Article — Marc, Institutiones Morales
Article I: On The Notion And Effect Of Extreme Unction
- DEFINITION. Extreme Unction is "a Sacrament instituted by Christ and promulgated by Blessed James, for conferring the health of the soul, or even of the body, on the sick who are in danger of life, through the anointing of blessed oil and the prayer of the priest."11
Principles. - I. Extreme Unction is truly and properly a SACRAMENT of the New Law. - It is of faith; and it is clear: 1. from the words of James (5, 14 and 15): "Is any one of you sick? Let him bring in the priests of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith shall save the sick man, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him." - 2. From Trent, sess. 14, on Extreme Unction, can. 1: "If anyone shall say that Extreme Unction is not truly and properly a Sacrament instituted by Christ our Lord and promulgated by the blessed Apostle James, but only a rite accepted from the Fathers, or a human figment: let him be anathema."
This Sacrament was instituted by Christ the Lord after the resurrection, as the more common opinion holds with Suarez; and it was promulgated by St. James, as is clear from the text alleged above.12
(11) H. A., XVII, 1. (12) Book VI, 706; cf. Dogm. in Trid., sess. 14, on Extreme Unction, n. 2-4.
- II. Besides sanctifying grace, which, like the other Sacraments, it produces, Extreme Unction has ITS OWN PROPER EFFECTS, which are the following:
1. The PRIMARY effect is to strengthen the soul in its last agony. "This Sacrament," says the Council of Trent (sess. 14, on E. U., cap. 2), "alleviates and confirms the soul of the sick person, by exciting in him great confidence in the divine mercy; by which the sick man, supported, both bears more lightly the inconveniences and labors of disease, and more easily resists the temptations of the devil lying in wait for his heel."
2. The SECONDARY effect is threefold: 1. To delete the remnants of sin, such as obscurity of mind, hardness of heart, love of sensible things, diffidences, anxieties, and similar things which are contracted from sins. - 2. To take away part of the punishments which remain to be expiated for sins. (These two effects are produced greater or lesser according to the degree of disposition of the sick person.) - 3. To confer health of body, if it is expedient for the health of the soul, as Trent has it (loc. cit.); and to this end the prayers placed in the Ritual are also directed. But the Sacrament does not work this effect by way of miracle, lest faith be emptied out; but by a certain supernatural power, which aids natural causes, as far as the body is capable of their action.13
(13) Cf. Book VI, 731.
- Questions. Q. 1. Whether and in what way sins ARE REMITTED through Extreme Unction?
Resp. 1. Although the principal effect of this Sacrament is not to remit sins, neither mortal nor venial, as the Thomists more commonly and more probably teach against the Scotists, and as the Apostle James himself seems to suggest, saying conditionally "and, if he be in sins"; nevertheless, remission of sins must be specially attributed to it; for the Apostle continues, saying: "they shall be forgiven him," and Trent teaches similarly: "delicts, if any are still to be expiated, it wipes away."
Resp. 2. But concerning the mode in which mortal sins are remitted, Theologians do not agree. - Some with Gonet, Sporer, etc., to whom St. Thomas seems to give support,14 say that they are remitted per accidens, since it is a question of a Sacrament of the living; but others more probably and more commonly, with Suarez, Tournely, etc., teach that they are remitted per se, not indeed directly, but consequently; for it is clear that Extreme Unction was instituted to take away the remnants of sins; but because these cannot be taken away from a soul in which sin is found, unless the sin itself is first taken away, therefore this Sacrament, consequently, takes away sin.15
Q. 2. Whether through EACH ANOINTING partial grace is conferred?
Resp. 1. Suarez and others affirm it; because any anointing with its own form already signifies grace independently of the other anointings. - 2. But St. Thomas with the more common opinion denies it; because no anointing of itself constitutes the Sacrament, nor even a partial Sacrament; hence, grace is not conferred unless when the Sacrament is completed by the last anointing. - Each opinion is probable.16
Q. 3. Whether this Sacrament can be VALID and UNFORMED, so that, with the obstacle receding, grace is conferred?
Resp. "The Doctors commonly affirm. Hence the Salmanticenses with others infer that, if a sick person in good faith, or destitute of senses, received the Sacrament in mortal sin, it suffices that afterwards he have attrition, for grace to be received. Otherwise, if in bad faith. - But this runs, if the obstacle is removed while the same disease and danger persevere, at least as regards the effect of special helps, as Suarez and others say."17
From these things you will gather that through Extreme Unction souls often are saved, both because the Sacrament supplies strength and helps without which the sick person would yield victory to the devil; and because it is received more easily with a lesser disposition, and with a more lasting efficacy; and finally because it is the most salutary admonition of all concerning the proximity of death.18
(14) Suppl., q. 30, a. 1, c. (15) Book VI, 731. (16) Ibid., 707. (17) Ibid., qu. 2. (18) Cf. Bellarmine, De Extr. Unct., cap. VIII, and Benedict XIV, De Syn., Book 8, cap. 6.