Insights: December 2004 Archives

Apparently some non-Catholic readers were scandalized by my reference to praying to the saints, so I wanted to explain and clarify things.

Catholics believe in a concept, articulated in the Nicene Creed which has been the standard of the Christian faith since 325 A.D. (it came from the council that first defended Christ's divinity), called the Communion of Saints. The Communion of Saints says that there is a kind of unity or bond among all believers. "Fellowship" is the way some translations of Scripture express the concept.

One of the concepts behind the Communion of Saints is that the saints who have gone before us are around us and can hear our prayers. This is demonstrated by Hebrews 12:1 (which says we are surrounded by the saints who have gone before), Hebrews 12:23 (which says the saints are present when we worship), and Revelation 5:8, the elders in heaven carry the prayers of the saints (incense) to the throne room of God.

Even if we did not know from the testimony of Scripture that the saints are around us and carry our prayers to the throne room of God, it would make sense that we could ask for their prayers and they could intercede for us. When my mother died, I wanted very much to talk to her. I reasoned that I could pray to God and ask him to give her a message for me. He could then do so if He so willed. Then I said that I'll just talk to her and intend the same thing; i.e., instead of praying, "God, could you please tell my mom I love you," just tell God that when I say, "Mom, I love you", I mean "God, could you please ..." etc.

This is how I came to accept the communion of the saints.

Now, about the concept of "praying to" saints.

I was thinking the other day about marriage in the life to come. We know that Jesus said there would be no marriage at the resurrection due to what he told the Sadducees who tried to trip him up. A lot of people assume this means that there will be no sex, no procreation, or either. I'm coming to the conclusion that this is not necessarily so, and let me explain why.

Adam and Eve were created in a state of original justice, and in that state, God commanded them to be fruitful and multiply. That means sex and procreation. In fact, St. Thomas taught that before the Fall, sex was (or would have been, depending on your perspective) immensely more pleasurable and enjoyable because of the right ordering of the passions (feelings/emotions). All of this is standard Catholic teaching.

Now, also standard Catholic teaching is that at the Resurrection, we will be not only restored to our state before the Fall, but to a better condition. It's incompatible with this to think that we will be barren, which is always a curse in Scripture, or that we will have no sex, which is the first commandment given to Adam and Eve. The Resurrection will in every other way be compatible with our existing bodies, why would this be an exception?

I have a pet peeve. My pet peeve is the conception of heaven as an ethereal place where we will spend eternity floating around the clouds and strumming harps. There is a sister pet peeve: people who think Heaven is like an earthly Mass (except it's eternal). Not very attractive for people who can barely stand an hour liturgy. (Hear me out on this one.)

That is categorically not how we will spend our eternity. In fact, we won't be spending our eternity in heaven, you may be surprised to learn. The reason Scripture says we will be resurrected in the flesh and there will be a new heavens and a new earth is so that we can live on that new earth. We will receive our bodies back and return to earthly life! How people who confess the "resurrection of the body" every week can think we will be floating around the clouds for all eternity is frankly beyond me.

Jesus's resurrection was a pattern for our own. Yes, we will have the same glorified body he had, the one that can walk through walls and appear at random and can eat.

What will we be spending all eternity doing? Well we sure won't be doing what the angels of Ezekiel are doing, singing "holy, holy, holy" endlessly. We will be doing what Adam and Eve were destined to do in the beginning — be co-creators with God and doing what our heart desires to do. Basically what our hearts truly want to do on earth (once you strip away the fallen nature), except that our hearts and intentions will be upright, which will actually enable us to get things done. Engineers will be able to build. Artists will be able to create whatever they want (without the concern of "making a living"!). Musicians will create all the opuses they want. The difference is that we will do these things in worship to God, and assisted by him.

So it is true that we will worship God endlessly; the problem is with people's definition of worship. We won't be standing up singing hymns without end (unless that's our hearts desire). We will worship God in what we do. Will it be an eternal liturgy? Yes, but liturgy means "work of the people". Again, our liturgy will be using the gifts God gave us and using them to glorify God. But by the time we get there, wanting to glorify God will be totally natural to us and pretty much indistinguishable from what we do now, except it will be more successful and will make us happier (technically, blessed). Everything that is now wrong will be set right, and then God will invite us to do what we always wanted to do in the first place but couldn't due to our fallen nature.

It's almost like this life is a practice run for the life to come. You can't appreciate something good until you've experienced bad first. Once you know bad, you truly appreciate good. This life is bad, but having experienced it, we'll appreciate all the more the life to come.

So don't perpetuate this myth about harps and clouds and crap. Our destination is not heaven, it's a new heavens and a new earth, where we will live in bodily form. Our job will not be to inflate the ego of God by telling him how wonderful he is; it will be to carry out our heart's true desires (and in that, glorify God).

All people are called to holiness; as it is written, "Be holy, as I am holy." And Jesus said, "Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." This is a pretty tall order, but we don't always know how to live this out on a day-to-day basis.

I think the key to holiness lies in reining in and reigning over the passions. What are the passions? That's classics-speak for (roughly speaking) our emotions and feelings; the force that drives our heart. Passions in and of themselves aren't bad. But whenever our passions are out of balance in our lives, trouble reigns. First of all, our perceptions are clouded and our discernment starts to go blind. We start to interpret things wrongly, and that's when needless arguments start. And, we become much more prone to sin.

I recently discovered a virtue that I realized I had been seriously lacking: Meekness.

I never really realized until this Immaculate Conception that I never really knew what the meaning of "meek" was. I knew it wasn't a matter of allowing yourself to be a doormat, but other than the fact that it had something to do with non-aggression, I never quite grasped what it was.

There is a reading in my daily devotional, "In Conversation With God" (an excellent series by Francis Fernandez), which describes it. Basically, it is the ability to remain serene and unperturbed in the face of provocation. It is the ability to respond proportionally, with only the appropriate degree of emotion. "[The meek] are like glassware so well packed into straw or hay that it is not broken when it is struck. Meekness is like a strong shield which blunts and shatters the sharp arrows of anger. The meek are like people dressed in garments of thick quilted cotton which protect them without harming anyone else." (F. Osuna, Third Spiritual Alphabet, III, 4). "Anger in all its many forms is the material on which this virtue has to work. Meekness controls and directs it, so that it is aroused only when necessary and to the extent to which it is necessary." Meekness is really a form of strength: the strength to control one's emotions and not lash out inappropriately.

I thought I was pretty virtuous until I realized the implications of this definition of meekness. It means no more yelling at my computer when things don't go right. It means no more angry expletives. (Contrary to popular impression, I don't think it is intrinsically wrong to use profanity; but if it comes out as a reaction to circumstances, it is probably a symptom of lack of meekness.) It means not getting agitated when things don't go my way. It also means not getting upset &mdash at all &mdash when someone provokes me, no matter what it is.

So I do see God really cultivating this virtue in my life right now, but obvious it needs some time before it totally bears fruit. And it is a virtue I want to cultivate. So pray for me, a sinner!

A few years ago I went through some struggles as I tried to discipline myself to pray every day. While baptized a Catholic as an infant, I came to give my life to Christ through an Evangelical mode, and I had a strong aversion to rote prayers (especially those filled with Thees and Thous and unfamiliar four-syllable words). Yet when I tried to pray extemporaneously (particularly in the morning), I usually ended up falling asleep. (Folks who were with me in IVCF can attest to that.)

Then, working from the conviction that anything that is worth praying is likely worth praying every day, I hit upon a way to balance between extemporaneous prayers from the heart and rote memorized prayers. The answer: Write my own rote prayers in my own words praying for those things I felt I needed to pray for.

Ever had a complaint about someone or something, but had no recourse for addressing it, driving you to mumble and grumble to anyone who would listen about it? Welcome to the human race!

I am writing this as I sit on hold to help my dad get maps installed for his Garmin iQue 3600 GPS navigation system. (This is an awesome product; my best friend Caleb got me interested in it, and that piqued my dad's interest, so much that my stepmother got one for him for an anniversary gift.)

Anyway recently the Lord has been convicting me (an inveterate griper about problems with inanimate objects) that when it comes to dealing with things that frustrate me, complaining to people who have no control over the problem is not the thing to do ("Do all things without complaining or arguing", as St. Paul taught the Philippians).