For All the Saints

Yesterday afternoon we had a thorough, wide-ranging, and challenging discussion about saints. In spite of the many anecdotes I hear from members of our congregation, we didn't have any dyed-in-the-wool Catholics at the table. We had a couple few who had childhood memories of Catholicism (Catholic school, Catholic catechism classes), but not many people who were life-long Catholics now centering their Jesus-walk in the Episcopal Church.

The conversation and research was interesting enough, though, that I thought I would process some here for broader consumption.

"Saint" in the Catholic Church (and, to a different extent, in the Orthodox Churches) is a special category of person. The application of "saint" to a subset of the Church is the immediate departure point between Catholic and Protestant (Episcopal, Anglican, Moravian, Presbyterian, Baptist, etc) Churches. Most if not all of the Protestant streams of faith interpret "saint" according to the basic definition of the Greek word (hagios) in the New Testament applied to all believers in Jesus Christ. To believe in Jesus as Lord sets one apart, makes one holy--which is the definition of "hagios" and therefore the definition of "saint." All Christians are saints, not because they are miraculously or conspicuously good, as our common definition of the words indicates, but because their discipleship to Jesus Christ makes them holy, or different from the rest of the world.

In the Catholic Church, a "saint" is someone who has led an exceptionally good life, usually accompanied by verified miracles, often accompanied by martyrdom (or choosing death instead of renouncing the faith.) "Saints" are fast-tracked to heaven after their deaths, and thus are not in Purgatory, where the rest of us common Christians end up after death. Because they have earned immediate glorification, they are heard more directly by God and therefore it helps the prayers of common Christians if those Christians ask for a saint to pray to God for them from heaven. It's like putting in your request with the VP of Customer Service rather than writing directly to the CEO, because the VP has the CEO's ear.

One can go down quite the rabbit hole of Catholic theology in understanding the saints, including journeys through canonization, the differences between honoring, serving, venerating, and worshipping, beatification versus sainthood, and so on. If you'd like to do so, I recommend starting with the Catholic Encyclopedia at NewAdvent.org. (Start with the entry for "Canonization.") The Bellarmine Forum (https://bellarmineforum.org/) also has well-explained information about Catholic theology.

There is much to discuss in the bifurcation between Catholic tradition and Protestant understandings of sainthood. Three things have stood out to me from research and from our conversation yesterday that I want to hold on to, and I would urge others to do the same.

1

Veneration (giving special honor to) and invocation (talking to/praying through) the saints implies that the believer is distant from, or does not have full access to, the triune God. Take the VP/CEO illustration I gave above. If the CEO had an open door policy, and would hear the requests of any customers at any time, why not go to the CEO? It adds unnecessary time, burden, and complication to go through the VP. If we shift the metaphor to something closer to Jesus' preaching, then we ask: Why do you, a daughter or son, go to your brother or sister with a matter that your parent must address, if your parents love you and are ready to hear your every concern? It would break my heart if my son told me that he doesn't think I listen to him, so he tries to get his sister to get what he needs from me. Ugh! The good news of Jesus is that through faith in him we are beloved children of the living God, and can bring everything directly to God.

There is something strange and, I submit to you, unhealthy going on if we feel we cannot approach God directly in prayer but need a lower-level intercessor. (I have a theory that cultural factors in the evolution of the Catholic Church led it to embrace a view of Jesus as inaccessible, and therefore Christians required invocation of Mary and the saints to get one's requests really heard. But that's for another time.)

2

Invocation of saints pigeon-holes the faithful in positions intended to help me get what I want. If St. Anthony is the saint of lost things, then all I remember of St. Anthony is that he's the guy I ask to help me find my car keys. If (as Catholic theology suggests) Anthony is fully alive in heaven with God, then he's a fully alive, complete, glorified, redeemed human being with all the complexities, facets, and characteristics that come with being a real person. But I only talk to him when I've lost my keys? How does it feel to you when a friend only comes to you when they need money for gas? "Listen, can we just hang out and play video games? That's what friendship really means. You're just my friend for my money."

3

The Catholic understanding of saints buttresses the idea that the point of the Christian life is to be good, to do good things. The New Advent and Bellarmine Forum are clear that it's the work of the saints that got them fast-tracked to heaven, and gives them standing to be in God's presence. The good news of Jesus, as we find it in the gospels and Paul's epistles especially, is that God has graciously (by gift) made us children in God's kingdom. Our belonging at God's table--now and forever--is guaranteed in Christ. If we give our loyalty to Christ then it's a done deal. Not just "will be done," but "is done" now.

Good works (and miracles, too!) flow from the same Spirit who puts faith in our hearts. If we are children of the living God, then God is working through us to produce good in our lives. Good works do result in us, not in order that we might be with God but rather because we are with God. We are so thankful for God's gift to us that we seek to emulate Jesus and do good in all things. The relationship between being in God's kingdom and doing good works is precisely opposite what we see in the Catholic doctrine of saints.

Why does this matter?

It matters because we want to follow Jesus as closely as possible. Any intermediary between us and Jesus makes that following harder, more complex, and more confusing. Messing with saints as categorical intercessors for specific departments in an overly bureaucratic heaven clouds our simple desire to listen to Jesus and follow him. Complexity, in this case, is damaging and distracting.

It matters because we are called to be at peace. Agonizing over whether we are saintly enough or may spend an undesirable amount of time in Purgatory is not the life God wants us to lead. God calls us to live in utter security that we are permanently beloved and empowered to serve with joy in the world.

If you have given your loyalty to Jesus Christ, you are holy. You are set apart and different from the rest of the world. You belong permanently in God's family. And you have been given the Holy Spirit. Listen to her, and all will be well.

love,

~emrys

p.s. Wait, what? Listen to "her"? That subject is on the wheel for a future Theology on Tap discussion, coming soon.

"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well . . . for there is a force of love moving through the universe that holds us fast and will never let us go." ~ Julian of Norwich (1342-1416), a saint like you and me