Catholic Replies
Editor’s Note: If the following lessons, which were prepared for Confirmation students, are of value to you, put them to whatever use you can. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well, so please send them along, either to the postal mailing address or the email address below, and we will interrupt this series to answer them.
Special Course On Catholicism And Life — XIII
The sacraments given to us by Jesus cover the whole span of our lifetime, from Baptism as infants to Anointing of the Sick as death approaches. So important is the latter sacrament that priests have risked their lives to bring it to those in danger of death. This sacrament is not just for those who are imminently dying, but also for any person who is in danger of death from illness or old age.
This sacrament can be found in the Bible in the Letter of St. James. He asks, “Is anyone among you sick? He should summon the presbyters [priests] of the church, and they should pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven” (James 5:14-15).
Those who are weakened by illness or old age need this sacrament because their condition can make them vulnerable to the temptations of the Devil to despair and lash out at God. The Devil is trying to capture the sick person’s soul, and the Anointing can ward off the temptations of Satan. The sacrament seeks the total healing of a person’s body, mind, and soul.
The key elements of the sacrament are the imposition of the priest’s hands over the sick or dying person and the anointing with holy oil of their forehead and hands. This will give them God’s grace to deal with pain, suffering, and fear of death, and sometimes they are even restored to good health. Make sure to call a priest if any family member is in need of the Anointing of the Sick.
List Of Answers
ANOINTING
DEATH
DEVIL
HEALING
IMPOSITION
JAMES
Quiz:
- The Letter of St. ____________ tells about anointing the sick and dying.
- The key elements are the _________ of hands and __________ with oil.
- The _______________ tries to capture a dying person’s soul.
- Anointing of the Sick seeks total _________________ of body, mind, and soul.
- It is for those who are in danger of ____________ from sickness or old age. To carry on His work in the world, Jesus instituted the holy priesthood through the Sacrament of Holy Orders. The word is plural because there are actually three stages of Holy Orders: deacon, priest, and bishop. A man is consecrated a priest by a bishop, who anoints him with holy oil and imprints on his soul the same mark or character that all of us received at Baptism and Confirmation.
The priest has many roles. He is an ambassador for Christ who brings the message of Jesus everywhere he goes. He is a shepherd who feeds his flock with the truths of Christ and the sacraments. He is a spiritual physician who heals the wounds of sin in the Sacraments of Penance and Anointing of the Sick. And he stands at the altar in the person of Christ, offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and bringing Jesus down from Heaven and sending up the prayers and petitions of His people on earth.
Priests take a vow of celibacy, which means they do not marry. Celibacy goes back to the earliest days of the Church because it conforms a man to Christ, who did not marry and who promised great rewards to those who have “given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God” (Luke 18:29).
Celibacy also allows priests to focus on their spiritual family without worrying about wives or children, it is a wonderful example of commitment and sacrifice under difficult circumstances, and it’s a foretaste of Heaven where they will be no marriage.
Though women have always played a key role in the Church, they cannot be priests because Jesus never chose a woman for the priesthood and, since the priest stands in the place of Christ, he must be a man since Christ was a man. Pope St. John Paul II said in 1994 that “the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women.”
List Of Answers
AMBASSADOR
BISHOP
CELIBACY
CHILDREN
CHRIST
DEACON
HEAVEN
ORDERS
PHYSICIAN
PRIEST
SHEPHERD
WIVES
WOMEN
Quiz:
- Jesus conferred Holy _______ first on the Apostles and then they conferred it on other men to make them priests who would offer sacrifice at Mass and forgive sins.
- The degrees of Holy Orders are ____, _, and __.
- A priest is an __________________ for Christ, a __________________who leads his flock, and a ____________________ who heals people’s souls.
4.________________ means that a priest chooses not to get married. - Celibacy follows the example of ___________, who never married.
- Celibacy allows a priest to focus exclusively on serving Christ and others without worrying about __________ and ____________.
- Celibacy is also a foreshadowing of _______________ where there will be no marriage.
- The Catholic Church cannot ordain __________ to the priesthood because Jesus did not do so and a person standing in the place of Christ, a man, must also be a man.
