Peace be to you.

Shakespeare speaks of the ills the flesh is erred to.

It is of those ills and sicknesses that we speak in the sacrament of extreme motion.

The sacrament could also be called the sacrament of the anointing of the sick.

First of all, as regards sickness itself.

It does many things to us, not only physically, but also psychologically. First of all, it cuts us off from many occasions of sin.

The will to sin is certainly weakened by physical infirmity.

Then two sickness also manifest the uniqueness of our personality.

We begin to realize that I am I.

Self is confronted with self.

The soul sees itself as it really is.

Sickness breaks the spell that pleasure is everything,

that we ought to go on building bigger and bigger barns,

and that life is worthless unless there is a thrill in it. It enables us also to readjust our sense of

values. We begin to understand the words of our Lord. What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world

and lose his immortal soul.

Then to it can end in death.

There is a world of difference between the way the pagan faces death

and the way the Christian does.

The pagan fears the loss of the body.

The Christian fears the loss of the soul.

To the Christian, the physical life and the world are not everything.

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