The Communion of Saints
This is No. 14 in the series. Please read my introduction and explanation here.
O, the saints that have gone before. What a “cloud of witnesses” 1 we have in so many of the men and women the Catholic Church has determined are worthy of canonization as saints. Followers of Christ who have sacrificed and suffered for his name, pouring out their lives unto death because they saw “him who is invisible.” 2
But though we would do well to emulate them, we err if we idolize them and ascribe to them powers that only belong to God. In conferring on saints the roles of patron and intercessor, the Catholic Church in effect sets them up in place of God.
Jesus taught us to pray to the Father.3 He invited us to pray to himself.4 In the book of Romans, Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us.5 But nowhere in Scripture do we read that we can implore the dead in Christ to intercede on our behalf. If we are praying to saints for favors, even if the favors are actually granted by God, are we not crediting them with the power to obtain them? That’s what the Church says in her Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium (No. 50), “It is supremely fitting, therefore, that we love those friends and coheirs of Jesus Christ, who are also our brothers and extraordinary benefactors, that we render due thanks to God for them…and ‘suppliantly invoke them and have recourse to their prayers, their power and help in obtaining benefits from God through His Son, Jesus Christ, who is our Redeemer and Saviour.’” (italics mine)
When we, the living, pray to God for someone and he gives or does what we asked him for, would we dare to ascribe to ourselves “power” in gaining that benefit? Don’t we instead simply recognize that it is God’s love for us and them that motivated him to bless us this way?
Shrine to St. Anthony
But the Catholic Church considers the dead saints to have this power by virtue of their glorified status and based on Jesus’ parable of the talents in Matthew 25. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2683): “When they entered into the joy of their Master, they were ‘put in charge of many things.’ Their intercession is their most exalted service to God’s plan. We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world.” This includes even ordinary Catholics like deceased family members, as is stated in the same paragraph, “The witnesses who have preceded us into the kingdom, especially those whom the Church recognizes as saints, share in the living tradition of prayer”(italics mine). So some Catholics pray to their own mothers and fathers.
This is so similar to ancestor worship in some Eastern religions. I acknowledge that Catholics will reject the comparison, insisting that these saints are intercessors only. But if they are praying to them, ascribing spiritual powers to them, assigning feast days for them, building shrines to them and kneeling before images of them…as I previously wrote regarding their practices surrounding the cult of Mary, what element is missing without which it does not connote worship?
In addition to the lack of Scriptural support for praying to saints and the effectual idolization of patron saints for everything from actresses to zoos, God specifically prohibits and condemns trying to “inquire of the dead.”6 The Hebrew word translated here “inquire” and in some translations “consult” implies to request or ask.
In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews we have what some call the “Hall of Faith.” It’s a “Who’s Who” of men and women who lived and died “by faith.” Some named, others not, but all held up as examples to follow…a “cloud of witnesses” surrounding us, to whom we can look for inspiration and guidance. Not to contact for guidance or help, but to serve as a template or an ideal as we learn by their example what it means to live by faith.
The Catholic Church’s teachings about dead saints and the resulting practices centered on them, detract from the praise and glory and worship due God alone. I don’t deny the genuine love for God that many Catholics display. So why are they willing to take what belongs to him and give it to another?
1 Hebrews 12:1 2 Hebrews 11:27 3 Matthew 6:9 4 John 14:14 5 Romans 8:26-27 6 Deuteronomy 18:11
Interesting how this got started. Peter Brown of Princeton has shown that paganism coexisted with the early church for centuries and that bishops were expected to demonstrate intercession through pagan like practices and powers in competition. From a review of his Cult of the Saints: “Following the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, the cult of the saints was the dominant form of religion in Christian Europe. In this elegantly written work, Peter Brown explores the role of tombs, shrines, relics, and pilgrimages connected with the sacred bodies of the saints. He shows how men and women living in harsh and sometimes barbaric times relied upon the merciful intercession of the holy dead to obtain justice, forgiveness, and to find new ways to accept their fellows. Challenging the common treatment of the cult as an outbreak of superstition among the lower classes, Brown demonstrates how this form of religiousity engaged the finest minds of the Church and elicited from members of the educated upper classes some of their most splendid achievements in poetry, literature, and the patronage of the arts.”
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Thank you for reading and commenting, Ken. Unfortunately, I think it’s safe to say that the cult of saints isn’t the only outgrowth of pagan influence in the church. I appreciate this information.
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You refer the saints in heaven as dead persons – by doing so you nullify what Christ said in John 11:25-26. Even Christ Himself, when He was on earth, conversed with Moses and Elijah (Mat 17:3, Mark 9:4). You can contact saints on earth by phone, email, skype, texting or you meet them physically. How about saints in heaven? John of Revelation was able to converse with saints (elders) in heaven (Rev 5:5, 7:13-14). Contrary to what you falsely believe (as taught by your evangelical neighbors/friends/pastors) the saints in heaven are alive. We can ask saints on earth to pray for us then we can ask saints in heaven, who are alive, to do the same. If by doing so saints on earth do not replace God then neither do saints in heaven. You cited Lumen Gentium No 50 but ignore the statement “from God through His Son, Jesus Christ, who is our Redeemer and Saviour”. When we ask saints, be they on earth or in heaven, to pray for us, it is God through Christ who answers prayer and who will do miracle through their intercession. Do not confuse communion of saints with divination and magic, which are forbidden (refer to 2115 to 2117 of Catechism). You have problem with Catholics giving respect to saints in heaven by building shrine etc. Do you still keep photos of your late beloved (and devout Catholic) parents? If yes, would you stick them in toilet or garbage bin? Are you mad if someone spits on or vandalize their photos?
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