The Sacraments Of Healing

By DON FIER

When we began our examination of the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) on the seven sacraments several months ago, it was noted that they are often grouped into various categories: sacraments of the living and of the dead; sacraments of initiation, healing, and vocation or service; sacraments that can be received only once and those that can be received multiple times (see volume 148, n. 32; August 13, 2015).
Likewise, we saw that the order chosen by the Catechism to present the sacraments makes use, by analogy, of a certain similarity between the stages of natural life and the stages of the spiritual life: first, the sacraments of Christian initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Eucharist); second, the sacraments of healing (Penance and Anointing of the Sick); and third, the sacraments at the service of communion and the mission of the faithful (Matrimony and Holy Orders).
“This order, while not the only one possible,” states the Catechism, “does allow one to see that the sacraments form an organic whole in which each particular sacrament has its own vital place” (CCC, n. 1211).
As we transition now to the “sacraments of healing,” the Catechism reminds us that “through the sacraments of Christian initiation, man receives the new life of Christ” (CCC, n. 1420). As expressed by Pope Blessed Paul VI in his 1971 apostolic constitution Divinae consortium naturae: “The faithful are born anew by Baptism, strengthened by the sacrament of Confirmation, and receive in the Eucharist the food of eternal life.”
We carry this new life, however, as St. Paul reminds us, “in earthen vessels” (2 Cor. 4:7), in human bodies that are frail and corruptible. Thus, “this new life as a child of God can be weakened and even lost by sin” (CCC, n. 1420).
In introducing us to the sacraments of healing, the Catechism recalls for us the incident from the Gospel of St. Mark where Jesus healed a paralytic both spiritually and physically. When the four men carrying the afflicted man were unable to get close to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above and lowered him to the feet of our Lord.
Seeing their great faith, Jesus healed the paralytic spiritually when He said, “My son, your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:5). Noting the skepticism of the scribes, Jesus also restored the physical health of the paralytic: “I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home” (Mark 2:11).
“The Lord Jesus Christ, physician of our souls and bodies, who forgave the sins of the paralytic and restored him to bodily health,” teaches the Catechism, “has willed that his Church continue, in the power of the Holy Spirit, his work of healing and salvation” (CCC, n. 1421). This, then, is the purpose of the two sacraments of healing, the Sacrament of Penance and the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick (referred to in former days as Extreme Unction).
In Lumen Gentium, the Second Vatican Council stresses their importance in the life of the Church:
“Those who approach the sacrament of Penance obtain pardon from the mercy of God for the offense committed against Him and are at the same time reconciled with the Church, which they have wounded by their sins, and which by charity, example, and prayer seeks their conversion. By the sacred anointing of the sick and the prayer of her priests the whole Church commends the sick to the suffering and glorified Lord, asking that He may lighten their suffering and save them; she exhorts them, moreover, to contribute to the welfare of the whole people of God by associating themselves freely with the passion and death of Christ” (LG, n. 11 § 2).
The Catechism first takes up the Sacrament of Penance, a topic which is most fitting for the faithful to consider during this Year of Mercy. In his Bull of Indiction Misericordiae Vultus (MV), Pope Francis requested that the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation be placed with conviction at the center of the sacramental economy “in such a way that it will enable people to touch the grandeur of God’s mercy with their own hands” (MV, n. 17 § 3). It is a sacrament that has been much neglected in recent decades and is in need of rediscovery.
It has been 70 years since Venerable Pope Pius XII spoke his penetrating words during a 1946 radio address to the National Catechetical Congress of the United States in Boston: “The sin of the century is the loss of the sense of sin.”
These words were reechoed and taken up at length by Pope St. John Paul II in his 1984 apostolic exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia (ReP) in which he wrote, “The restoration of a proper sense of sin is the first way of facing the grave spiritual crisis looming over man today” (ReP, n. 18 § 11).
In its February 2015 document entitled Rediscovering the “Rite of Penance,” the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments proclaimed that the Year of Mercy “should be the favorable time to recover the true sense of sin in the light of the Sacrament of forgiveness.”
With this background, let us now delve into the teaching of the Catechism on the Sacrament of Penance, which the Council of Trent declares “has rightly been called by the holy Fathers ‘a laborious kind of baptism.’ This sacrament of Penance is necessary for salvation for those who have fallen after Baptism, just as Baptism is necessary for salvation for those who have not yet been reborn” (Denzinger, Enchiridion Symbolorum, n. 1672; as cited by CCC, n. 980).
Following the same pattern employed in its treatment of the Holy Eucharist, the Catechism enumerates the various names given to this healing, restorative sacrament. First, it is called the sacrament of conversion because “it makes sacramentally present Jesus’ call to conversion, the first step in returning to the Father from whom one has strayed by sin” (CCC, n. 1423).
What is meant by the word conversion? Its etymology is from the Latin conversio and means “a turning around; turning point; change.” The Servant of God Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, defines it in his Modern Catholic Dictionary (MCD) as “any changing from a state of sin to repentance, from a lax to a fervent way of life, from unbelief to faith, and from a non-Christian religion to Christianity” (p. 131). In its Glossary, the Catechism defines the term as “a radical reorientation of the whole life away from sin and evil, and toward God.”
It is also called the Sacrament of Penance because “it consecrates the Christian sinner’s personal and ecclesial steps of conversion, penance, and satisfaction” (CCC, n. 1423). The etymology of the word penance is from the Latin paenitentia and means “repentance; contrition.” Fr. Hardon defines it as “the virtue or disposition of heart by which one repents of one’s own sins and is converted to God” (MCD, p. 413).
Interior penance entails “a conversion of heart toward God and away from sin, which implies the intention to change one’s life because of hope in divine mercy” (CCC, Glossary). Penance also refers to the punishment or satisfaction by which one atones for the sins he or she has committed.
The Sacrament of Penance is also referred to as the Sacrament of Confession because “the disclosure or confession of sins to a priest is an essential element” (CCC, n. 1424) for its valid celebration. The etymology of the word confession comes from the Latin confessio and means “to acknowledge.”
As expressed by Fr. Hardon, confession refers to “the voluntary self-accusation of one’s sins to a qualified priest in order to obtain absolution from him. This accusation must be an external manifestation” (MCD, p. 121). In another sense, confession also refers to the “acknowledgement and praise of the holiness of God and of his mercy toward sinful man” (CCC, n. 1424).

Be Reconciled

The next expression for the Sacrament of Penance given by the Catechism is the Sacrament of Forgiveness, because it involves the pardon or remission of offenses against our Creator.
When the minister of the sacrament, who acts in persona Christi, grants absolution with those wonderful words: “Through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Ordo paenitentiae, n. 46), the penitents’ forgiven sins are not merely covered over by the merits of Christ, but actually removed from his soul (cf. MCD, p. 216).
Lastly, the Catechism refers to the Sacrament of Penance as the Sacrament of Reconciliation because “it imparts to the sinner the love of God who reconciles: ‘Be reconciled to God’ (2 Cor. 5:20)” (CCC, n. 1424). As defined by Fr. Hardon, the act of reconciliation is “the act or state of re-establishing friendship [with] God…It requires repentance on the part of the sinner and forgiveness on the part of God” (MCD, p. 458).
But there is more — as we say each time we pray the Our Father, a condition for obtaining God’s mercy is our willingness to be reconciled with those “who trespass against us.” The person “who lives by God’s merciful love,” teaches the Catechism, “is ready to respond to the Lord’s call: ‘Go; first be reconciled to your brother’ (Matt. 5:24).”

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(Don Fier serves on the board of directors for The Catholic Servant, a Minneapolis-based monthly publication. He and his wife are the parents of seven children. Fier is a 2009 graduate of Ave Maria University’s Institute for Pastoral Theology. He is doing research for writing a definitive biography of Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ.)