“They drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.” Mark 6:13

Our reflection verse today comes from Mark’s gospel. It tells of the Twelve apostles anointing the ill. The church teaches that the Anointing of the Sick is a sacrament for the seriously ill or those nearing the end of their lives. It intends to provide them with spiritual strength and comfort. Fr. Rolheiser writes that an elderly monk had asked him how to best prepare for his death. So how do we prepare to die? How do we live so that death does not catch us unaware? What do we do so we don’t leave this world with too much unfinished business? The first thing to note is that we don’t prepare for death by withdrawing from life. The opposite is true. What prepares us for death, anoints us for it, in Christ’s phrase, is a deeper, more intimate, fuller entry into life. We get ready for death by beginning to live our lives as we should have been living them all along. How do we do that? We prepare to die by pushing ourselves to love less narrowly. In that sense, readying ourselves for death is an ever-widening entry into life. John Powell, in his book Unconditional Love, tells the story of a young student who was dying of cancer. In the final stages of his illness, he came to see Powell and said something to this effect: “Father, you once told us something in class that has made it easier for me to die young. You said that there are only two potential tragedies in life, and dying young isn’t one of them. These are the two tragedies: If you go through life and don’t love and if you go through life and you don’t tell those whom you love that you love them. When the doctors told me that my cancer was terminal, I realized how much I’d been loved. I’ve been able to tell my family and others how much they mean to me. I’ve expressed love. People ask me, `What’s it like being 24 years old and dying?’ I tell them: `It’s not so bad. It beats being 50 years old and having no values!’” We prepare ourselves for death by loving deeply and by expressing love, appreciation, and gratitude to each other.