Illness and Caring for the Sick - #6

For centuries our church prayed fervently that God would cure us from illness and heal us when we were sick. A devotional Catholicism provided many avenues in our search for wellness. Year after year Christians went on pilgrimages to holy shrines to ask holy ones to intercede before God for them. Pilgrims flock to holy sites such as Beaupré in Quebec province (the shrine of St. Anne), as well as Lourdes, Fatima, and Knock (shrines dedicated to Our Lady in France, Portugal, and Ireland). The display of crutches testifies that powerful intercessory prayer works. Older Catholics can remember times when they asked to be blessed by the relic of a saint or asked a relative to bring back some Lourdes water or oil blessed by a saint's relic. The instinct for the holy seems to be deeply imbedded in us when we seek divine power and presence during times of illness.

The practices of devotional Catholicism dominated the terrain of holy remedies for the sick in the past because our church was impoverished in its sacraments for the sick. In fact, the only sacrament we had available was called extreme unction. We anointed persons in the most extreme stage of illness, i.e., then they were sick unto death (literally in danger of death, in periculo mortis). No wonder every family member avoided calling the rectory when this time came! No wonder every family member dreaded the sight of the priest at their door! The rationale for this anointing was simple. Christians were anointed with holy oil (first rites) when they entered life in the church at baptism. Christians would again be anointed with holy oil (last rites) when they exited life at death. Oftimes the sick and comatose person was unable to receive the Eucharist for the last time, the holy viaticum (literally Christ walking with you on the final journey).

The liturgical renewal birthed by the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) enabled the church to revisit the history and the practice of caring for the sick. We discovered biblical and historical precedents that gave insight into new liturgical formats to cover the complex variety of situations that make up the experience of being sick. In short, the church developed liturgical rites to meet he pastoral needs of the sick and the dying in Christian communities today.

The Pastoral Care of the Sick, Rites of Anointing and Viaticum (1983), and expansion of the 1973 Rite of Anointing the Sick and their Pastoral Care, is divided into three parts. Part 1 covers the pastoral care of the sick. It includes: (1) visits to the sick, (2) visits to a sick child, (3) communion of the sick in their homes and in a hospital or institution, (4) anointing of the sick outside and within Mass, (5) and anointing in a hospital or institution. Part 2 covers the pastoral care of the dying. It includes rites for the following occasions: (1) the celebration of viaticum within and outside Mass, (2) commendation of the dying, (3) prayers for the dead, (4) and rites for exceptional circumstances such as emergencies and the Christian initiation for the dying. Part 3 offers readings, responses and verses from sacred scripture.