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Saints Preserve Us!
A Defense of the Intercession of Saints
For this past St. Theresa LIFE TEEN Spring Retreat, Life XXVII, the theme was "How To Be a Saint." A saint is anyone who is in heaven, so it is our goal as Catholics to get to heaven to be with God and the communion of saints. Among the saints in heaven are the "canonized saints". Through the Church, God has revealed that these saints are in heaven and are fervently praying for us. The intercession of saints is a rich tradition in the Catholic Church. But most, if not all, protestant denominations deny the practice. They see it as blasphemous and that one should only pray to God. In this essay I will provide compelling Biblical evidence to show that the saints in heaven do intercede and pray for us.
Objection 1: Anyone in heaven is dead; they are cut off from the living. (Isaiah 53:8) We can only ask for those who are alive to pray for us.
Is the part of the body of Christ that resides in heaven alive and vibrant, or is it a dead appendage? Here is how one anti-Catholic website puts it:
"A paralyzed limb is still very much part of the body, yet it does not respond to the body’s commands. Similarly, the dead saints remain part of the body of Christ, but there is an effective separation from the living saints."
Of course, no biblical justification is given for this separation. Christ says that he is the vine and we are the branches (John 15:5), and Scripture says that he is the same yesterday today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He is also the conqueror of death:
"Once I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever. I hold the keys to death and the netherworld," (Revelations 1:18).
So if we are connected to him, how can death separate the branches from one another as long as they are connected to the vine?
In Luke 20:33-40 Jesus confronts the Sadducees, a Jewish sect that denied there was a resurrection. They posed this famous dilemma to Jesus:
"Teacher, Moses wrote for us, 'If someone's brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. Then the second and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her," (Luke 20:28-33).
Now Jesus, being clever as always, responded that the Sadducees did not grasp the radically new life the dead will have in heaven:
Jesus said to them, "The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise," (Luke 20:34-36).
The Sadducees, like critics of the true communion of saints, fail to grasp the similar but new life that waits in Heaven. He drives home the point to the Sadducees that there is a resurrection because God has already spoken of it.
That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called 'Lord' the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive," (Luke 20:37-38).
Even though the saints in heaven are dead on earth, they are alive in Christ. But do they intercede for us? First we should look at Paul’s letter to the Hebrews. In chapter 11 he recounts story after story of heroes from the Old Testament. He then tells the Hebrews:
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us," (Hebrews 12:1).
Paul is referring to those heroes he described in chapter 11 that root for the Christians in the Hebrew community now, like a giant celestial stadium that cheers us on. Moreover, in John’s revelation of heaven we get a clear picture of the actions of the saints in the heavenly liturgy.
" . . . The twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each of the elders held a harp and gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the holy ones," (Revelations 5:8).
"Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a gold censer. He was given a great quantity of incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the holy ones, on the gold altar that was before the throne. The smoke of the incense along with the prayers of the holy ones went up before God from the hand of the angel," (Revelations 8:3-4).
As we can see, the preceding verses show that the saints in heaven are alive and that they actively intercede for us on earth.
Objection 2: We are to worship God alone and not pray to anyone else (Exodus 20:2-3).
Let us look at the verse in context:
"I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides me." (Exodus 20:2-3)
We should not worship anyone besides God. However, prayer is not synonymous with worship. Prayer comes from the Latin word precarius, which means "to obtain by entreaty" or obtain by petition or asking.
In old English it was fairly common to use phrases like "I pray thee tell," which would be synonymous with "I ask that you tell." Only recently has prayer become defined as communication solely with God. But so long as those asking for the saints’ intercession have an understanding that God is God and that the saints are not, there is no problem. In fact, in Greek the distinction is made between the adoration and petitions asked of God alone (latria), the honor given to the queen of saints, Mary, (hyperdulia), and finally the veneration given to angels and saints in heaven (dulia) (Mateo 77).
Objection 3: Why should we bother asking the saints to pray for us? What difference does it make whether my friend John or St. John prays for me?
While there is a difference in having the saints pray for us, there is certainly no prohibition from having both people pray for you. As to the difference, there are Biblical precedents for the efficacy of the prayers of holy people. For example, in the Book of Job, God tells Job’s friends that to atone for their blasphemies they should have Job pray for them and offer a sacrifice:
"And it came to pass after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, that the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, ‘I am angry with you and with your two friends; for you have not spoken rightly concerning me, as has my servant Job. Now, therefore, take seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up a holocaust for yourselves; and let my servant Job pray for you; for his prayer I will accept, not to punish you severely. For you have not spoken rightly concerning me, as has my servant Job," (Job 42:7-8).
In addition, the saints are free from sin, which hinders prayers (Psalm 66:18), and they are like God for they "see him as he is" (1 John 3:2). Because of the saints’ place in heaven and favor with God, it is only natural to ask for their intercession as we would any faithful Christian who is in good standing with God.
Objection 4: The Old Testament specifically prohibits "necromancy" or communication with the dead in Deuteronomy 18:10-11. Therefore communicating with the saints in prayer is a sin and should not be practiced.
Once again, the verses must be looked at in context:
"Let there not be found among you anyone who immolates his son or daughter in the fire, nor a fortune-teller, soothsayer, charmer, diviner, or caster of spells, nor one who consults ghosts and spirits or seeks oracles from the dead (necromancers)," (Deuteronomy 18:10-11).
Yes, it is true that the verb "necromance" does mean "to communicate with the dead" and God forbids the practice. But the context refers to using witches and the occult to speak with those who are spiritually dead. This activity is not analogous to praying to the saints. It more closely resembles when Saul consulted the witch of Endor to speak to the prophet Samuel after he died (1 Samuel 28:4-25).
In fact, Christ himself ultimately refutes the charge of necromancy when praying to the saints. In 1 Cor 11:1 we are called to be imitators of Christ, and during his transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-6) Christ communicated with not just one but two dead people, Moses and Elijah! Therefore we should imitate Christ and seek help, through prayers and intercession, from the saints, just as Christ received aid from Moses and Elijah.
Objection 5: According to 1 Tim 2:5 there is one God and Christ is the mediator. No one else mediates for us and this includes the saints. All prayers are to be given to God himself and no one else.
Is anyone else seeing a pattern here? It is very common for arguments against the Catholic faith to center around one or two scriptural verses taken out of context. The key to dismantling the arguments is to seek the truth (John 8:32), find the context the passage was written in, and discover THE AUTHOR’s interpretation as opposed to anyone else’s. That being said, let us take a look at the context of the verse in question:
"For there is one God. There is also one mediator between God and the human race, Christ Jesus, himself human . ." (1 Tim 2:5).
The verse seems to reinforce the idea that our relationship with God is a private solitary one, where we only pray to Him. This would even exclude asking others to pray for us because we could just pray to God and not make anyone, including our friends and family, unnecessary mediators. Is this the case? Of course not! For example, at the beginning of this chapter Paul writes to Timothy:
"First of all, then, I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity. This is good and pleasing to God our savior, who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth," (1 Tim 2:1-4).
Even Paul is encouraging us to pray for one another. It has been suggested that in this letter Paul was addressing a conflict in Ephesus where Christians refused to pray for non-Christians. If that is the case, then in 1 Tim 2:5 Paul is a saying that non-Christians have no recourse (there is one God) and that we need to pray for them because Christ is their only mediator of redemption and grace. Therefore, this verse actually encourages us to pray for and ask for prayers for one another. And since the saints are alive and aware of our needs then it is only prudent and right to ask them to pray for us as well.
As members of the body of Christ we have a special duty to look after and care for one another, as is the will of God. Since the saints and angels are now in heaven their wills are perfectly in line with that of the Father. Therefore, we should seek their help and ask for their prayers and intercession, as any family does when they have a loving and trusting relationship with one another. The saints and the God they serve faithfully are ready to help each of us. They just need one action on our part:
"And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you," (Luke 11:9).
Sources
Father Mateo – Refuting the Attack on Mary
Tim Staples - Nuts and Bolts: A Practical, How-To Guide for Explaining and Defending the Catholic Faith
http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/
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Last updated on Tuesday, May 31, 2005 |
