The Church celebrates this sacrament on the evening of Holy Wednesday, but she hopes it will be celebrated again and received by every sick person at any time, especially when there is need. It is one of the sacraments of the Church, called the sacrament of Holy Oil. It is always celebrated in the hope of healing of soul and body.
Gospel testimonies about this sacrament
The evangelist Mark: he tells (Mark 6:7-13) how the Lord Jesus called the Twelve and sent them out two by two, giving them authority over unclean spirits. They went out and preached to those who welcomed them, proclaiming the Lord Jesus and calling them to confess their sins and repent in order to be saved.
And the evangelist continues: “And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them.”
Let us note the key points in these verses:
– the disciples proclaimed the word of the Lord, the Kingdom of heaven and eternal life;
– the close connection between accepting the Lord Jesus and His teaching, and sincere repentance, confession of sins and turning away from them;
– living the word of the Lord truly and in deed, not only in words: this is the meaning of “preaching”, from the Greek kerygma.
Right preaching, and its acceptance by a person’s heart, give birth to a new life in the Lord Jesus, and their fruit is the healing of the soul before that of the body. This is what the Lord Jesus emphasized and meant at the healing of the paralytic: “Your sins are forgiven.”
It is true that when oil, like water, is prayed over, it becomes holy; but accepting grace is what leads to salvation. There is God’s work on one side and the human person’s work on the other: this is what the Orthodox Church means by its teaching on cooperation, synergy.
– The saving work done by the disciples was not individual but communal, and flowed directly from the Lord Jesus. This has great significance: the church community.
From the very first moment, the Lord Jesus set out to found a close-knit community built on faith, against which the gates of hell cannot prevail; and in His farewell prayer in the Garden of Olives He clearly declared: “That they may be one.”
The Letter of James: Saint James writes in his letter: “Is any one among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” (5:13-16)
In these verses Saint James emphasizes the following:
– calling the elders of the Church, that is, the Church; – communal action; – healing in the name of Jesus; – confession of sins for the sake of healing.
From this we see that there is no separation at all between the community, the Church and the Lord Jesus, nor between healing of soul and body; and the grace of receiving the Holy Spirit is given to the human person as one integrated being, not divided against itself.
This is exactly what all the Church’s prayers connected with healing and the readings of this day express, because of the close link between the sacrament of oil and the sacrament of repentance, as do the prayers the priest recites asking the Lord for healing.
Testimonies from the early centuries and the holy Fathers:
The Book of the Twelve Apostles (the Didache)*: this book, dating from the end of the second century, contains a text on the use of oil in the Church: “O Lord our God, sanctify this oil and give it the gift of sanctification for those who distribute it and those who receive it. By it You commanded that kings, priests and prophets be anointed of old. Grant us also, as we are anointed with it, health of soul and body.”
Many Fathers and teachers of the Church mentioned this sacrament: Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Origen and Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea.
Saint John Chrysostom also recommends using holy oil in all illnesses, not only in extreme cases when the sick person is near death… So this sacrament is not “extreme unction”, as is widely thought; it is received by anyone who has not given up hope of salvation in Christ.
The celebration of the sacrament
The rubrics say that the sacrament of Holy Oil is celebrated in church, amid the community of the saved; if the sick person cannot come to church, it is celebrated at home.
The service includes seven epistles, seven Gospels and seven prayers for blessing the oil, and so it is celebrated by seven priests, representing the one, catholic and apostolic Church.
But for pastoral reasons the Church has allowed fewer priests, even a single priest, to celebrate the service.
Originally the priest anoints the believer seven times, to show that through this sacrament the Church expresses her complete tenderness toward the sick person; but, again for pastoral reasons, the faithful are now anointed only once in church. After the seventh Gospel, the senior priest takes the Holy Gospel and holds it open over the heads of those present, the other priests place their hands on the Gospel, and he recites a prayer to the Lord Jesus.
All this shows that we are the adopted children of the Lord Jesus and that the Gospel is the rule of our life.
Mercy and Oil
In Greek, “mercy” is έλεος (eleos) and “oil” is έλαιον (elaion), which also refers to “anointing”. This shows a connection between the two words in both sound and meaning.
So the prayer of the oil is the prayer of divine mercy. And just as mercy is an attribute of God, His children must also have it, as Christ said: “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36).
In conclusion:
How many times did the Lord Jesus say, “Your faith has made you well”?
The Lord is always ready to enter our hearts, but are we ready to open our hearts to Him? This is the essential question everyone should ask themselves when being anointed with oil: Do I truly accept the Lord as my Saviour? Do I keep His commandments and live by them? Do I confess my sins, fully ready to repent sincerely and not return to them? And if I fall again through weakness, am I ready to repent again? Am I aware of my condition? Do I truly believe in the Lord Jesus as my God and Saviour in my life, and in the power of every word spoken in this blessed prayer?
Let us bring near our hearts and souls, together with our foreheads, to be anointed with the oil of gladness, so that we may be healed of our illnesses of soul and body and become a vessel overflowing with the Holy Spirit.
