The same thing can happen with Church terminology. There even are some terms that have not been accurate since the Second Vatican Council but which many people continue to use. Every so often I get a call to go up to the hospital to give someone “Last Rites.” I always want to be sensitive to the needs of the patients and their families, but I do try to give a little education on the matter. Instead of Last Rites, I offer the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.
Anointing of the Sick is a sacrament of healing. For years, however, the sacrament was reserved for those who were near death. It was seen as a way of helping those who were about to die to prepare for Purgatory and Heaven. One result of that development was that the sacrament became frightening. Some people would not call a priest, even when a patient was critical, out of fear that “Mom would die of fright if a priest walked into her room.” I recently witnessed a family member who did not want the patient anointed because he was not sure he was dying. Fortunately he felt much better when I explained that it is not “Last Rites.”
Vatican II tells us that it is fitting to be anointed “as soon as any one of the faithful begins to be in danger of death from sickness or old age.” My father started receiving the sacrament annually about the age of 80, figuring that he qualified under the heading of “old age.” He lived to be 96 and was in surprisingly good health for most of those years. He believed that the grace of the sacrament helped keep him going. On the other hand, it is not something we receive for a head cold.
I try to tell people of three ways in which the grace of the sacrament can have an effect on us. It does promote physical healing. Generally we do not see a miraculous turnaround in a patient’s condition. This is not “faith healing” as we think of that term from someone putting on a show. Certainly God can work miracles, and he does use the sacrament in miraculous ways. But miracles are, by their very nature, not an everyday occurrence. God often uses this sacrament in another way, to give someone the strength to carry the burden of an illness, joining our sufferings to those of Christ on the Cross. Finally, as I often explain when called to the hospital, the ultimate healing is to be called home to be with Christ in heaven, away from this vale of tears. In that sense, this sacrament can be our last rites, and there are special prayers included when we reach that point.
Father H
