Saint Intercession: Prudent or Pagan

"...The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." (James 5:16)

    Unity, in this universal Church, connects its members who have been welcomed into heaven’s gates, those being purified to enter, and those still on their earthly pilgrimage.[1] All Christians are members of this Church, the Body of Christ, most perfectly by the completion of Baptism.[2] All the Church Triumphant, Suffering, and Militant are members of this Body of Christ.[3] We, the Church Militant, seek and pray for the intercession of the Church Triumphant. The Church Triumphant understands, better, the will and desires of God, they share the graces of their earthly merits, and they do intercede in a fraternal concern for us.[4] We pray to these Saints, who in their lives have experienced what we experience, to at least inspire the virtue given them by God in our own lives so as to better understand and love God.[5] We venerate them in obedience to the fourth commandment as our fathers and mothers in the faith; we do so as we recognize the gospel in the way they lived their lives and in the efficaciousness of their intercession. They are our fathers and mothers in faith because of their living witness which inspires us, and by the fact we are indebted to those God has used to bring us to faith. This, however, can this be taken as necromancy because we merely ask for their intercession. [6] 
    Further, we ask for their intercession knowing that in the abundance of charity, in which they now live through complete unity to the God who is love, that they say, "I wish to spend my heaven doing good on earth".[7] "Praying" to them is little more than the prayers of another, who is not God but is closer to God than ourselves. This is to be understood differently from the prayer to God, which is both facilitated and strengthened by the Holy Spirit.[8] The Church Militant in every liturgy seeks the intercession of the Church Triumphant. for the sake of all Church Militant.[9] God’s emphasis in both covenants suggests He desires us to need others for salvation.[10] On several occasions in the Gospels, Jesus lets the faith of others save certain individuals such as the master of the servant in Luke 7, the cripple lowered in from the roof in Matthew 9, the father of the possessed girl in Mark 9, etc.[11] “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful. Elijah was a human being like us, yet he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and for three years and six months, it did not rain upon the land. Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the earth produced its fruit”.[12]
    The hesitation of Protestantism is understandable. After all, the saints only affirm what Protestantism does not approve of, and are examples that Catholicism has not been tried and found wanting, but rather found difficult and not tried.
FN:
  1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000), 954
  2. CCC, 1213.
  3. CCC, 954.
  4. CCC, 956.
  5. CCC, 956/2683., Hebrews 12:1-2
  6. KARLO BROUSSARD, "Praying to Saints and Bible’s Prohibition of Necromancy", Catholic Awnsers. https://www.catholic.com/qa/praying-to-saints-and-bibles-prohibition-of-necromancy?fbclid=IwAR2g6UHj4oTP1h3pc5ROeWOisDqsA2wsEcujSKCrmpTOdfqTXwU3inxQPlQ
  7. 1 John 4:7; St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, "Story of a Soul"
  8. CCC, 2736
  9. The New American Bible, Revised Edition (Washington, DC: Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 2011), at United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, www.usccb.org, Psalm 50:23.; Used in the Ordinary of the Mass “May the Lord accept this sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of his name, for our good and the good of all his holy Church”
  10. CCC, 1964.
  11. Luke 7:1-10; Matthew 9:1–8, Mark 2:1–12, Luke 5:17–26; Mark 9:14-19
  12. James 5:16


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