Death, a supported departure

Part III

Beauty attracts; truth satisfies; and, light expels shadow. The Lord God draws to Himself all creation by life, beauty, truth and love. Grace allows intelligent creatures to respond and enter into His love.

When there is something of value before us, a thing that is both attainable and worthy of pursuit, we desire it. This is normal and the appropriate reaction.

Anything of worth takes effort to acquire. All serious endeavors require preparation. In the modern world, we spend at least eighteen years trying to prepare for a responsible adult life – for some that preparation might continue even further by ongoing formation and studies, sometimes another eight or ten years, finishing their goal “to begin”¹ only at about the age of thirty.

Physically we are free, however, to pursue a goal or not. At times, the amount of effort needed to attain some objective itself may discourage a person.

What motivates us then? What inspires our labor?

All things are done for a final goal, or ultimate purpose.² What motivates us sets our course, and our choices put us on specific paths. While we are free to make choices, we are not able to choose the results that follow. Each fork in the road puts us on a new path.

So it is, that what we choose, and thus how we act, depends fundamentally on each of us alone.

Throughout our lives we are continually confronted with the questions of how desirable is any given goal? And following upon that, then how much effort are we willing to put into attaining it?

For Catholics, this is why there are the Sacraments and the Liturgical Year. This is something for us to consider as we enter once again into a new Liturgical Year with the Consecration of the Church this Sunday. The liturgical life and the sacred Mysteries form us as Catholics, develop us as the children of God, and make us heirs of the eternal Kingdom of Light. Without them it is impossible to be so formed.

Even as a person who may not will, or be able, to put in the long years of studying medicine will never be a physician, so the individual who will not participate in the sacred formation and pedagogy of the Church’s life will never enter into the Kingdom of God – short of a miracle. We are created as radically free beings and our voluntary collaboration with grace is necessary in order to live the divine life of Christ.

No one is brought into salvation without his will and choice to do so.

Even as we must prepare for an adult life in this world, the life of true permanence in God also requires maturity; and the path itself matures us.

O Lord our God, make us worthy

of Thy Dawn that does not pass away,

of Thy Light that never dims,

and of Thy eternal Kingdom with all the saints,

who have labored in Thy vineyard

from morning until night.

To Thee be glory, now and forever. Amen.³

The peace and grace of God offered to us, shlomoh, is wholeness and well-being, but it is our free choice that carries us forward into that healing. Grace offers, and finally brings us into, the “fullness of Christ”⁴.  It elevates us into the fullness of being true disciples of the Christ and heirs of God. This is why the weekly Divine Sacrifice of the Eucharist on Sunday – the Alohoyo Qoorbonoh – the frequent reception of the Divine Mysteries, and consciously observing the Church’s liturgical year are so essential to Christianity: they form us into mature disciples prepared to enter the Kingdom of Light at the end of our days. They are also the easiest means to attain that goal.

Death comes to all, but even before it arrives definitively it often shadows our days. At the end of years following Our Lord, we will be asked to come and join Him in the divine Light. It is for this reason that we were given in the Church the Holy Rozo⁵ of Anointing.

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The Mystery of Anointing fundamentally heals. It is administered to a baptized person who is in danger of death from internal causes. Although often referred to as such, in itself it is not what is called “Last Rites” – which are rather the Holy Viaticum and Apostolic Blessing – and it should not be postponed until the last minute when the person is actually dying. This would be inappropriate and not allow the person to consciously participate in the sacred rite. Also, it should be noted, the secondary purpose of this Sacrament is to restore physical health to the one who receives it if God’s Providence deems a further extension of time beneficial to the person’s well-being and spiritual health. For all these reasons, there is no mention of “death” in the administration of this sacred Rozo.

The sacred oil (“oil of the sick”) used in this sacrament is made solely from olives. Anointing is of course the fundamental notion in the title we give to the Savior of the world: Messiah, Christ – “the Anointed”; and through baptism and anointing we are made members of the Body of Christ and are individually conformed to Him in character and image. Once a year, near end of Lent, the eparchial bishop blesses the sacred oil used for the Sacred Rozo of Anointing. Thus, a single holy oil throughout the eparchy, in each of the parishes, is used to anoint us all into the one Mystical Christ.

This divine Mystery wipes away spiritual scars and purifies us for the future vision of divine Light. In this Rozo, each of the senses is anointed in order to purify them of past sins and dispose them to receive the Light of God should it be our time to leave this valley of tears. Grace in this Sacrament is to restore the garment of paradise and prepare the person for immortality. It fulfills the prayer of the Sedro in Sunday Morning Safro:

O Skillful One, by Thy grace renew our features marred by the corruption of sin

and sculpt us as Thine image …

adorn our bodies with immortality;

clothe us with the raiment of glory

that we may see Thee in the Light.

We beseech Thee, O true Spouse,

prepare us for the joy of the Heavenly Kingdom along with our fathers and mothers,

brothers and sisters, our teachers and all

who have died in the Faith ….

The remote preparation to receive this Sacrament was mentioned above – fidelity to the Catholic life in general, in the Sacraments and in the Liturgical Year – but the immediate preparation for this Mystery is done by properly setting up the person’s room where the Sacrament is to be received. Even more importantly, the invalid person should dispose himself well to grace by a good confession in the Mystery of Penance.

The physical arrangement and preparation was described in a previous bulletin about a month ago. Next week, in the fourth part of this series, the bulletin will reprint that previous description, along with the further particulars to be had at hand for the correct and dignified reception of this great Mystery.

May the eternally Compassionate One grant that each of us be able to receive all the divine Mysteries of His Charity. May each of us have the time, will, and determination to collaborate with grace – while there is still time – and then to receive all that His Mercy has foreseen to strengthen us along this path as disciples.