The Holy Ones
Saints are "holy ones" who have led a life in union with God through the grace of Christ and received the reward of eternal life. In other words, they have made it to Heaven.
Saints are "holy ones" who have led a life in union with God through the grace of Christ and received the reward of eternal life. In other words, they have made it to Heaven.
Communion of Saints
The Church is called the Communion of Saints, of the Holy Ones. (See the Catechism). The Communion of Saints is made up of three parts: Church Triumphant - those who have made it to Heaven; Church Militant - those who continue the "fight" towards holiness here on Earth; and Church Suffering - those who are being purified in PurgatoryThe Church Community
The saints in heaven offer to God the prayers of the saints (in progress) on earth. We call this intercessory prayer (See section below). St. John saw that "the twenty-four elders [the leaders of the people of God in heaven] fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints" (Rev. 5:8). The members of the Church on Earth pray for the souls in purgatory (CCC, 958). In Maccabees, the sacred writer proclaims "And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness bad great grace laid up for them. It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.”(Emphasis added; 2 Macc 12:45, Vulgate).
Honor v.s. Worship
I told a story comparing the honoring of saints as role models in our lives to my emulation of Fred Lynn when I was a young (and much thinner) baseball player. I continued the analogy in describing kids today who collect sports bobbleheads of their favorite players. When we keep statues of Saints we don't worship the statue, but they do serve as reminders of the lives they led, in particular opening themselves to the will of God. I concluded the metaphor by drawing the similarities between collecting baseball cards and keeping prayer cards.
In a nutshell - Saints are our role models during the before and after periods of their lives. In other words, they have been there and done that. If God can take those people (and some of them were scumbags before their conversions) and turn them into saints, then there must be hope for me and you. For some, the thought of imitating a human saint is more accessible than being Jesus because after all, He is God. God, in his infinite wisdom understood we would need earthly role models to follow. The Communion of Saints is another of God's gifts of love.
We often join prayer chains and ask our friends to pray for us and loved ones. We all know someone we consider a prayer warrior who is a constantly praying for others successfully. Sometimes we may even think they have a hotline to God. In short, we are accustomed to asking others to pray for us now. This is precisely what we do when we ask the saints to pray for us.
Relics and Statues
The use of the bones of Elisha brought a dead man to life: "So Elisha died, and they buried him. Now bands of Moabites used to invade the land in the spring of the year. And as a man was being buried, lo, a marauding band was seen and the man was cast into the grave of Elisha; and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood on his feet" (2 Kgs. 13:20-21). This is an unequivocal biblical example of a miracle being performed by God through contact with the relics of a saint!"[An] angel came and stood at the altar [in heaven] with a golden censer; and he was given much incense to mingle with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne; and the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God" (Rev. 8:3–4).In particular, we should ask the intercession of those Christians in heaven, who have already had their sanctification completed, for "[t]he prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects" (Jas. 5:16).
Relics and Statues
Similar are the cases of the woman cured of a hemorrhage by touching the hem of Christ’s cloak (Matt. 9:20-22) and the sick who were healed when Peter’s shadow passed over them (Acts 5:14-16). "And God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them" (Acts 19:11-12).
CANONIZATION:
When a person is canonized as a saint, a solemn declaration is issued by the Pope that a deceased member of the faithful may be proposed as a model and intercessor to the Christian faithful and venerated as a saint on the basis of the fact that the person lived a life of heroic virtue or remained faithful to God through martyrdom (CCC 828 and 957).
There are four stages in the process towards sainthood:
For a more detailed account visit EWTN's article on the subject.
When a person is canonized as a saint, a solemn declaration is issued by the Pope that a deceased member of the faithful may be proposed as a model and intercessor to the Christian faithful and venerated as a saint on the basis of the fact that the person lived a life of heroic virtue or remained faithful to God through martyrdom (CCC 828 and 957).
There are four stages in the process towards sainthood:
- Servant of God - when their cause is opened
- Venerable - Pope recognizes the heroic virtue of the person
- Blessed - once one miracle has been established to be attributable to the person's intercession
- Saint - 2 miracles and then canonized; public prayer to the Saint then permitted
For a more detailed account visit EWTN's article on the subject.
FURTHER READING:
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