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.
