Breviloquium

Regarding the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, this in summary is to be held: it is the Sacrament of those departing from this life, preparing and disposing them for perfect health; it also serves to erase venial sins and to recover present health, if that is beneficial to the sick person. For the integrity of this Sacrament there are required simple but consecrated oil, the vocal expression of prayers, and the anointing of the sick person in seven specified parts, namely, the eyes, ears, nostrils, lips, hands, feet, and loins. Nor should this Sacrament be given except to adults and to those who request it, when the danger of death is imminent, and this through the hand and ministry of a priest. From this it follows that between this Sacrament and Confirmation there is a sevenfold difference, namely, in efficacy, matter, form, recipient, minister, place, and time.¹

The reason for understanding the foregoing is this: our reparative principle, namely, the incarnate Word, repairs us insofar as he is the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus;² and insofar as he is Jesus, he has to save, while insofar as he is Christ, the Anointed One, he has the grace of unction to communicate to others. Hence, in his Sacraments it belongs to him to bestow saving anointing upon his members. Since the soul, in order to be perfectly healed, needs three kinds of health—namely, strength for action, sweetness in contemplation, and happiness in understanding—and since the first belongs to those entering the battle line of the Church, the second to those presiding in it, whose office is to instruct others, and the third to those departing from it through death, it follows that the Lord instituted not only sacramental anointing in Confirmation, but also the middle anointing in episcopal order and the extreme one when the danger of death is imminent.

Since, therefore, “the end imposes necessity on the things directed to the end,”³ it follows that, according to the demands of this end, this Sacrament must operate and must also be made integral, received, and dispensed. First, then, since the operation of this Sacrament ought to be ordered by its end, and since its end is that it was instituted so that the salvation of everlasting happiness might be attained more easily and readily, and since this is accomplished through devotion that lifts upward and through release from venial faults and other consequences that press downward, it follows that this Sacrament has efficacy both for arousing devotion, for dismissing venial sins, and for more easily abolishing the dross of sins. Since it benefits many sick persons to continue living for the increase of their merits, it follows that this Sacrament, both strengthening the soul in good and relieving it of evil, often also alleviates the sickness. This is what blessed James says,⁴ namely, that the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and if he is in sins, they will be forgiven him.

Again, since the institution of this Sacrament ought to correspond to the demands of its end, and since that end is the acquisition of spiritual salvation through the remission of faults, and since this salvation concerns the health and purity of the interior conscience, according to which the heavenly Judge judges, it follows that this Sacrament must have simple and consecrated oil, because it signifies holiness and purity in the dwelling of conscience.⁵ Since mortal man has no power over that salvation, it follows that the prayer and vocal form are expressed in petitionary words to obtain the gift of grace. And since the soul contracts spiritual infirmities in the body according to the body's four governing powers—sensitive, interpretive, generative, and progressive—it follows that the members serving these powers are to be anointed. Since five members serve the five senses—namely, the eyes serve sight, the ears hearing, the nostrils smell, the hands touch, and the mouth taste, as well as the other power, the interpretive power—and since the feet serve progress and the loins generation—because it is unseemly and shameful to handle or even to name the genitals—it follows that the anointing ought to be made in the seven places mentioned above, so that through this Sacrament a person may be disposed to the fullness of health by the removal of every⁶ venial sin.

Lastly, since the reception of this Sacrament depends on its end, and since that end is a swifter passage to heaven through laying down the burden of venial sins and turning the mind toward God, it therefore ought not to be given except to adults, who sin venially; nor to any except those who ask for it, who are raised upward through devotion; nor to any except those in danger and, as it were, in transit to another state. Since this Sacrament is for those in peril, yet has sacred matter, namely, consecrated oil, it follows that, to avoid the danger, it ought ordinarily to be entrusted to priests, and that, because of the consecration of the oil, it should be handled only by consecrated hands.

From the variation, therefore, of the end in Confirmation and Extreme Unction arises the difference in efficacy, matter, form, place, time, recipient, and minister: in efficacy, because the former Sacrament disposes one to struggle better⁷ while this one disposes one to depart more swiftly; in matter, because the former is in oil mixed with balsam, while this one is in pure oil; in form, because the former is expressed indicatively, while this one is expressed petitionarily; in place, because the former is on the forehead, while this one is on multiple parts; in time, because the former is received in health, while this one is received in sickness; in recipient, because the former is given not only to adults but also to children, while this one is given only to adults; in minister, because the former is given by bishops, while this one is given by any priests. All this difference proceeds from the end, because, as has been made clear, diversity in proximate ends introduces diversity into the things that are ordered toward those ends.