Hi everyone. . . .5. Differences remain about the role of Mary and the saints . . .
Hi, Kim, and welcome to the forum.
I’ll start with #5.
In Revelation we see two examples of the intercession of the Saints. Two such examples: In Rev. 5:8 (also Rev. 8:3-4) the elders stand before the throne of the Lamb, before the altar in the heavenly sanctuary. They sing hymns of praise and offer up the prayers of the saints on earth, prayer which rises like billowing clouds of incense. In Rev. 6:9-10 the martyred saints are praying imprecatory prayers against their murderers, urging the Lord to avenge their deaths.
This demonstrates that their life in Glory is not one of stasis or passivity, but that they are actively engaged in the life of Glory and all that pertains to it. If they are calling for vengeance (according to the Will of God, since they will not pray against His Will) how much more so will they be active by His Grace in praying that God’s Holy Will be accomplished in the lives of His people who yet remain on earth? Divine charity is not lessened, but increased in Heaven. (And what kind of child ignores his siblings who have fathered in the house of their father for the Family Banquet?
- especially when the Father is not a miser hoarding His gifts to Himself. The greatness and munificence of the Father is glorified by the greatness and munificence of His children, dispensing all from HIS Treasury.)
It is because of their (the Saints) incorporation into the Person of Jesus Christ that they (and the saints on earth) are able to participate in His righteous prayer. (It’s important to have a deep sense of Christ’s indwelling in His Body, the Church, and in each member of that Body; without that sense it’s difficult, then, to “see” the interconnectedness of all the members with the Head and with each member no matter if they are on earth or in Heaven.)
Further, we also know from Scripture that the angels watch over man (including the Son of Man: Mt. 4:11 & Lk. 22:43); therefore they are aware of man’s needs (not on their own power, of course, but by the power they are given by God). Since the angels are to be subject to us, why would the power of men and women now in glory be less than that of these angelic servants of God?
The experience of Catholics in our Communion in Christ which we enjoy with our Blessed Mother and our brothers and sisters, the Saints, testifies to an ever-deepening awareness and love of God. Far from distracting us from love of the Most Holy Trinity, our unity within the Communion of Saints only fosters greater attentiveness to living faithfully in His Light. “I reassure anyone who cares: Devotion to Mary brings us closer to Christ and does the job more quickly than ignoring her does,” (Fr. Mateo, “Refuting the Attack on Mary”, Catholic Answers).
Intercession while living on earth depends on being IN Christ, in a state of grace which sanctifies the soul, thus allowing the person to ask God something for someone else (we participate in the One Mediatorship of Christ. But in Heaven, the person has the Beatific Vision of God and is united to Him “face to Face” and “knows as he is known,” and in a greater position to ask for someone else (since he does not need anything for himself). Therefore, to ask in Christ one of the Blessed to intercede for us is simply communicated to that someone by Christ since there is no other way that person could know what is going on “down here” than by being shown by Christ.
In the Beatific Vision Christ, within Whom the Blessed are more, not less, in union, shows the Blessed the petitions of the brethren on earth, as in God all things are seen. This is not difficult for God to do. Thus we can know with absolute certainty that the Saints know the petitions addressed to them in Christ.
If one denies the lived reality of the Communion of the Saints, then one is denying the power of Christ, for what power we (on earth or in Heaven) have is HIS power in which we participate by virtue of our incorporation into His Body; we, if counted among the blessed, will not be allowed, then, “to share my throne,” Rev. 4:21. Then, St. Stephen, “filled with grace and power” withstanding the Sanhedrin, was divested of that power upon his martyrdom; then St. Peter and St. Paul, who cured people of their spiritual blindness and physical illnesses by virtue of the power of the Lord, lost their power upon their martyrdoms.
If faith gave them (and us) the power to perform such prodigies, what more must sight give? In and through our union with God we are drawn into a deeper union with all who are in Him; we don’t go to Him alone, but in a communion of Divine Love.
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