The Service of Holy Unction:
For the Healing of Our Souls and Bodies
Since its inception, the Orthodox Church has instituted sacraments (mysteries) to unite her members to God in order to become one with Him. This process is known as theosis or deification. In this process, our human nature will be fully restored to the goodness and perfection that God created it in. As we witness in the prayer and hymnography of Holy Week, Jesus Christ came to earth, took on flesh, died and resurrected to save humanity by putting it back to where it was before the free will fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. St. Athanasius of Alexandria put it best: “God became man so that man could become god.” To restore our souls and bodies—with God’s help—we can return to an understanding of the sacraments, and examine one in particular that is most commonly offered usually during Holy Week: Holy Unction (Oil) on Wednesday night. It has a special place during this week, as we are anointed by the priest “for the healing of our soul and body”, thus killing the sin that seeks to kill us by repenting of it and receiving forgiveness from God on high.
In the Orthodox Church, Holy Unction is not limited to Holy Wednesday night or to when someone is near death, sort of like a “last rites” in other churches. (To be sure, the Orthodox Church does not have a “last rites”, but it can offer “extreme unction” when the soul is about to be separated from the body; this is a separate service using the same holy oil.) The Holy Unction is service is prescribed to be offered by seven priests, so that each one can read a Gospel lection and pray over the oil. Most parishes have only one or two priests, but this does not stop the service from being offered or limit its offering, as it is God alone Who sanctifies everything as the priests implore Him to do so. Before the service begins, a table on the solea is set up with a large bowl of extra virgin olive oil and seven lit candles. After each series of an Epistle, Gospel and Prayer over the Oil, the priest extinguishes one candle in the oil as part of the blessing. At the end, the priests anoint one another and the clergy, saying, “The blessing of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ: for the healing of the soul and body of the servant of God, [name], always: now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.” It is like receiving Holy Communion in the Divine Liturgy. Since the two are sacraments, they can only be administered by the clergy, and just as we cannot take a supply of Holy Communion home with us, we cannot take a supply of Holy Unction, either. Once the priest anoints us with a Q-tip or a cotton ball, that piece is to be burned immediately out of respect for the sacrament. Therefore, only prepared Orthodox Christians can receive the Sacrament of Holy Unction.
The healing power of the Holy Oil dates to apostolic times, and it is at this point we can examine the Unction service. The Scripture readings and prayers deal directly with healing, forgiveness and life everlasting. The services start with Psalms 142 and 50, which invoke repentance and beg for deliverance from earthly afflictions of the soul, body and environment. The Canon, or collection of songs, implores Christ to sanctify the oil that it may sanctify us. In the last verse of each Ode of the Canon, we implore the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary to intercede with her Son for this exact purpose. Some Odes, like the first, recall how the Disciples healed with Holy Oil after they were given the power from Jesus Christ to forgive sins (John 20:23). In Ode Three, we see the significance of the olive oil that comes from olives that comes from an olive branch, which is a sign of healing peace dating back to the end of the flood at the time of Noah and the Ark (Genesis 8:11).
The service continues with the Great Ektenia, which the priest or deacon offers, as usual, to “pray to the Lord” for all the heavenly gifts necessary for this world: peace, protection of the Church, the health of our ecclesiastical and civil leaders, and for all of us who have gathered to receive the Holy Unction. Following this, we sing special troparia (hymns) to Christ, the Theotokos and known healers among the saints: Nicholas the “wonder-worker”; Demetrios the “myrrh streaming”; the Great-martyr Pantaleimon; Cosmas and Damian, the “unmercenary healers” (those who healed and refused payment); and James, the Brother of the Lord, whose Epistle we read first on this evening. His words form the commission to the Church to perform and offer this sacrament:
Is anyone among you sick? He should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous has a powerful effect (James 5:14-16).
Other readings teach compassion and mercy, as Christ has shown both on all of us. The first Gospel shows us the compassion of the Samaritan on the man left for dead in the streets (Luke 10:25-37). The second epistle states that “We who are strong ought to bear with the weakness of the weak and not to please ourselves” (Romans 15:1). Both compassion and mercy lead to what we hope to achieve from the Holy Oil: healing, forgiveness and life everlasting.
The priests’ prayers over the Oil all draw from these Scriptural inspirations. One shining example is the Second Prayer:
O Great and Most High God, adorned by all creation, source of wisdom, untraceable depth of goodness, and boundless ocean of tender mercy; O Master, Lover of mankind, the God of eternal and wondrous things Whom no one can conceive or understand: look down favorably upon Thine unworthy servants and hear us. Wherever in Thy Great Name we offer thee this Oil, send down as Thy free gift Thy healing and forgiveness of sins and heal Thy people in Thy Great Mercy. O Lord, thou art easily reconcilable and alone art merciful and the lover of mankind… Thou desirest not the death of a sinner, but rather he might turn back and live… Thou hast said: “Anyone who comes to me I will never drive away” (John 6:37). Thou didst not detest the sinful woman who bathed Thy precious feet with her tears (Luke 7:37-38).
We are thus anointed like Christ was anointed by the sinful woman in the Bridegroom Orthros the night before. We are thus anointed like Christ was anointed by Mary, the sister of Martha, just before He entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. We are thus anointed like Christ was anointed to for our death to sin so that we can overcome it and reunited with our Heavenly Father.