Answering the Five Objections to the Communion of Saints

It's the month of October.  And in the run-up to Halloween I wanted to cover some different aspects of what is called "the Communion of Saints".  Last time I talked about praying for the deceased.

Today I wanted to discuss a practice which is common to Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, but is rejected by certain other Christians.  I'm referring, of course, to asking for the prayerful intercession of our blessed friends in Heaven.

All Christians agree we are supposed to pray for one another and ask for one another's prayers.  This builds up the community in mutual affection and can bring about powerful results.

In Catholic and Orthodox circles, we believe this role of intercessory prayer continues even after a person goes to be with God in Heaven.  We believe these people, whom we call "the Saints", can receive our prayer requests  - and indeed do pray for us in the presence of God.

There are five boilerplate objections to this practice. Let’s go through them:


Objection 1: “Praying to a Saint is a form of idolatry.  We're only supposed to pray to God.”

This objection is a result of the linguistic evolution of the word "pray".

There was once a time when the word "pray" just meant "make a request".  You can see this meaning preserved in the Dictionary.com entry on the word.

This older usage of the word “pray” survives today in certain rarefied legal contexts, but otherwise has disappeared from modern English.  Now the word "pray" generally means "petition God".

So when the average person hears someone say, "You know…those Catholics pray to Saints", he immediately assumes what is being described is a form of idolatry.

Consequently, you'll almost never hear modern Catholics describing the practice as "praying to the Saints".  We know that terminology doesn’t convey the proper meaning to modern audiences.  So we will instead say, "Ask for the intercession/prayers of the Saints."  

[Oddly enough, the opponents of the Church will always use the older language.  Why?  Perhaps to induce the confusion described above.]

But the bottom line is that Catholics do "make requests" of the Saints.  The request we make is that they pray for us.  Same as you would anyone else.




Objection 2: But they are dead!  The Bible forbids necromancy!

It is true that the Bible forbids necromancy.  The book of Deuteronomy says:

“No one shall be found among you who practices divination, or is a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer, or one who casts spells, or who consults ghosts or spirits, or who seeks oracles from the dead.” – Deuteronomy 18:10-11

But is that really what is going on when a Catholic entreats the prayers of a Saint?  There are two reasons why this is a false comparison.


Not Magic:

First, what is going on when someone is conducting necromancy?

Typically a medium would use some form of magic to channel the spirit of a deceased person and establish a two-way line of communication.  Then he would try to get information out of the spirit - or perhaps enslave it for some nefarious task.

This is vastly different from asking for the intercession of the Saints.  For instance, a Catholic who is about to take an academic exam might quietly say:

"Saint Thomas Aquinas, pray for me"

That student is not trying to conjure the spirit of Saint Thomas Aquinas.  Nor is he trying to get the Saint to reveal secret knowledge of the future or place the spirit under a magic spell.  Nope, he is just putting in a prayer request.

 He probably made the same petition to his friends before leaving for the exam.

Was Jesus Fibbing?:

The other problem with the "They Are Dead" objection is it fails to keep in mind the complete Christian picture of what happens after bodily death.  While they are dead in one sense, they are very much alive in another (more important) sense.

The New Testament teaches in myriad of ways that a person’s conscious soul goes to be with the Lord in Heaven upon bodily death.  This is why Jesus said to the Good Thief:

“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” - Luke 23:43

So when one asserts that these Saints, who died in friendship with Christ, are just plain dead, period … he is unwittingly denying the Gospel.  For it was Jesus Himself who insisted:

“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live.  And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”  - John 11:25-26

Objection 3: OK, they are alive in that sense, but they can't hear you!  They aren't omniscient!

This argument supposes that in order to be aware of all the prayer requests being sent their way, the Saints in Heaven would need to be have the divine attribute of omniscience.  Therefore, asking the Saints for their prayers is impossible and idolatrous.

Let's break this objection down a bit.

Omniscience or Super-Niscience?:

What does it mean to say God is “omniscient”?  Omniscience means God is completely and perfectly aware of all reality – past, present, and future – in a single intuitive act.  Anything short of that would not be true omniscience.

Obviously I am not omniscient.  But if I am really focusing my attention, I can understand two people talking to me simultaneously.  Let’s suppose we increased that number to five people.  Would it demand divine power on my part to understand them?  No, it just requires an expanded intellect and more processing power.  What about 100 people?  Same concept.

Here is the point; the Saint never needs to be omniscient as long as the number of petitioners is finite in number.  He needs to know more than the average human, but he does not need an eternal intuitive grasp on all creation.


Aware of Earthly Events?:

The second part of this objection is whether a Saint can have knowledge of earthly events.  That question is one I have written about elsewhere, but the answer is yes.

Somehow or other, God illumines the minds of those in His presence.  He expands their intellects to heights we cannot imagine while in our mortal bodies.  As Saint Paul said in his letter to the Corinthians:

"For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known." - 1 Corinthians 13:12

Objection 4: But why wouldn't you just go straight to God?  The Bible says Jesus is the one mediator!

This is probably the most common objection.  It is based on an out-of-context snippet from Paul's first letter to Timothy.  Here ‘tis:

"For there is one God. There is also one mediator between God and the human race, the man Christ Jesus." - 1 Timothy 2:5

Once again, the problem with this objection is twofold.


Why the Double Standard?:

First, it proves WAY too much.  Think about it... if asking the Saints to pray for us contradicts the unique mediation of Jesus…  the same would be true for asking anybody to pray for us.  Why?  Because the substance of what you’re doing -(asking someone to pray for you)- is the exact same in both cases.

All you have here is an unexamined double standard.  The person proposing the objection would have no issue asking his neighbor Paul to pray for him.  He would never stop and think:

“Why ask my neighbor Paul to pray for me when I could just go to God directly?  What’s the point of asking for his prayers anyway? Wouldn’t asking my neighbor Paul to pray for me violate the unique mediation of Jesus?”

Nope, it would be seen as sensible, efficacious, and orthodox. But somehow asking Saint Paul to pray for him would confusing, pointless, and violate Christ's unique mediation between God and man.

Why?

Read the Whole Thing:

The other problem with this objection it is terrible exegesis of Saint Paul’s letter to Timothy.  Here is the passage in its entirety:

"First of all, then, I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity. This is good and pleasing to God our savior, who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth. For there is one God. There is also one mediator between God and the human race, the man Christ Jesus." - 1 Timothy 2:1-5

Read in full, Paul is saying the unique mediation of Jesus enables Christians to have a relationship of mutual prayer.  The fact that Jesus has established our peace with God means we can fruitfully pray for one another. The two are not in competition.  

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A typical conversation will involve working through these standard objections.  Sometimes going around in circles and answering them more than once.  (Particularly #4, for some reason)

Then, just when you thought you were done, a final objection is raised.  It usually sounds like this:


Objection 5: This practice is nowhere commanded in the Bible.  Can you show me one place where we're told to do this, or one example of an Apostle doing this?

Now... I have to admit that there is no place in the New Testament where this precise thing is commanded.  The closest you can get is a description in Revelation of the Saints in Heaven offering our prayers to God as incense:

"When he took it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each of the elders held a harp and gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the holy ones." - Revelation 5:8

But that doesn’t quite get you all the way there.  At this point there are two things which can be done.  One defensive, one offensive.


Cuts Both Ways:

First, you can point out that the practice is based on three Biblical principles:

• Intercessory prayer is encourage between members of Christ’s body.
• Souls have continued conscious existence after death.
• The Saints in Heaven can have awareness of earthly events.

The assembly of these three principles provides a sound logical and Biblical basis for asking for the prayers of the Saints in Heaven.  One might compare this to how rich theological concepts like the “Trinity” and the “Hypostatic Union” are not spelled out in Scripture, but can be rightly inferred from the text.

Now we can show how the “Show me one verse” objection can cut both ways:  There is no explicit condemnation of the practice in Scripture either.  Thus, one is justified to say the practice – which is based on Scriptural principals - falls well within the bounds of “Christian liberty”.

In other words, you can turn the demand for a “single verse” around:

"Can you show me one verse in the Bible where this is specifically condemned?  No?  Then why are you going beyond Scripture in condemning it?  You have no basis beyond your own personal preferences.”

But the Best Defense…:

The other thing you can do is dissect the challenge the presumption inside the objection.  The hidden assumption is that all elements of Christian practice need to be grounded in the text of the Bible.  You can show how that premise isn't just wrong... but is totally illogical and would make the Christian faith unworkable.

We'll do that at a later date.