It is, and it is to the highest degree, that of many families with their sick, whom they do not make suitable provision, in case of gravity, to receive the holy sacraments.
To provide the last helps of religion to the sick is not only an act of meritorious charity in the eyes of God, but also a sacred duty which cannot be infringed without incurring a terrible responsibility. If one is guilty of homicide when he lets his fellow man die of hunger, what name can be given to the horrible crime of letting a soul perish by not supplying it with the help of our holy religion?
And yet, how often experience shows us that this crime is committed even by Catholic families! Whether out of chimerical terrors or inexcusable weakness, the priest is called in as late as possible and sometimes when the sick person is already deprived of his senses. We are not speaking here of those families who wait ex-profeso for the sick person to enter into agony and who make religion a vain formality of pure convenience. Let us avert our eyes from such indignity! We speak of those families in which there is still enough faith to consider the sacraments as holy things, to desire that the sick receive them with a Christian disposition, and yet they are not told to go to confession until after all hope of healing is lost. And what often happens in this case? One still hesitates, the moment is delayed; the terrible symptoms are declared; then they hurry, they run in search of a priest, but they arrive late, everything is over! God forbid that you should be treated in this way in your last hour!
But what is it that detains in the fulfillment of this sacred mission? - "I dare not speak to you of a priest," you say, "I fear to frighten him." -And even if he should be frightened, would you prefer to expose his soul to eternal damnation or to a long expiation in purgatory? To frighten him! But if he were sleeping on the edge of an abyss, or in a house overtaken by flames, would you hesitate to awaken him so as not to frighten him?
You say that you will call the priest when the sick person asks for him, but do you not know that the sick rarely realize how serious they are? It is your duty to prepare the sick person, so that he may receive religious help in time. Go in good time to your parish or to the priest of your acquaintance, who will facilitate the fulfillment of this grave duty.
Banish from your mind the false worry that the sick person will be frightened if you speak to him about the sacraments.
Experience teaches that the sick person knows that the priest comes to fill at his side the sweetest and most beneficial of all ministries, to purify and console his soul, to bring him, finally, in the midst of the cruelest anguish, the peace and sweetness of Jesus Christ.
The first thing to do when one notices that a sick person is in danger, is to call the parish priest or confessor, so that he may administer the sacraments of Penance, Eucharist and Extreme Unction and apply to him the plenary indulgence in the article of death (few, very few know of this great grace. Demand it from the priest.
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