The Catechism of the Catholic Church provides this definition of prudence in no. 1806: “Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it.” I want to suggest here that celebration of the sacrament of the anointing of the sick is a celebration, too, of this virtue of prudence. It does this in part since, as the Catechism also teaches (in no. 1521), one of the effects of anointing is union with the passion of Christ: “By the grace of this sacrament the sick person receives the strength and the gift of uniting himself more closely to Christ’s Passion: in a certain way he is consecrated to bear fruit by configuration to the Savior’s redemptive Passion. Suffering, a consequence of original sin, acquires a new meaning; it becomes a participation in the saving work of Jesus.”
In Psalm 73, the psalmist proclaims that “it is good for me to cling to God.” Augustine makes use of this verse in his discussion of sacrifice in Book X of the City of God: “Since true sacrifices are works of mercy, whether shown to ourselves or shown to our neighbors, which are directed to God; and since works of mercy are performed with no other object than that we might be delivered from misery and so become blessed—which only happens by means of that good of which it is said, ‘But for me the good is to cling to God,’—it obviously follows that the whole redeemed city, that is, the congregation and fellowship of the saints, is offered to God as a universal sacrifice through the great priest who, in his passion, offered himself for us in the form of a servant, to the end that we might be the body of such a great head.”*
Anointing unites the sick person with the passion of the great priest, Christ. It should be emphasized here that this union is not merely a matter of the sick person suffering and Christ suffering. Rather, union is truly effected and symbolized when the sick person suffers as Christ suffered, namely, by persisting in an attitude and practice of self-offering love. This point is made clear in the French rite of anointing, which refers in no. 55 to the sick person “s’associant à l’attitude aimante de Jesus Christ dans sa passion et dans sa mort” [associating himself / herself with the loving attitude of Jesus Christ in his passion and in his death].
The “good” in any situation is to engage in self-offering love. Anointing encourages the sick person to discern that true good despite the temptations induced by health-related suffering—temptations to selfishness or preoccupation with oneself. The love in which they engage while suffering is a living manifestation of the love of Christ. One could certainly claim that those who love despite suffering are living icons of Christ. Being joined to and inspired by Christ, the sick who love become models and inspirations for the Christian community. They are models of love, yes, and of prudence. That prudence should be expressed in the lives of all the community, not just the sick. How do I cling to God at the office? How do I engage in self-offering love at school? At home, do I make it my business to help others love more easily? How do I build up the community into a true fellowship, a body for so great a head?
* Saint Augustine, The City of God (Books 1-10), ed. Boniface Ramsey, trans. William Babcock (New York: New City Press, 2012), 311
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