Hi everyone – a lapsed Catholic here with a lot of questions, considering coming back to the Church.
I was watching the Colbert Report with my husband last night, and they were talking about the recent canonization ceremonies for the two past Popes. Colbert played some clips of the news coverage from the day, and one news anchor said that there were some “relics” of the past popes there – a piece of skin, in one case, and a vial of blood, in another.
I realize that Popes are priestly, holy people who represent God. But they’re still human. They’re still the created, not the Creator. Should we really be venerating parts of their human remains?
The Use of Relics Proved from the Bible
Although many non-Catholic Christians object to the use of relics, it is important to keep in mind what the Church says about relics. The Church does not say there is some magical power in them. There is nothing in the relic itself, whether a bone of the apostle Peter or water from Lourdes, that has any curative ability. The Church just says that relics may be the occasion of God’s miracles, and in this the Church follows Scripture.
The use of the bones of Elisha brought a dead man to life:
2 Kings 13:20-21
So Elisha died, and they buried him. Now bands of Moabites used to invade the land in the spring of the year. And as a man was being buried, lo, a marauding band was seen and the man was cast into the grave of Elisha; and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood on his feet.
This is an unequivocal biblical example of a miracle being performed by God through contact with the relics of a saint!
Similar are the cases of the woman cured of a hemorrhage by touching the hem of Christ’s cloak (Matt. 9:20-22) and the sick who were healed when Peter’s shadow passed over them (Acts 5:14-16). Even more interesting is the evidence of “second-class” relics of Paul:
Acts 19:11-12
“And God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them”
If these aren’t examples of the use of relics, what are?
In the case of Elisha, a Lazarus-like return from the dead was brought about through the prophet’s bones. In the New Testament cases, physical things (the cloak, the shadow, handkerchiefs and aprons) were used to effect cures. There is a perfect congruity between present-day Catholic practice and ancient practice. If you reject all Catholic relics today as frauds, you should also reject these biblical accounts as frauds.
The Martyrdom of Polycarp
Finally, let’s consider a passage from an ancient document known as “The Martyrdom of Polycarp” which illustrates the reverence that the earliest Christians had for the relics of their fallen comrades.
CHAPTER 18 – THE CHRISTIANS TAKE THE ASHES.
1 When therefore the centurion saw the contentiousness caused by the Jews, he put the body in the midst, as was their custom, and burnt it. 2 Thus we, at last, took up his bones, more precious than precious stones, and finer than gold, and put them where it was meet. 3 There the Lord will permit us to come together according to our power in gladness and joy, and celebrate the birthday of his martyrdom, both in memory of those who have already contested,1 and for the practice and training of those whose fate it shall be.
1 This is almost a technical term for martyrdom, cf. Ignatius’s epistle to Polycarp 1:3.
Polycarp was martyred ca. 155 AD. Since some anti-Catholics claim that the Catholic Church did not exist before the conversion of the Emperor Constantine in the fourth century, this account of Polycarp’s death includes an early example of the veneration of the bones of the Christian Church in accordance with the scriptures long before the Catholic Church “allegedly” even existed!
