Anointing Of The Sick & Forgiveness

A reader writes:

In the

Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, it was my understanding that we are absolved

of our sins. Now in the case of someone in a coma or in the case of Terri

Schiavo, who cannot make an oral confession, is this forgiveness obtained even

if the person was not repentant or did not have any contrition in their heart

when their ability to communicate was taken away? Does their current state of

contrition affect the grace they receive from the anointing?

Does it

kinda work like infant baptism in that the receiver of the sacrament does not

initiate the sacrament, but they still get the grace and fruits of that

grace?

The sacraments confer grace as long as you do not put a barrier in the way of their doing so. The reason infant baptism is so automatically effective is that infants, being below the age of reason, do not have the ability to configure their will such that it puts a barrier in the way of the sacrament having its effect–and they have never had this ability. But for an adult to be baptized in a state of complete unrepentance, he will not get sanctifying grace and forgiveness (though he will get the baptismal character imprinted on his soul).

Something similar applies here: If, at the time you become unconscious (or at least sub-rational) you are unrepentant for your grave sins then your will is configured in such a way that it creates a barrier blocking the anointing of the sick from conferring sanctifying grace and forgiveness on you. Just as the state of the will at the time of death is determinative of whether you go to heaven or not, so the state of the will at the time you become unconscious (or sub-rational) is determinative of whether the sacrament will confer forgiveness.

In order for the sacrament to confer forgiveness, one must have at least habitual attrition for one’s grave sins. This means that one needs to have attrition, or sorrow (of the will, not the emotions) for one’s sins based on a supernatural motive (for example, because they were contrary to God’s will or violations of his law). And this attrition needs to be present habitually, meaning that it doesn’t have to be something you are consciously thinking about, just something latent in your will based on a prior determination of the will.

For example: Suppose you have committed Mortal Sin X and afterwards you decide, "Man! I wish I hadn’t done that! Mortal Sin X is contrary to God’s will! I’m going to strive not to commit Mortal Sin X in the future (even though I fear I may commit it)!" Then you go about your business, forgetting all about it until, later that day, a train spike is suddenly driven through your head and you are taken to the hospital. Once there, the chaplain administers the anointing of the sick to you and the sacrament has its effect because you had previously made an act of the will whereby you had habitual attrition for having committed Mortal Sin X.

On the other hand, suppose that you are in flagrante delicto of committing Mortal Sin Y, and you are going "Woo-hoo! Mortal Sin Y is so much fun! I don’t care that it’s against God’s law!" and SMACK! You get hit in the head with a train spike and get taken to the hospital and, once there, the chaplain administers the anointing of the sick to you. But in THIS case, you don’t get forgiven because you lost rationality in the very act of turning your will fundamentally against God’s will. You thus, by the disposition of your will, created a barrier to the sacrament conferring forgiveness on you.

This lesson undescores why it is important to repent of our mortal sins as soon as possible. Though few of us will get hit in the head with train spikes, many of us will lose the faculty of rationality at some point and be unable to make further moral choices.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live." View all posts by Jimmy Akin

13 thoughts on “Anointing Of The Sick & Forgiveness”

Great answer as usual Jimmy!

Thanks,

Paul

I gotta agree too. What you mentioned about infant baptism was also especially helpful. Thanks for your witness Jimmy.

sorrow (of the will, not the emotions)

What is sorrow of the will, not the emotions?

Thanks! The reason why infants can safely be baptized vs. a person after the age of reason needing to repent first is especially useful. I’ve encountered many non-infant-baptizers and this is another excellent point to make.

I’m using the term to indicate a turning away from sin with the will, without a need for any particular level of emotional sorrow. The term “attrition” is usually glossed in English with “sorrow,” but this gets us thinking too much in terms of having an emotinoal sensation, which is not required. If you as an act of the will say “That was wrong. I regret doing it. I wouldn’t do it if I could go back and do it over” then–regardless of what you may be *feeling* at the moment–you have the requisite attrition.

Is it grace?

Now that I have enabled comments on BatesLine, I’ve found that I pay closer attention to comments on other blogs and am more likely to post a comment. I’ve been intrigued by many of the comment threads over at the Dawn Patrol. Dawn uses HaloScan for he…

Is it grace?

UPDATE: After rereading this entry this morning, I thought it seemed rather stream-of-consciousness and so I am reworking it somewhat. I understood in my own mind how all these pieces fit together, but I didn’t make the connections very clear. I welcom…

“I regret doing that” may be misleading, as well. Someone may regret doing something but nevertheless intend to do it again.

No matter how much a prositute dislikes her work — and many of them report going into it with the thought “it won’t kill you — she “regrets” it when she resolves to never do it again, even if the circumstances that got her into it return.

And a woman who thought it was a great job and the easiest money she ever made — but will never do it again does “regret” it.

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