The Gospel of the Mass tells us about the mission of the Twelve in the villages and places of Palestine. They preached the need to do penance in order to enter the Kingdom of God, and they cast out demons and anointed many sick people with oil and cured them.
Oil was often used to heal wounds2, and the Lord determined that it should be the subject of the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. In the brief words of St. Mark's Gospel the Church has seen hinted at this sacrament3, which was instituted by the Lord, and later promulgated and recommended to the faithful by the Apostle James4. It is one more example of the concern of Christ and his Church for the most needy Christians.
Our Lord always showed his infinite compassion for the sick. He himself revealed himself to the disciples sent by the Baptist, calling their attention to what they were seeing and hearing: the blind regain their sight and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised and the poor are evangelized5. In the parable of the wedding feast, the servants received this command: go out to the roads... and bring the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame...6 There are innumerable passages in which Jesus was moved to compassion when he contemplated pain and sickness, and he healed many as a sign of the spiritual healing that he worked in souls.
The Lord has willed that his disciples imitate him in effective compassion for those who suffer in sickness and in all pain. "The Church embraces all those afflicted by human weakness; moreover, she recognizes in the poor and suffering the image of her Founder, poor and patient, strives to alleviate their needs and seeks to serve Christ in them "7. In the sick we see the Lord himself, who tells us: what you did for one of these, you did for me8. He who loves his neighbor must do as much good to his body as to his soul," writes St. Augustine, "and this consists not only in going to the doctor, but also in taking care of his food, drink, clothing, housing, and protecting his body against everything that could be a nuisance.... Those who are merciful are those who are kind and humane in providing what is necessary to resist ailments and pains "9.
Among the attentions that we can have with the sick are: to accompany them, to visit them with the opportune frequency, to see to it that the illness does not disturb them, to facilitate their rest and the fulfillment of all the doctor's prescriptions, to make the time that we are with them pleasant, so that they never feel alone, to help them to offer and sanctify their pain, to see to it that they receive the sacraments. Let us not forget that they are the "treasure of the Church", that they can do much before God and that the Lord looks upon them with particular predilection.
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