Ministry of Healing

We have probably all heard someone say, “If I can only keep my children healthy, I shall be perfectly satisfied.”  In many cases, the parent is concerned purely with the physical mechanics of bodily health.  While that is important, there are two points being overlooked.  First, there are moral and spiritual factors that determine the right or wrong use of a healthy body.  Second, the moral and spiritual condition of any person has a significant impact on the proper functioning of the physical machinery.

Modern psychology recognizes that a person’s health depends upon mental attitude and spiritual condition as well as upon lungs and glands.  If a person is to be really well, all parts must be well.  If a person falls sick, all suffering parts need to be treated.  This is the basis of the Church’s Ministry of Healing.  It was part of the commission given by our Lord to the Church and exercised by the Church from the very beginning.

Our Lord healed the sick and instructed His disciples to continue doing so.  “And when He had called . . . His twelve disciples, He gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.”  He told the seventy, “heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.”  Even St. James who wrote the most practical epistle is specific, “Is any sick among you?  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 shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.”

In primitive times, it was customary for the sick to be brought to Church in beds or litters, and at a fixed place in the liturgy the Bishop blessed them and prayed for them.  Where they could not be brought from their homes, the clergy visited them for prayer and unction.  This was so common that Christian churches became known as “temples of healing.”  Early office books contained forms of prayer for the Bishop in consecrating the oil to be used for healing purposes.

Just as water is appropriate as a symbol for the cleansing effect of Holy Baptism, oil is appropriate as the sacramental instrument of spiritual healing.  Oil had long been used as one of the ingredients in many medicinal compounds.  Oil is the matter of this sacramental rite, as it was used by the Apostles under our Lord’s direction.  The form consists of prayer to the Holy Spirit for strength to overcome the attacks of illness.  The benefit is the refreshing and reinvigorating of spiritual powers which in their turn have their effect on one’s physical condition.  The recipient is any baptized person who may be sick.  The minister is ordinarily a priest although a layman can do so with the consecrated oil in the absence of a priest.  Normally the Bishop consecrates enough oil to be used throughout his diocese on Mandy Thursday.  In the administration of Unction the sign of the cross is made with the consecrated oil upon the forehead of the patient, together with appropriate prayers, and preferable after the reception of the Holy Communion.

Does this always cure a sickness?  It always helps but faith makes a great deal of difference.  Note it is not the amount of faith but the quality of it – for faith is the medium through which the benefits of any Sacrament are assimilated.  At the same time, the Church has never disparaged the curative efforts of medical science.  The priest and physician work together toward the same end.  Their ministrations are complementary, not opposed.  It is an unwarranted assumption to declare that health and sickness are purely physical states, and it is equally unwarranted to assume that they are entirely mental or spiritual.

A human being is a unit.  For purposes of analysis and discussion, we divide him into body, mind, and spirit.  Actually no one of the three can be separated from the other two.  Attempts to do so would result in a corpse, a disembodied spirit or something else.  It would not be a human being.  When something is wrong, the whole person is affected.  A physical impediment can result in mental or spiritual symptoms.  Likewise mental or spiritual impediments can manifest themselves as physical ailments.  A person is not really well until all three areas are well.  When a person is sick, prayer should be sought along with medical treatment.  Prayer is the means by which God’s power is released into human life, and that power always results in good.

During the Middle Ages, a different emphasis appeared along side Unction and was specifically connected with the preparation for death.  By the twelfth century it was commonly known as Extreme Unction and was resorted to only when death seemed to be imminent.  This practice has continued in the Roman Catholic Church where it was often called the “Last Rites.”

To distance themselves from the practice of indulgences, the Anglican Church re-established the practice of the Primitive Church during the Reformation.  The first English Prayer Book of 1549 contained a form for the administration of Unction in the office for the Visitation of the Sick.  The prayer which accompanied the anointing in this office contained the following:  “and vouchsafe for His great mercy (if it be His blessed will) to restore unto thee thy bodily health and strength, to serve Him;  and send thee release of all thy pains, troubles, and diseases both in body and mind.”  The intention was not only to fortify the soul at the point of death, but to counteract the effects of the spiritual debility which is an accessory to, if not the cause of, any sickness which may overtake us.

In our culture, attention leans in the direction of physical remedies for physical ills, and as a result, this sacramental ministration has been widely neglected.  It may be somewhat in reaction to the extremes of “faith cures” whose primary objective is the raising of money in much the same manner as indulgences.  A sane and reasonable explanation of the position of the Church will make what the Church offers more appealing.

Our Book of Common Prayer contains the office for the Visitation of the Sick and within that is a section for Unction or Laying-on-of-hands.  In this manner, we are conforming to the principles and practices of the Apostles and the example of our Blessed Lord.  The office for the Visitation of the Sick starts on page 308 and contains a formal service that includes a number of antiphons, Psalms and Collects from which to chose.  This allows the service to be applied more closely to the needs of the sick.  On page 315 a number of prayers are supplied to be read at the discretion of the Minister.  You will note there are prayers for Recovery, Healing, Thanksgiving, the Despondent and Visitors.  There is a prayer for when death seems imminent and a prayer for the point of departure.  The Litany for the Dying is a powerful service to be read when the person is committed to palliative care.  What follows are prayers to attend to the final moments of a person’s life.  Page 320 contains the “Unction of the Sick” to be applied either through anointing or Laying-on-of-Hands.  The second of these prayers is what is used in our public Unction service on the third Sunday of the Month.

It is important to remember that Spiritual healing is part of the normal ministry of every priest.  It is not restricted to those who may be possessed of unusual powers, because the Ministry of Healing is part of the commission given by our Lord to the Church.  It is not the priest who heals – Christ heals through the power of the Holy Spirit and the priest is His representative.  The priest administers Unction and the Laying-on-of-Hands just as he administers any sacrament because he is an agent for Christ.

A visitation can consist of the Office for the Visitation of the Sick along with confession and absolution and then Unction.  All of the above are not common in any one visit.  The book is designed to provide a sacrament that can be applied formally to people with whom the priest is not familiar.  The beauty of our church family is that we do know everyone in the parish.  The sacrament can be applied more formally if the patient desires or it can be quite informal as might be the case with real family.

The administering of this office is very dependent upon the strength and condition of the recipient.  It is unreasonable to expect a sick person to endure the entire office for the Visitation of the Sick and a complete Holy Communion service.  Visitations can be as brief as Unction preceding surgery or a family celebration for someone who is homebound.