September 25, 1947prev home next
Jesus says:
“You have been asked whether the oil used by my disciples to heal the sick had an exclusively curative purpose.
“I have already spoken about this in the Work. But I sympathize with those who do not find the exact point in such a vast work and thus repeat: the oil had a curative power alone. Indeed, it did not even have that in a special way. It had the usual curative power of the oil which in my time was widely used in the form of ointment to be rubbed in or spread over the diseased areas, either alone or with resins and essences. The usual power, on its own, which was quite relative in certain serious illnesses that had already reached a lethal or chronic stage. Precisely the ones which were presented to my disciples because every treatment for them had been declared ineffective.
“It was not, then, the oil on its own that healed them, when applied by my disciples, but the power I had given them that healed. The oil was only the means used so that my power, communicated to the Apostles, would not take on a form which my enemies and those of my disciples could denounce as demonic or magical.
“In that way, and in that way alone, the oil healed bodies. In that way, and in that way alone, it was the oil, until I instituted the Sacrament of Holy Anointing. Then the Holy Oil, prepared according to the rules of the Mosaic liturgy, acquired the power to heal the wounds of the soul and cancel out their signs, too - the scars remaining after the absolution of sins obtained after a sincere confession and through the merits of my sacrifice.
“Two very different powers of the oil. For those sick in their members, and until the institution of the Sacrament of Anointing, to heal the diseases of the body. For the dying, close to judgment, to heal the soul before its encounter with God the Judge and, if God should benignly accede to the requests of relatives, to restore health to the body, too, granting additional time in the world to acquire new merits, or simply merits, if the one who obtained physical health, too, through the Sacrament had not previously acquired them.
“To conclude, the oil poured on the sick by the disciples was not a sacrament until after I instituted the Sacrament to be applied in the face of death, according to the manner taught by Wisdom.”322
322 Exodus 30:22-23.