192 THE MEANS OF GRACE 



thereby to obtain forgiveness of his sins and the com- 

 plete remission of the temporal punishments due to them. 

 Thus he will be ready, when God calls him hence, to enter 

 straightway into eternal bliss, without passing through the 

 fiery furnace of purification. It was for this reason that 

 the early Christians appropriately called Extreme Unction 

 'sanantis divinae gratiae dulcedo.' Its true purpose is 

 to restore the soul to complete health and to prepare it 

 for immediate entrance into glory. This is intimated by 

 the Fathers, clearly expressed in the liturgical prayers 

 of the ancient Church, taught as a revealed truth by the 

 leading Scholastics — including Bl. Albert the Great, St. 

 Thomas, St. Bonaventure, Duns Scotus, Richard a Media- 

 villa, Peter de Palude, Innocent V, Aureolus, and Capreo- 

 lus — and acknowledged by the Council of Trent. It 

 often happens that the full recovery of the soul involves 

 such a strong alleviation of bodily suffering that the power 

 of disease is broken and physical recovery follows. In 

 that case the fruition of eternal beatitude is postponed, but 

 it will be all the more glorious if he to whom the privilege 

 has been granted cooperates with the graces bestowed 

 by this wonderful Sacrament." 9 



2. Duty of Receiving the Sacrament. — 

 Though Extreme Unction is not strictly neces- 

 sary for salvation, every Catholic who is danger- 

 ously ill, is in duty bound to receive this Sacra- 

 ment, and should receive it as soon as there is 

 probable danger of death, and not wait till he 

 has become unconscious or entered into agony 



10 



9 J. Kern, S.J., in the Zeitschrift 10 Cfr. St. Alphonsus, Theol. 



fiir kath. Theologie, Innsbruck 1906, Mor., 1. VI, n. 733; Gury, Comp. 

 pp. 617 sqq. Theol. Mor., II, n. 522. 



