to this Sacrament. Hence it is, that after having anointed the several senses of the sick person, the priest addresses God in earnest prayer, that he would restore strength of body to him or her whose soul has received the efficacy of the heavenly remedy.
Nay, the Church looks upon the restoration to bodily health as so truly a Sacramental effect of Extreme Unction, that she does not consider as miracles, properly so called, the cures produced by its administration. Let us, then, offer to the Conqueror of Death the homage of our thanks for this fresh proof of His compassionate love. He would Himself experience all our miseries, not excepting even death or the agony that precedes it. When on His Cross, and enduring every anguish, as though he were a poor dying sinner and not the Saint of Saints, He thought of our deaths and mercifully blessed our last agony with an outpouring of His Precious Blood. This was the origin of the beautiful Sacrament of Extreme Unction which He gave to his Church after His Resurrection, and for which we offer Him today our humble thanks.
