of being a wounded healer

Dr. James Loreto C. Piscos

Reconciliation and anointing the sick are said to be sacraments of healing.

Healing is important in our lives. It is where we can find well-being and quality life.
Healing is different from curing. Healing is a process of taking into account the
totality of the person. The pains caused by the relationship of one person to another is
part of the healing process. Thus, unlike curing that concerns only the physical
element of the individual, healing includes the psycho-social, the spiritual and the
relational part of the person.

A Brief Historical and Theological Inquiry on the

Sacrament of Reconciliation
The whole of the New Testament talked about metanoia, or the change of
heart. Jesus called people for conversion as well expressed in Mark 1:15 The time has
come; the kingdom of God is at hand. Change your ways and believe the Good news.
Luke highlighted in his narrative the many stories about forgiveness, seen in
the story of the prodigal son (Lk.15:11-32), the pharisee and the tax collector
(Lk.18:9-17) and even the pericope on Jesus and Zaccheus (Lk.19:1-10).
Like Mark and Luke, Matthew and John showed in their gospels that the heart
of Jesus preaching about the good news is conversion, and that entails the reality of
forgiving.
Jesus sufferings and death has appeased divine wrath, satisfied justice, and
had won salvation for all humankind. But, it will not stop there. Faith is both a gift
and a task. Our faith in the resurrection made us enjoyed the gift of being children of
God, and yet we are tasked to enter into a better relationships where there will be no
more oppression, domination and cruelty. God, the Abba has the mercy that is
everlasting, and we are called to be like the father of the prodigal son who is even more
prodigal in his love.
In the early church, the whole community is the one who forgave the sinners.
The earliest ritual we have for the sacrament of reconciliation is found in the writings
of Hermas. The approach of Hermas became normative for the next nine centuries,
and that is reconciliation is a public act within the church community, and that it can
be undergone only once in a lifetime.

There are three major sins that caused the early church a considerable
difficulty: apostasy, murder and adultery. Not very local church handled them in the
same way. In fact some people considered them unforgivable. But they were always
found in any of the sin lists
Penance was rare in the early church. It was usually reserved for grave sins,
and could be received only once in a lifetime. To undergo penance one was admitted to
the order of penitents. This marked a person for life. Once a penitent, always a
penitent. One became subject to special and severe discipline. One was received into
the order of penitents only by a bishop. From that moment one incurred both ecclesial
and (after 313) civil disabilities. One was barred for life from clerical service. In many
churches, one was forbidden to marry or to live ones spouse. Access to many
honorable public offices were denied. After admission into the order of penitents, the
repentant sinner had to complete the penance given before being reconciled with the
church. This usually lasted for many years. The majority of the Christian people never
underwent the process of penance. This does not imply they were unaware of their
sins. A reading of early Christian prayers makes one realize that they were well aware
of their sinfulness. But they sought other means of forgiveness than public penance.
Thus, for most Christians, the Eucharist was where they reconciled themselves to
God.
By the end of the 5 th century, the practice of public penance was dwindling
away. Its very severity caused it to be shunned by most, or accepted only when was at
the point of death.
In the 6th century, came the rise of Celtic penance where from them originated
the practice of reconciliation, which is private in character. The penitential practice of
the Celtic Church came from the monasteries which practically replaced the dioceses
in Ireland. It is true that the monks confessed one another with the view to spiritual
growth. These confessions would include everything from grave to light sins to no
matter at all. The practice of frequent confession was now practice, and the idea was it
was used as a means of growth and not just atonement.
The practice was picked up in the later period, and in the high middle ages, the
ritual became penance wherein the emphasis was laid on the power of the priest to
give absolution, and to exercise the seat of being a judge what to give to the penitents
as a way of atoning their sins. Later, it became a venue for abuse as seen in the
indulgences.
Vatican II brings back the concept of reconciliation into the sacrament. The idea
is the gesture of confessing is not just doing penance, or any individualistic beliefs of
private salvation but on the community spirit of being a church. Reconciliation is
about relationships, not just to our private God, but to the people around us who

search for well-being in life. Christ the model is including and embracing each one as
persons regardless of ideology, belief, status in society or race. Thus, the rite of
reconciliation is a symbol of oneness, where we are in harmony with ourselves, with
others, the world we live in and God.
Sacrament of Anointing the Sick
Popular Understanding
In the recent past, there had been a dramatic shift in the understanding of the
anointing the sick. The Council of Trent canonized this sacrament as Extreme Unction,
which effectively made it as a sacrament of the dying. One common way of referring to
it was the last rites, which shows to what extent it was seen as a preparation for
death. Some priests refused to administer it unless they though the person was
actually about to die. This tendency is already present in the Middle Ages. There we
find it linked with penance and communion, administered as viaticum.
Despite Vatican IIs efforts to link it once again to the sick, many people still
think in the older categories. In fact, there are stories of people getting frightened and
actually suffering heart attacks at the sight of a priest, thinking that his presence was
a sure sign that they were about to die.

A Brief Biblical and Historical Survey

If we look at the New Testament evidences we can find two maajor sources that
are helpful in understanding the sacrament of anointing. The first is the apostolic
ministry of healing seen in Mark 6:13. It says, They drove out many demons and
healed many sick people by anointing them. The second is the presbyteral rite of
healing mentioned in James 5:14-15: They shall pray for him, anointing him with oil in
the name of the Lord. The prayer said in faith will save the sick person; the Lord will
raise him up and if he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven.
The mention of anointing in the gospel of Mark appears to reflect a Palestinian
custom of a medicinal or exorcistic nature taken over by the followers of Jesus. This
passage is often used as prefiguring the sacrament of anointing. The passage from
James deals with the universal role of prayer in Christian life. Is anyone in trouble? Is
anyone of good heart? Is anyone sick? Each of these situations call for prayer. The
sick should call for the presbyters, who will anoint the person with oil and pray over
him.

Oil was used in the rite of anointing. During that time of the early apostolic
church, people asked for oil to cure almost every physical, mental and spiritual
disorder: paralysis, lameness, blindness, speech and hearing impediment, fevers,
headaches, pains in various parts of the body, abscesses, sores, bites, poisoning,
derangement, mania, possession, enchantments and spells. The oil was felt to be
medicinal. People, however, did not request oil or anointing if they felt they were dying.
When close to death, they asked for reconciliation and the Eucharist.
It was in the Middle Middle Ages that the sacrament of the dying was
transformed from a rite for the sick to the rite for the dying. It was here that the
administration of oil began to be reserved to the priest. As this happened, priestly
functions were organized so that the anointing was linked with other priestly functions
such as viaticum and the deathbed reconciliation of penitents. As a result of this
change, anointing in the Middle Ages began to be marked by two characteristics which
color the sacrament of anointing to this day: a spiritualizing tendency, with the
remission of sins as a principal effect and seeing the sacrament as one for the dying
(because of the association with penance and viaticum).
Theology of Anointing the Sick
Most of the worlds peoples have viewed sickness and death as a violation of the
way things ought to be. They are mysteries because they are not fully understood.
Even today, most people do not understand the technical pathology of disease, nor the
subtle way in which guilt, the emotions could affect true organic illnesses. When they
are experienced personally, illness and death raise more questions than we have
answers for.
In primitive and ancient societies people asked the same questions that we ask
today about sickness and misfortune, suffering and death. The answers they found
meaningful were often expressed in religious rituals and myths. Whether they are
simple or stark, elaborate or gaudy, they dramatize the meaning of life and death as
apprehended within a given culture.
As presented in the bible especially Genesis, ancient Israel had a holistic
attitude towards life and health, disease and death. A long life, many children and
prosperity were seen as signs of moral goodness and Gods favor; an early or painful
death, barrenness and misfortune were evils that were inflicted on the wicked. The
book of Job reflects this attitude. Death itself was seen as the unavoidable result of
human sinfulness, and what happened after death was unknown, or at least
uncertain. Sickness could be treated with herbal medicines, and wounds washed with
oil and wine, but the most reliable treatment was prayer and repentance, since all
healing was in the hands of God.

If modern research has shown that the sacrament of anointing has a strong
claim of being a sacrament of the sick than the dying, it remains true that we do not
have a developed theology of anointing, or of health. Perhaps the problem is on how
the church continues the ministry of Christ to the sick as well as the tendency to
forget that Jesus often told the crowds that they missed the deeper meaning of his
physical cures. Beyond bodily healing was that a spirit; beyond bodily feeling was the
nourishing of their lives as persons.
We still labor today a dualistic framework. When we speak of bodily and
spiritual effects of anointing as if the human person could be divided into these
separate parts. A far better approach would be the biblical one of seeing the person as
an animated body. If the first 800 years overdid the emphasis on the physical, and the
medieval scholastics recognize only the spiritual effects, what we need today is the
theology of healing which regards the sacrament as affecting the whole person.

Pastoral Reflection on the Sacraments of Healing

To err is human and to forgive divine. Many times we hear this saying, and yet
how far we have understood the concept? It is difficult to forgive someone especially if
that somebody hurt you a lot. Experience attests that in forgiving we avoid poisoning
ourselves. It is first, and foremost caring oneself. When a person is engaged in all
forms of negativity, which could be hatred, anger, resentments, fear, then growth will
be too difficult to achieve. This is the reason why we have to forgive.
Forgiveness is letting go. Letting go is freedom, and in freedom we are capable of
loving once again. Lifes victories and joys are not on achievements and competition
with others, but on the strength on our hearts how to understand and forgive
ourselves and others. Forgiveness is the beginning of healing, and healing is leading
us to a life of well-being.
Healing is different from curing. Curing is merely physical, whereas healing is
referring to the whole person, be it physical, emotional, spiritual.
In life, there is a reality that is inevitablesickness and death. It is not a
question of are we going to be sick or not, or to die or not, but what kind of sickness
and when will that be. The complication of the problems with regards to the realities of
sickness and death, is people today see them as problems to be solved rather than
human experiences to be lived. In countries where there is modern medical care, the
problem today lies in letting life end, rather than prolonging it technologically. People
today no longer know how to confront death. They find a thousand ways to mask it. We
have to see to it that the sacrament of the sick is celebrated in such a way that
Christian communities face and get in touch with disease and death.

What the ritual requires is that somehow the sacrament of the sick should be
designed to get the sick person and the family and friends to discover in death and
disease a gift and a hope coming from God. The celebration should strive for:
1. The ability to speak serenely of disease and death. Many are afraid to face
death. Sometimes everyone avoids mentioning the subject. The sacrament of
the sick helps the community face the anxiety that is connected with death.
It should help people confront various stages of death and dying, so that
they reach a certain stage.
2. Living the human reality of imminent separation. Disease and death involve
separation and loss. Again, this is a reality not easily faced. The sacrament
can help approach these realities ritually in ways less painful than direct
rational confrontation.
3. Discovering the new freedom lived by those who face death. Human beings
always have something to defend, if only their lives. In the face of death,
when accepted, there is less to preserve, and hence more freedom. Values
are seen from the different standpoint. It can be a time for reconciliation and
peace. One could ask the sick person, for example, to speak, or to bless all
present, sharing the wisdom that age and death offer.
4. To take care of lifes unfinished business. In the face of death, one of the
most significant trials is the failure to finish some of lifes tasks. Perhaps the
sacrament of the sick allows the sick person to leave these in the hands of
God (or of others), or to concentrate attention on the most important areas
one has been concerned with.
5. Living the end of life together. At the end of life, memories of events and
persons are laden with special meanings. The ability to share this, helps the
other members of the community face their own mortality and deaths. The
sacrament of the sick should help us face lifes most basic and important
questions in the context of out tradition in a way that makes us whole.

Suggested Readings
Chicken Soup for the Soul Series.
Clinebell, Howard. Well Being: A Personal Plan for Exploring and
Enriching the Seven Dimensions of Life. Quezon City: Claretian

Publications, 1996.
Duffy, Regis. A Roman Catholic Theology of Pastoral Care.
Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983.
Empereur, Jacques. Prophetic Anointing: Gods Call to the Sick, the
Elderly and the Dying. Wilmington: Glazier, 1982.
Fink, Peter. Anointing of the Sick. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1987.
Gusmer, Charles. And You Visited Me: Sacrament Ministry to the
Sick and the Dying. New York: Pueblo, 1984.
Siegel, Bernard. Love, Medicine and Miracles.