Fathers

James 5

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Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies. You have lived in luxury on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and you have murdered the righteous one. He doesn’t resist you. Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receives the early and late rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Don’t grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won’t be judged. Behold, the judge stands at the door. Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of perseverance, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we call them blessed who endured. You have heard of the perseverance of Job, and have seen the Lord in the outcome, and how the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. But above all things, my brothers, don’t swear— not by heaven, or by the earth, or by any other oath; but let your “yes” be “yes”, and your “no”, “no”, so that you don’t fall into hypocrisy. Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praises. Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it didn’t rain on the earth for three years and six months. He prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. Brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

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What the Fathers say

James 5:15

Western Saints

Bede

And if he is in sins, they will be forgiven him. Many people, due to sins committed in the soul, are punished with sickness or even death of the body. Hence the apostle told the Corinthians, who were accustomed to receive the body of the Lord unworthily: Therefore many among you are weak and ill, and many sleep (1 Corinthians 11). If therefore the sick are in sins, and they have confessed these to the elders of the Church, and have endeavored with a perfect heart to abandon and correct them, they will be forgiven. …

Commentary on the Catholic Epistles ↗

Bonaventure

Extreme unction is the Sacrament of those departing from this life, preparing and disposing them for perfect health; it avails also for the removal of venial sins and for the recovery of present health, if it be expedient for the sick person. This Sacrament has efficacy both for arousing devotion and for remitting venial sins and for more easily removing the dross of sins. …

Breviloquium, Part 6 ↗