This sacrament of healing has been in constant use in the Church. From the story of the life of our Lord as told us in the Gospels, we find that the record of miracles achieved was looked upon by Him as a sign that His mission was approved by God. In His answer to the disciples of John the Baptist He called attention to the wonders that He daily worked among the people, "the blind see, the dumb speak, the deaf hear, the lepers are cleansed, the dead rise again." In another place it is written of Him that on account of the unbelief of some of His hearers, He could do no miracle, "except that He healed the bodies of some that were sick." This last was evidently looked upon as so ordinary an event, that even their want of faith could not prevent it. Nor, apparently, does our Lord regard this part of His ministry as something particular to Himself, for He was at pains, when sending out the apostles in His lifetime, to give them power to heal them that were sick, and He foretold that when He had gone the same powers were to continue in the Church, so that things even greater than He had Himself done would be done in His name. Nor is it simply in the light of an extraordinary sign, but rather as an ordinary event, that the power of healing is spoken of by Him and by His apostles; they all seem to take it for granted. In the Acts of the Apostles this power is exercised with perfect freedom by Peter and John immediately after Pentecost. It is found in every record of the early Church, and no surprise is shown at its continued existence; but rather the impression is forced upon us that the ceasing of such a power would, indeed, have caused no little wonder.
So common was this gift that it could not even be regarded as an adjunct of sanctity, though it was that also. Not merely was this gift of healing to be committed to those whose nearness to God made them as potent to work good as the hem of the garment of Christ, but to every priest the same power was confided. Thus the gift of healing became part of the ordinary heritage of the Church. It became a sacrament: and because it thus came into the ritual and ceremonious usage of the Church, it was certain and wise that regulations would be made to safeguard its proper administration. The conditions which are now exacted are simply, therefore, to be interpreted as growing up round something that else from the very frequency of its repetition would be in constant danger of being abused. It is not to be supposed that the Church has forgotten the marvels committed to her for the use of her children. She has never allowed this miraculous power to lapse, or imagined that it was something that failed with the apostolic body. It was to be a persistent sacrament. In the prayers which compose its ritual performance, the idea of healing is repeated over and over again: "By this holy anointing and of His own tender mercy, may the Lord forgive thee whatever sins thou hast committed by thy sight, hearing, sense of smell, taste and speech, hands, feet "is the actual phrasing whenever the members of the body are anointed, but the idea running through the whole ceremony is rather the bodily ease that the sacrament is to give. Health to the body, forgiveness to the soul, is the burden of the ritual, and such also is in a true sense the burden of the life of Christ.
The care of my life is partly the preparing for my last end. No doubt I best prepare by living as I would be found when death comes to me, but it does not follow that every sickness is unto death, nor should I suppose that it is my business when I am ill to make no effort towards recovery. However great the pain, I should be content to remain here and do my best to use the wonderful body God has given me resigned to death, but resigned also to life. Nor should I be like those who imagine that the last sacraments are to be received when there is no more hope; rather they are to be given as soon as there is any danger at all, and it is to be remembered that they are given precisely that hope may come, precisely that I may have the courage to go on struggling for my life. The outward sign is, as in Confirmation, the consecrated oil, and this surely shows that what I most need is strength courage to face the alternatives of life and death, the long-drawn agony which must precede them both, the tremendous struggle, with my soul already exhausted from illness, to battle my way out to life. The kindness of those about me should nerve me against the weariness of giving in. For all this the sacrament is sufficient. It aids my body, it aids my soul. It gives me the grace to accept whatever God has in store for me, but it also is at pains to emphasize the importance of the body and the hope we have that it will be "restored to its former health." Let me, therefore, make use of this sacrament as a preparation for my last end,* and as an acknowledgement that even my body and its health is of value in God's sight, so that for it He was willing to institute a special sacrament.
- text taken from Meditations for Layfolk by Father Bede Jarrett, O.P.