Logic may be used to give the both statements credence, and pure scriptural faith is necessary as well. Is this synergy, this co-operation, not at the very basis of our holy religion?
- We can feel close to one saint or another because saints are still human beings; in fact, saints are people who have grown into the totality and fullness of what it means to be human. There is nothing separating us except, perhaps, an age difference.
Now, if “regular” human beings naturally search out for friends (and best friends), why shouldn’t the most glorified and perfected human beings do the same, albeit in a greater way? As much as I’ve attacked Franciscan spirituality, for example, I know that St. Francis of Assisi has been praying for me heavily… because he wants me and every other human being saved. In a sense, it’s possible to know all the saints very well, since they share a common holiness within the bounds of eternity.
They were very different by profession, vocation, and personality. Do you think the saints are just statuesque figures that stand with stoic faces before God? Never think they are unknowable names lost to us, remembered only by history! St. Thomas Aquinas is so like me, for example, in so very many ways, that he can only be said to have had an influence on my personality by his enduring prayers. He is closer to me than St. Teresa of Avila, for example, whose method and personality are very different from Aquinas. We’re different people, with different ways… that doesn’t change in Heaven! You might as well ask why we have ‘best friends’, and then just ‘friends’.
- The oldest text we have to prove that saints pray for us is the Holy Bible.
Romans 1:7: “To all that are at Rome, the beloved of God, called to be saints”.
Romans 15:30: “I beseech you, brethren through our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the charity of the Holy Spirit, that you help me in your prayers for me to God.”
1 Corinthians 1:2: “To the church of God that is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints”.
2 Corinthians 1:1: “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother: to the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints that are in all Achaia”.
Ephesians 1:1: “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to all the saints who are at Ephesus…”
Philippians 1:1: “Paul and Timothy, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi…”
Colossians 1:2: “To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ Jesus who are at Colossae”.
The Revelation to St. John 5:6-8: “Behold in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the ancients, a Lamb standing, as it were slain: having seven horns and seven eyes: which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. And when he had opened the book, the four living creatures and the four and twenty ancients fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odours (incense), which are the prayers of the saints”.
Of course, I’d also quote 2 Maccabees, where the priest Onias is given the prayers of Jeremiah from Heaven… but we know the rebels wouldn’t like us quoting things they refuse to regard as Scripture.
On Earth, St. Paul calls every single one of the Christians “saints”, and in Heaven St. John says that those who are praying with the ancients of days are “saints”. There is no distinction between the Body of the saints on Earth and the Body of the saints in Heaven, because all is united in Jesus Christ our Lord. Asking you to pray for me, were you a member of the Catholic Church, would be like asking St. Mary Magdalene to pray for me at this very instant. OUR GOD is a God of the LIVING, not of the dead. They are alive most truly and joyously in eternity. Would we ever deny them that privilege?
