We need healing. All of us, no exemptions. Everyone is prone to sin and suffering, disease and death. But as always, God in his Divine Providence, provides the help necessary to overcome these maladies. And Jesus instituted this constant help as Sacraments to bestow Grace of the first order: the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, and the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. In addition, the Sacrament of the Eucharist, though it belongs to the category of the Sacraments of Initiation, rightfully belongs too to the Sacraments of Healing. First, in our regular reception of Holy Communion, we receive the healing presence of Jesus; second, Eucharist as Viaticum (Via te cum – with you on your way) is the healing food or provision of those on the journey to the next life.
Penance and Reconciliation is the Sacramental Grace to help us obtain healing on account of sin while Anointing of the Sick and Viaticum confers healing on account of disease and death.
The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation forgives sins committed after baptism. The Sacrament of Baptism forgives all sins but can be received only once. Being prone to sin, as the Apostle St. John reminded us “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, the truth is not in us”, we need forgiveness to preserve the salvation we received in Baptism. That is why in the Six Commandments of the Church, it is prescribed that we go to confession at least once a year and we commit a grave sin when we we fail to do this by sin of omission. Positively, we can even make going to confession as a devotion. We take advantage of the Sacramental Grace given in Penance and Reconciliation which we can receive repeatedly.
The Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick confers Grace to those in grave illness or old age. Before, only those at the point of death (in articulo mortis) receives this sacrament which was called Extreme Unction. After Vatican II, because of its healing character, the Sacrament was extended to those in grave illness or in the circumstance of being in danger of death (in periculo mortis). If one recovers and then becomes seriously ill again or the condition of the sick worsens, the sacrament may be repeated. The Anointing of the Sick actually is a “3 in 1” sacrament because it includes the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist celebrated in succession. And when the sick can no longer confess and take communion, the Holy Anointing itself completes the Sacrament. In this context, if the Sacraments of Initiation begin, the Sacraments of Healing end the “earthly pilgrimage”.
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