Anyone who undertakes seriously to interpret the scriptures must be constantly aware that behind the words confronting him on the Bible page lie three distinct, though closely inter-connected realities: first, the historical objects and events about which the biblical authors are speaking, second the biblical authors themselves, and the communities which they may be supposed to have been addressing in all the complexities of their historical environment, third the actual concepts and words in which the biblical authors formulate the divine meaning which they have perceived.

In the last article I suggested that the sacraments of penance and the anointing of the sick could be seen as parallel paths of return to the eucharist. Each of them belongs to the situation in which a man is prevented from taking part in the eucharist; penance has to do with the obstacles created by sin, anointing with the obstacle of sickness. This is not the most widespread view of the anointing of the sick but there can be very little doubt that it was the ancient view of the Church. For most Catholics ‘extreme unction’ is associated with the deathbed, not with healing; the very name suggests the last moments of life. It is commonly regarded as a preparation for death, and its effect is believed to be primarily an invisible one though it is conceded that an improvement of health may also follow by way of a bonus.

‘Remember that your congregation consists if characters from Saturday Night and Sunday Morning’, said the film critic to a preacher. He was annoyed, as most of us would be. Beer-swilling adulterers like Arthur Seaton may well be present occasionally at mass, but they are not likely to be regular churchgoers; and even if they were, we cannot overlook the vast numbers of ordinary decent Catholics who only want as much to do with such types as charity strictly requires. And if we are reminded that there are also good people in this film, we can still say that they do not adequately represent that great varitations which we can find in most large churches on Sunday. But the reminder does draw attention to an often neglected aspect of our preaching: the congregation.

We left St Augustine at the end of our last article and of book x of the De Trinitate with his image of the divine Trinity in the mind now completely delineated, and comprised in the mind's acts of remembering, understanding, and willing itself. A question, however, remained outstanding: whether there is any real distinction between the mind's memory and understanding of itself or only the verbal one. St Augustine is quite capable of showing the reality of the distinction by an effort of sheer mental introspection, and in fact he will do so in book XIV. But for the moment he is going to illustrate it by observing the lesser trinities the lower levels of human cognition, in sensation, imagination, and mental knowledge of the external, temporal world.