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Q: Are saints omnipresent? If they're not, how are we able to pray through their intercession?
Shaun
Dear Shaun:
Roman Catholic Christians, such as ourselves, and Eastern-rite Christians, have always treasured the practice of praying to the saints in heaven. In fact, until the advent of the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s, the important role played by the saints in interceding for us in heaven was accepted by all Christians. Early Christians, for example, often insisted on having their burial places as close as possible to the graves of the Christian martyrs in the hope that this would secure for them the intercession of the martyrs in heaven.
The objections to the practice of praying to saints are hard to understand. The Bible teaches us that we can and should pray for one another. St Paul writes to the Christians in Rome: "I beg of you brothers, for the sake of Our Lord Jesus Christ, join me in the struggle by your prayers to God on my behalf." (Rom: 15-30) And again, to the Christians at Colossae: "Pray for us, too, that God may provide us with an opening to proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am a prisoner. Pray that I may speak it clearly, as I must." (Col: 4-3).
Now in our everyday lives, in the natural world, do we not act as St. Paul did, and sometimes ask our friends and those around us to pray to God on our behalf ? If such prayers have merit, and they do, think of what worth we may attach to prayers offered on our behalf by those dwelling now in God's presence in the glory of heaven, namely, the saints.
The prayers and special reverence which Catholics direct to the saints is sometimes mistaken for the adoration which is to be reserved for God alone. The Catholic Church, however, is quite clear on the distinction between honouring the saints and worshipping God, and while encouraging devotion to the saints, the Church has always recognized the oneness of the saints with all human beings in their need for salvation, and has never regarded the saints as some kind of divine or even semi-divine beings.
This seems to be at the heart of concerns voiced by those who ask how saints can possibly hear prayers from so many people in different parts of the world: namely, that Catholics are attributing God-like powers of omniscience and omnipresence to certain holy men and women. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Nor should the practice of Catholics seeking the intercession of saints be in any way mistaken for some kind of spiritism. Spiritism is the belief that the spirits of dead people can communicate with the living, and vice versa. This is supposedly accomplished by means of an intermediary known as a 'medium'. People claiming such powers have been around for centuries, from the Witch of Endor calling up the ghost of Solomon for Saul (1 Samuel: 28. 7), to those in the modern movement--mid-19th century onwards--who claim to contact the dead through seances, table-tapping, ouija boards and so on.
The Catholic Church strictly forbids such practices as offences against the First Commandment.
Praying to the saints in heaven, who have been perfected and glorified, is not 'communicating with the dead', but raising up our minds and hearts to those who are fully alive in the presence of Christ. Jesus tells us that those in heaven "become like angels and are no longer liable to death" (Luke: 20:36), and that "God is not the God of the dead but of the living. All are alive for him." (Luke 20:38).
Exactly how saints hear our petitions and take them to the throne of God is something of a mystery, but we do know from Christ's own words that those in heaven are not unaware of events on earth. "In the same way, I tell you," said Jesus." there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine virtuous men who have no need of repentance." (Luke 15:7) For this 'rejoicing' to happen, those saints and angels in heaven obviously must have knowledge of something as intimate and secret as a sinner's change of heart, expressed in repentance. How exactly saints in heaven acquire this knowledge we do not know, except to say that they are completely dependent on God both for this knowledge, and for the ability to hear and respond to our petitions.
Through his sacrifice on the Cross, when he died for our sins, Christ is the one mediator who pleads our cause before the Father. St Paul tells us: "There is only one God, and there is only one mediator between God and mankind, himself a man, Christ Jesus, who sacrificed himself as a ransom for them all." (1 Tim: 2:5)
The Catholic Church very strongly emphasizes that Christ is the 'unique mediator', and that the value of the prayerful intercession of saints depends wholly on those prayers being united to the prayer of Jesus before the Father. In speaking of the greatest prayer of the Church, the Eucharistic celebration, the Church states: "This sacrifice of praise is possible only through Christ: he unites the faithful to his person, to his praise, and to his intercession, so that the sacrifice of praise to the Father is offered through Christ and with him, to be accepted in him." (Catechism: 1361)
And again:
"Being more closely united with Christ, those who dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly in holiness....They do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, as they proffer the merits which they acquired on earth through the one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus. So by their fraternal concern is our weakness greatly helped." (Catechism: 956)
God bless,
Father Norbert