"I'm having trouble with praying to the saints. I know
it's possible, I just can't see why it's necessary." This question came
from a fellow convert. Her conversion, like mine, was
emotional and total and nearly as instantaneous. God simply handed her
the Truth of the Church and reduced her (and continues to reduce her to
tears) at the beauty of 2,000 years of the Faith laid out like a welcome
mat before her. We both (and indeed we all) have been graced with the one true faith; what we don't know is the details.
This type of conversion of the heart means that the mind sometimes
takes a little while to catch up, so my young friend will ask me
questions on occasion, knowing I went through a similar process.
Sometimes, I have looked into it already. Sometimes we have to go
looking for answers and off we trot. This was what I found out in answer
to her question.
Unlike me and my spiritual meanderings, she comes
directly from a Protestant background, so Biblical references are
helpful to her. I've listed them below so you can read them at your
leisure. For the purpose of this explanation, I am going to assume that
you, too, know the truth, but are hungry to know why it should be true.
The Prayers of Petition: Who Needs Them?
1) God doesn't need you. You need God.
First off, we need to understand that God doesn't need
anything. He Is. He can do what He wants, with or without our input.
Petitioning God for you and your own needs or even intercessory prayer
(a prayer that asks God to do something for another person) does not
turn God into a slot machine. Insert prayer, pull handle, receive blessing. As we all know, every petitionary or intercessory prayer is answered with either a yes, a no, or a wait awhile.We need to ask. God wants us to ask, but He has no need of the asking.
2) Prayer is a gift.
The act of prayer is not even our own. It is our response
to grace. The desire to pray is placed in our heart. It is a sign that
we are beginning to cooperate with the Will of God, no matter how
imperfectly. It is often the person praying that God changes in order to
answer the prayer. So, for example, even though you may be praying for a
stubborn coworker who drives you batty, the answer to your prayer may
look a little like this:
 You
haven't thought about that obnoxious co-worker much lately, but in the
middle of an tense discussion with your husband you are suddenly graced
with a vivid understanding of how petty you are being. You are given the
insight to see that he is bothered by your demands, but is perfectly
willing to do it your way to keep the peace. Not only do you see your
own pettiness, but you can see a direct correlation between your
pettiness and the pettiness of that coworker you've been praying for.
The insight into your own character is in answer to that original prayer
and if you could put it into words it would be something like: "Is it
any wonder that this coworker bugs me so much? Everything he does pricks
my conscience!"
I try hard
to remember that there are an infinity of irritants in the world and
most of them bounce off with little notice. It's the irritants that
resonate with our own faults that catch and hold our attention. I know
this may seem off the topic, but it really has a lot to do with the
question of praying to the saints. It has to do with our needs, rather
than God's. My point is that God does not need to be asked to act, and
in a similar way, God does not need the saints to ask either. Neither do
the saints need anything, being in Heaven already.
When
we pray to God to change something in our life, we are responding to
the grace to pray and are cooperating with His will. He will use our
cooperation to change us, to make us more of who He created us to be.
3) Intercessory prayer increases our communion with the Body of Christ.
 It
is a spiritual no-brainer to understand that praying increases our
communion with God. You have to talk to someone to get to know them
better, so that sort of truth about prayer can be intuited without much
research or contemplation. Something about intercessory prayer that
might not be obvious is that we begin to commune with each other as we
pray. Prayer is communication. When we pray for others part of our
communication is our communion with God and also with the person we are
praying for. In other words, we are strengthening our relationship with
that person through God. Strengthening the bonds with another
strengthens the unity of the Body of Christ here on Earth. It brings us
together in community here and helps us remember that we are, in fact,
related and necessary for one another.
Asking
the saints to pray for us is the same thing, only with the larger Body
of Christ. The saints don't need our prayers, being in Heaven already.
God doesn't need our prayers, being God, nor does He need the saint's
prayers. We have need of the saints, though. We need to be closer to
those who have triumphed. We need to build stronger bonds with Heaven
and the residents there. It helps us remember that there is our home,
the more we call upon all the loved ones there.
Our
focus should be Heaven. Our actions should be Prayer. Our life should
be God's. Prayer helps us to make that happen. Prayer is so much more
than what we bargain for and thank God for it!
Scripture Proofs (from this link)
I. We are One Family in Christ in Heaven and on Earth
Eph.
3:14-15- we are all one family ("Catholic") in heaven and on earth,
united together, as children of the Father, through Jesus Christ.
Our brothers and sisters who have gone to heaven before us are
not a different family. We are one and the same family. This is
why, in the Apostles Creed, we profess a belief in the "communion
of saints." There cannot be a "communion" if there is no union.
Loving beings, whether on earth or in heaven, are concerned for other
beings, and this concern is reflected spiritually through prayers
for one another.
Eph. 1:22-23; 5:23-32; Col. 1:18,24 - this family is in Jesus Christ, the head of the body, which is the Church.
1
Cor. 12:12,27; Rom. 12:5; Col. 3:15; Eph. 4:4 - we are the members of
the one body of Christ, supernaturally linked together by our
partaking of the Eucharist.
Rom. 8:35-39 - therefore,
death does not separate the family of God and the love of Christ.
We are still united with each other, even beyond death.
Matt.
17:3; Mark 9:4; Luke 9:30 - Jesus converses with "deceased" Moses and
Elijah. They are more alive than the saints on earth.
Matt.
22:32; Mark 12:27; Luke 20:38 - God is the God of the living not the
dead. The living on earth and in heaven are one family.
Luke
15:7,10 – if the angels and saints experience joy in heaven over our
repentance, then they are still connected to us and are aware of our
behavior.
John 15:1-6 - Jesus is the vine and we are the
branches. The good branches are not cut off at death. They are
alive in heaven.
1 Cor. 4:9 – because we can become a
spectacle not only to men, but to angels as well, this indicates
that angels are aware of our earthly activity. Those in heaven are
connected to those on earth.
1 Cor. 12:26 - when one member
suffers, all suffer. When one is honored, all rejoice. We are in
this together as one family.
1 Cor 13:12; 1 John 3:2 - now
we see in a mirror dimly, but in heaven we see face to face. The
saints are more alive than we are!
Heb. 12:1: we are
surrounded by a great glory cloud (shekinah) of witnesses. The “cloud
of witnesses” refers to the saints who are not only watching us from
above but cheering us on in our race to heaven.
1 Peter
2:9; Rev. 20:6 - we are a royal family of priests by virtue of baptism.
We as priests intercede on behalf of each other.
2
Peter 1:4 - since God is the eternal family and we are His children, we
are partakers of His divine nature as a united family.
1
Cor. 1:2; Rom. 1:7 - we are called to be saints. Saints refer to both
those on earth and in heaven who are in Christ. Proof:
Acts
9:13,32,41; 26:10; 1 Cor. 6:1-2; 14:33; 2 Cor. 1:1; 8:4; 9:1-2; 13:13;
Rom. 8:27; 12:23; 15:25,26, 31; 16:2,15; Eph. 1:1,15,18; 3:8; 5:3;
6:18; Phil. 1:1; 4:22; Col 1:2,4,26; 1 Tm 5:10; Philemon 1:5,7;
Heb. 6:10; 13:24; Jude 1:3; Rev. 11:18; 13:7; 14:12; 16:6;
17:6;18:20,24; Rev 19:8; 20:9 - in these verses, we see that
Christians still living on earth are called "saints."
Matt.
27:52; Eph. 2:19; 3:18; Col. 1:12; 2 Thess. 1:10; Rev. 5:8; 8:3-4;
11:18; 13:10 - in these verses, we also see that "saints" also
refer to those in heaven who united with us.
Dan.
4:13,23; 8:23 – we also see that the angels in heaven are also called
“saints.” The same Hebrew word “qaddiysh” (holy one) is applied to
both humans and angels in heaven. Hence, there are angel saints in
heaven and human saints in heaven and on earth. Loving beings
(whether angels or saints) are concerned for other beings, and
prayer is the spiritual way of expressing that love.
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II. God Desires and Responds to Our Subordinate Mediation / Intercessory Prayer
1
Tim 2:1-2 - because Jesus Christ is the one mediator between God and
man (1 Tim. 2:5), many Protestants deny the Catholic belief that
the saints on earth and in heaven can mediate on our behalf. But
before Paul's teaching about Jesus as the "one mediator," Paul
urges supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be
made for all people. Paul is thus appealing for mediation from
others besides Christ, the one mediator. Why?
1 Tim 2:3 - because
this subordinate mediation is good and acceptable to God our
Savior. Because God is our Father and we are His children, God invites
us to participate in Christ's role as mediator.
1 Tim.
2:5 - therefore, although Jesus Christ is the sole mediator between God
and man, there are many intercessors (subordinate mediators).
1 Cor. 3:9 - God invites us to participate in Christ's work
because we are God's "fellow workers" and one family in the body
of Christ. God wants His children to participate. The phrase used
to describe "fellow workers" is "sunergoi," which literally means
synergists, or cooperators with God in salvific matters. Does God
need fellow workers? Of course not, but this shows how much He, as
Father, loves His children. God wants us to work with Him.
Mark
16:20 - this is another example of how the Lord "worked with them"
("sunergountos"). God cooperates with us. Out of His eternal love, He
invites our participation.
Rom. 8:28 - God "works for
good with" (the Greek is "sunergei eis agathon") those who love
Him. We work as subordinate mediators.
2 Cor. 6:1 - "working
together" (the Greek is "sunergountes") with him, don't accept
His grace in vain. God allows us to participate in His work, not because
He needs our help, but because He loves us and wants to exalt us
in His Son. It is like the father who lets his child join him in
carrying the groceries in the house. The father does not need
help, but he invites the child to assist to raise up the child in
dignity and love.
Heb. 12:1 - the “cloud of witnesses”
(nephos marturon) that we are surrounded by is a great
amphitheatre of witnesses to the earthly race, and they actively
participate and cheer us (the runners) on, in our race to salvation.
1 Peter 2:5 - we are a holy priesthood, instructed to offer
spiritual sacrifices to God. We are therefore subordinate priests
to the Head Priest, but we are still priests who participate in
Christ's work of redemption.
Rev. 1:6, 5:10 - Jesus made us a
kingdom of priests for God. Priests intercede through Christ on
behalf of God's people.
James 5:16; Proverbs 15:8, 29 - the
prayers of the righteous (the saints) have powerful effects. This
is why we ask for their prayers. How much more powerful are the
saints’ prayers in heaven, in whom righteousness has been perfected.
1 Tim 2:5-6 - therefore, it is because Jesus Christ is the one
mediator before God that we can be subordinate mediators. Jesus is
the reason. The Catholic position thus gives Jesus the most
glory. He does it all but loves us so much He desires our
participation. |
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