True healing of the sick

Wendell Berry in his book The Art Of The Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays, writes: “Healing is impossible in loneliness; it is the opposite of loneliness. Conviviality is healing. To be healed we must come with all the other creatures to the feast of Creation”. Sickness triggers and augments loneliness. It needs the sacred conviviality with the Holy One to be healed. It demands His sacramental presence.

Who are we to deny to sick people God’s healing through the sacraments...- Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap, San Ġwann

The sacrament of penance and reconciliation brings about spiritual healing. The medicinal power of confession transforms the interior sadness and bitterness which emanates from sin into the joy of God’s gratuitous forgiveness! The spiritual healings which occur through this sacrament are: reconciliation with God and the Church, lessening of eternal punishment acquired by mortal sins, decrease of temporal punishments ensuing from sin, peace and serenity of conscience, spiritual consolation and the enhancement of spiritual strength for the Christian battle (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1496).

The sacrament of anointing of the sick strengthens, gives peace and encourages the sick person to overcome the difficulties that are inherent in serious illnesses or the frailty of old age. This particular gift of the Holy Spirit unites the suffering person with the passion of Christ and prepares him/her for the ultimate journey. As Pope Benedict XVI said, in the Anointing of the Sick, “the sacramental oil is offered to us … ‘as God’s medicine … which now assures us of his goodness, offering us strength and consolation, yet at the same time points beyond the moment of the illness towards the definitive healing, the resurrection (see Jas 5:14)”.

Finally, the sacrament of the Eucharist fuses its communicant with Jesus’ flesh and blood, thereby conferring on the sick person the author of grace, Jesus Christ himself! As the “medicine of immortality, the antidote for death,” this sacrament equips its recipient with the Son of the Father, “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb 13, 8).

Concerning the sacraments of healing St Augustine says: “God heals all your infirmities. Do not be afraid, therefore, all your infirmities will be healed… You must only allow him to cure you and you must not reject his hands”. Who are we to deny to sick people God’s sacramental healing through the sacraments of penance, anointing and the Eucharist?