In defense of the Communion of Saints...

In speaking of the Communion of Saints, I wish to address a question that I have received on a few occasions recently. Some people seem to think that Catholics worship the Saints in heaven, including Mary, our Mother. Some also seem to think that we have many mediators other than Christ. They think that we do not hold Christ as the one true mediator between God and man.

For the record, the Church stands by 1Timothy 2:5, which says, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (RSV). NEVER has the Church gone against this. She has always been careful to point this out when speaking of the Saints and especially Mary.

What 1Tim does not rule out is a subordinate mediation. That is, St Paul never denied a mediation between Jesus Christ and humanity. “When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ […] His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’” (Jn 3,5 RSV). Here we find a mediation just like that made by Mary, Our Lady. She first pleads to Christ on behalf of humanity, then pleads to humanity on behalf of Christ.

The same idea can be used for any person who is in heaven, whoever it may be.

So in no way is it worship. It is honor and gratitude. We learn from the example of the Saints just as we learn from our parents. But it is Christ who we ultimately imitate and conform ourselves to. After all, it is through the Son that we may reach the Father. But what better way could there be to get to the Son than through his mother?

Below are but a few resources to browse for more info:
CCC 956, 957
Lumen Gentium 60
Marialis Cultus 6, 32
The First Council of Constantinople (produced Nicene Creed)
The General Council of Florence

40 days of glory!

“Do no weep, for I shall be more useful to you after my death and I shall help you then more effectively than during my life.” --St Dominic, dying, to his brothers (CCC 956)

Is someone worthless to us when they die? Are we worthless to them when they die? These two questions came to mind during class one day. And they are two questions that I wish many people would ask themselves and seriously think about them. Because then maybe they will understand the Communion of Saints and intercessory prayer.

The answer to these questions is simply NO! How do we know this? We are celebrating the answer right now during these 40 days! When Christ rose from the dead, walked with us for 40 days, then ascended to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to us on the 10th day, Christ gave us the answer to the two questions above.

When Christ died, he died for us—we shared in his death. When he rose from the dead as the firstborn, he did it for us—we share in his life. We did that at our baptism—sinking down into the darkness of the water and rising out to hold the light of Christ on our baptismal candle.

This is the mystery we have been celebrating and still are. This is too great a mystery to limit to one, two, or three days. We have to do it for 50 days!! WHAT A FEAST!!

the Paschal Mystery and our Baptism

From the book On the Holy Spirit by Saint Basil, bishop


To attain holiness, then, we must not only pattern our lives on Christ’s by being gentle, humble and patient, we must also imitate him in his death. Taking Christ for his model, Paul said that he wanted to become like him in his death in the hope that he too would be raised from death to life.

We imitate Christ’s death by being buried with him in baptism. If we ask what this kind of burial means and what benefit we may hope to derive from it, it means first of all making a complete break with our former way of life, and our Lord himself said that this cannot be done unless a man is born again. In other words, we have to begin a new life, and we cannot do so until our previous life has been brought to an end. When runners reach the turning point on a racecourse, they have to pause briefly before they can go back in the opposite direction. So also when we wish to reverse the direction of our lives there must be a pause, or a death, to mark the end of one life and the beginning of another.