Catholic Claire

Sainthood

There has been some speculation already in the media (and other circles) as to whether the late John Paul II will be declared a saint. Whether or not this pronouncement is official, he is certainly a good example of why Catholics honour saints.

Being married to a non-Catholic, I know that the issue of honouring the saints is one that is frequently misunderstood by those outside of the Catholic Church, and the recent public suffering and death of Pope John Paul II seem to me to be a good chance to illustrate and explain our thinking in this matter.

First and foremost: no Catholic places a saint above God, nor do we imagine that they are on an equal footing to God. Prayer to God is the most important prayer and this is the relationship to be cultivated among all others. Nobody says we must pray to the saints. But it is offered as a path to God.

The first reason for this is that, although Jesus is the ultimate and most perfect example of how we should move towards God, Jesus was, at once human and divine, a nature we only partially share. True, He was fully human, but His divine aspect probably makes most people realise that His perfection is hard to achieve for frail humanity. This is where the saints come in. The suffering of Jesus was many years ago in a culture that we may find hard to envisage. The suffering of John Paul II was clearly seen by all and understood. Saints such as Mother Teresa show us that it is possible to renounce worldly goods, even in this day and age. Saints such as Maximilian Kolbe show us how to truly love our neighbour. These saints, by their examples, show us that it is possible for us to live the teachings of Jesus.

Those who have been to Mass and listened to the homily on All Saints Day, will be aware that the Church teaches that all those who have achieved Heaven are saints. There are many unrecognised saints in Heaven and also on Earth. The reason for naming certain people as saints, therefore, corresponds to this need for examples that can be held up. These are people whose lives we know about, who we can study and whose example we can follow. They offer diverse paths to God. Diverse as we humans are, these many different paths offer, hopefully, something for everyone.

The second aspect of saints that is often misunderstood is the idea of praying to them. At the Transfiguration, Old Testament figures apppeared and spoke with Jesus. We are told that he is the God of Moses and Elijah, but these people are dead. Yet in God they are still alive: we believe that we all go on to eternal life after this existence. The Church believes that we are a continuous community of living and dead - the dead are still part of the family, but they are now in Heaven. Bearing that in mind, now think of a time when we are in need: perhaps we are sick or troubled. If we are able to do so, we recognise that the best course of action is to turn to others for help: doctors and nurses for palliative care in sickness, others for financial or physical assistance in our time of need. If we believe in God, then we believe that He can achieve anything and therefore asking Him for help is the most effective thing of all. Because few of us are able to pray constantly, we often ask others - members of our family and friends or church community to pray for us. We probably wouldn't ask somebody we believed to be thoroughly anti-religion to do so, or somebody we believed to be wicked. When we ask the saints to intercede, this is exactly the same. They are members of our Church community and, knowing their lives, we know them as we know family or friends. Therefore, to ask their intercessions is just the same as asking family or friends. Furthermore, knowing their lives and believing them to be now with God, we believe that their prayer is going to be very effective because of their holiness.

There are many hundreds of saints and holy people honoured by the Church, and those who honour them often identify with one or more who they feel are relevant to them in some way. Saints who share their name, or whose lives are particularly attractive to that person for some reason. These saints are like friends to whom we can turn for inspiration in our hour of difficulty.

The third misconception about saints from outside the Church is that Catholics believe that these saints have divine powers. Perhaps this is not well articulated because, within the Church, it is assumed to be well-enough understood. We do believe that saints have worked and do work miracles, however, this power is the power of God working through them, in the same way that the Apostles were able to heal the lame and cast out demons. They are vessels for God's power and He manifests Himself through them. In many cases, they also serve as teachers about God's message, expounding upon Christ's teachings in different ways to bring His message to more people in ways that they can understand.

Thus, the importance of the saints within the Catholic Church is two-fold: as an example to show us different paths to God and to show us that Jesus's message is still relevant to us and possible for us to live; and also as friends to help us through their prayers. Furthermore, they are vessels for the manifestation of God's divine power and teachers about God's message.

Posted by dragonbabies at April 13, 2005 07:48 AM