Taina Sfântului Maslu, îngrijirea bolnavilor şi societatea. Câteva consideraţii sociologice

Abstract

The present study tackles with several shades regarding the sociological aspects of the work of the Sacrament of the Holy Unction in the human being. Therefore, the person who is only somatically healthy can be spiritually sick, while the person who suffers from a bodily disease may be spiritually healthy and rich.
The sick soul is “the object of research and therapy” of the theologian, respectively of the priest, through whom Jesus Christ works. The sick body is “the battlefield” on which the therapist exercises his mastery and gift by means of using a variety of scientific and medical strategies. But the person who is either bodily sick or soul sick represents a theme for reflection and decision for the celestial community as well as for human society.
An apparent dilemma is trying to be solved using these two coordinates: medical healing vs. spiritual therapy. The harmony between these two elements, apparently antipodes, is resolved by the Sacrament of the Holy Unction, a sacred domain in which Nicolaus Cuzeums’ concept of “coincidentia opositosum” is experimented mystagogically.