In the Church's Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, through the ministry of the priest, it is Jesus who touches the sick to heal them from sin and sometimes even from physical ailment. His cures were signs of the arrival of the Kingdom of God. The core message of his healing tells us of his plan to conquer sin and death by his dying and rising.
                The Rite of Anointing tells us there is no need to wait until a person is at the point of death to receive the Sacrament. A careful judgment about the serious nature of the illness is sufficient. When the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick is given, the hoped-for affect is that, if it is God's will, the person be physically healed of illness. But even if there is no physical healing, the primary effect of the Sacrament is a spiritual healing by which the sick person receives the Holy Spirit's gift of peace and courage to deal with the difficulties that accompany serious illness or the frailty of old age.                  

                  Anointing of the Sick Sacarment is one of the great sacraments of the Church. We have seen seriously ill people improve dramatically in their physical health after being anointed with sacramentally blessed oil. We have seen other people who were anointed not improve in their physical health but receive emotional and spiritual strengthening to embrace illness or prepare for death.   
                 The Catholic Catechism describes the effects of the Anointing of the Sick as follows: the uniting of the person’s suffering to the suffering of Christ for the good of the person and the Church; the strengthening, peace, and courage to endure the sufferings of illness or old age; the forgiveness of sins, if the sick person has not been able to obtain it through the sacrament of penance; the restoration of health, if God deems it is conducive to the salvation of one’s soul; and, preparation for passing over to eternal life (CCC 1532).