Folia Theologica et Canonica 3. 25/17 (2014)

IUS CANONICUM - Szabolcs Anzelm Szuromi, O.Praem., Crystallization process of the ecclesiastical discipline regarding the sacrament of extreme unction and its canon law historical sources

CRYSTALLIZATION PROCESS OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL DISCIPLINE...

245

of the effective Code of Canon Law by the anointment of the sick “the Church commends to the suffering and glorified Lord the faithful who are dangerously ill so that he may alleviate and save them”.113 Considering the individual ecclesiastical disciplinary sources and their interpretations, we can observe those shifts of emphasis that strove to enlighten even better the character of this sacrament. One of the most significant results of this is the increasingly emerging name of the holy anointment from among a number of names, which is at present as its technical term in primary usage, “sacramentum unctionis infirmo- rum”, that is, the general introduction of the usage of the term, “anointment of the sick”. However, the content of the word has been continuously present in the interpretation of extrema unctio. Long before the commentary literature to the codified canon law was bom, it can be found in that above mentioned letter of St. Hormisdas written on February 15lh 517, but also in the text of the Council of Trient, as well as, in a sufficiently clear form, in the pastoral constitution Et si pastoralis of Pope Benedict XIV written in May 26th 1742. All this reveals that striving of the Church, performing that mission which she received from her founder, with which she wanted to provide for an institutional form, in order that man called to salvation and being saved, who partakes in baptism and experiences losing his stamina; even in serious sickness and in state of mediate or immediate danger of death, may participate in a special way from those graces, which spring from the act of administration of the concrete sacrament {ex opere operato), as well as are bound to the person of the administrator (ex opere operands).

113 CIC Can. 998 - Unctio infirmorum, qua Ecclesia fideles periculose aegrotantes Domino patien- ti et glorificato, ut eos allevet et salvet, commendat, confertur eos liniendo oleo atque verba proferendo in liturgicis libris praescripta.