Session 13 Introduction to the Episcopal Church

Introduction to the Episcopal Church

Session 13 

Understanding the Book of Common Prayer (BCP)

Part 9: The Sacrament of the Prayer for the Sick or otherwise known as Holy Unction.   

A major crisis in life is sickness.  As people we have members who experience in uneven and varying ways the weakness of body and mind.  We know that our lives are affected by sickness; family and community are affected by sickness.  One is reminded that in certain eras of history plagues devastated large numbers of the members of societies.  Sickness is a crisis that we have to face and the church believes that it is our calling to invoke the Holy Spirit upon our lives as we believe that God’s presence can be known to us during the crisis of sickness. 

There are some images of the Sacrament of the Prayer for the Sick that make some people wary of its practice.  For some Holy Unction referred only to what used to be known as Extreme Unction otherwise called “Last Rites.”  So Holy Unction in some people’s view was limited to be an end of life ritual done by the priest.  For others, in watching televangelist healers, it is associated with Pentecostal group frenzies where healing events occur.  It is associated with Elmer Gantry type hucksters who seem to be more about “fundraising” for their ministries.  Sickness is a vulnerable state of being and no sacrament should ever have an association with the requirement of an offering.

Response to sickness has a long history and historical anthropology of medicine can trace a varied practice in many times and cultures.  In the days before it was discovered that microscopic beasties were responsible for illness, sometimes it was convenient to suggest that demonic forces were the cause of all illnesses.  We know this is a very unsatisfactory explanation even as we also know that sickness and disease are influenced by states of mind.

The Sacrament of the Prayer for the Sick is a liturgy that derives from the ministry of Jesus to the sick of his time and from the practice in early Christian communities of the elders of the community to pray for the sick and anoint them with oil.  One of the things that makes me personally uncomfortable is to associate cause of sickness with a sin.  There has been a long association of sickness and sin.  The words of Jesus stated that a man was not blind because his sins or the sins of his parents.  We know that lifestyle behaviors can have certain health results but victimization can occur when one presumes to know another person's sin and resulting illness.

How does the Sacrament of the Prayer for the Sick function in the church?  I think it is here for us to promote the ministry of health within the parish family.  How does that happen?  I believe that all of us are healthier if we practice within our significant communities an “orientation” towards health.  Too obscure?  I once worked as an orderly in a VA hospital and I noticed that the hospitalized Veterans who had family and friends and church involved with them had much shorter stays in the hospital.  This is what I mean by creating an orientation toward health within the community.  This does not mean instantaneous “cures” or exemption from the full range of things that can occur to anyone of us.  It means that we are “sick” together and not alone and by being together and by invoking the power of the unseen sublime we hope for the wonder of health to be known in a fuller way than if we “suffer” alone.

In an ironic way one’s sickness can be a “gift” of the community when it is brought to the attention of the community in this Sacrament.  A person experiencing sickness becomes representative of what can happen to any of us and in presenting a condition of sickness to the community, the practice of health within the community is called forth.  Meals are delivered to help families, children are car pooled and the effects of sickness are ameliorated as the community practices community health.  Also the Sacrament of the Prayer for the Sick mobilizes and raises up the gift of healing within a community.  When some people hear about the sickness of another they are deeply moved within themselves with a special concern.  That moving concern is a particular gift of empathy that includes lots of “energy,” even an intuitive energy that inspires them to pray and to care in a special way.

The actual Sacrament of the Prayer for the Sick does not exhaust the ministries and the gift of health orientation within a community but it stands as a reminder that we as Christians are all called to the ministry of healing and health in many different ways.

Share the knowledge your sickness with others so that the gift of health and healing can be practiced within the church.  One of our practical ministries is our prayer ministry is our Healing Mass on Wednesdays. The prayer chain ministries consists of a group of people who have committed themselves to be informed about the prayer needs of people and who pray in agreement with one another and in our prayers this energy may be like a healing energy that is transmitted to those for whom we pray.  In faith we believe prayers can help promote health but also that our prayers changes us and mobilize us towards health as a caring community.

The Sacrament of the Prayer for the Sick is offered each Sunday or upon request.  This Sacrament stands as our calling to the ministry of health and healing as a caring community.

Exercise:

Do you have the gift of healing?  Do you have a deep sense of empathy when you observe the sufferings of others?  What do you do with the energy of empathy?  What do you think can happen when the energy of empathy is shared among people within a community?  Can you see yourself as helping to practice this Sacrament as our community orientation toward supporting each other in our health concerns?   

Remember we are called to health and healing.  The most accessible meaning for salvation is “health.”

Father Phil