Veneration of saints- a holy practice

On November 1 we celebrate All Saints’ Day to commemorate and thank God for all who have attained eternal bliss, and among them could well be those dear to us and known to us. Through baptism all are called to live a life of faithful Christian discipleship and attain eternal bliss after our death. The Church however, through the lengthy process of beatification and canonization, officially declares some persons as ‘saints’ whose Christian life has been exemplary and who are models of Christian discipleship. Christian piety (which is a gift of the Holy Spirit) urges us to venerate them and accept them as our intercessors before the throne of God.

The veneration of saints through their ‘relics’, icons, images (statues) is a holy practice in the Catholic Church tracing its origins to the earliest centuries of Christianity when the Christians were a persecuted community in the Roman empire and the ‘martyrdom of blood’ was very common. This spontaneous practice underscored the unbreakable bond between the Church on earth and the Church in heaven highlighting the ‘family’ nature of the Church.

We know that the Book of Exodus expressly forbids the making of idols or representations of God:

“You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20: 3-6).

If such was the explicit teaching of the Holy Bible, why did the early Christians begin to make icons and images (statues) of the martyrs and venerate them as an inseparable part of their Christian faith and devotional practice?

Is veneration of saints idolatry?

There is no other reason than to state that the Christians never saw any contradiction between the practice of veneration of saints and the teaching of the Bible. The Bible is against ‘idolatry’ and the veneration of the saints through their relics, icons and images is not idolatry, but a ‘reminder’ of who they are for us - models of authentic discipleship on the path to eternal life.

It is very obvious that the early Christians in Rome and elsewhere in the Roman empire, through their paintings, statues, art and architecture ‘inculturated’ the Christian faith in the prevailing Graeco-Roman culture and ‘Christianised’ the practices, which means, they took the same customs and practices and gave them a new ‘Christian’ meaning.

Therefore, there is a fundamental difference between what is forbidden in the Old Testament and the practice that grew in the New Testament, because the Church is the New Israel, the Spirit-filled community of the New Covenant sealed in the blood of Christ, the people of God who do not walk by the law of Moses but by the grace and truth of Christ (cf. John 1:17) who is the Way, the Truth and the Life (cf. John 14:6). As the Acts of the Apostles testify, Christianity had become a community both of Jews and Gentiles who believed in the Risen Christ as their Lord and Saviour. The earlier ethnocentrism had given way to as new universalism in Christ, an inclusiveness which is the nature of the Body of the Christ, the Church. Christ is the true Temple (cf. John 2:19) and the true High Priest (cf. Letter to Hebrews). In Christ we have become a ‘new creation’ (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:17); everything has been made ‘new’ in Christ (cf. Revelation 21:5).

What is idolatry? Idolatry is the attribution of divine presence and power to a natural or man-made object. That object is treated as ‘god’ and worshipped, more out of fear than real faith which is a personal relationship with the living God.

What is an icon or an image (statue) of a saint for a Christian? It is a ‘reminder’ of that person’s Christian discipleship and holiness of life; of being a faithful witness to Christ unto the shedding of his/her blood for Christ and his truth; of the endurance with courage all the trials and sufferings for the sake of total the fidelity to Christ our Saviour and Lord.

This we see in the life of the ‘martyrs’ who did not compromise their faith for the sake of security on earth but wagered everything for Christ. Hence the early Church immediately considered every martyr a ‘saint’ in heaven who has attained the ‘crown’ of eternal life as the Book of Revelation so powerfully depicts (cf. Revelation 7:9-17). They began to be ‘venerated’ with loving devotion along with the Blessed Virgin Mary and the holy angels.

In a martyr, the Gospel of Christ and conformity to him become a living reality in such a way that in his her/her death the martyr is totally united to Christ the Eternal Word in his glory. The Apostolic Tradition of the Church lays strong emphasis on the whole Church as the Body of Christ becoming the ‘living Word of God’ through praise and worship, unity and witness.

Intercessory power of the saints

The spontaneous piety of the people of God from the beginning has believed in the ‘intercessory’ power of the saints for us before the Holy Trinity. This intercession is of the Risen Christ himself before the Father, not apart from him. He is the author of our salvation and the fountain-head of grace that makes us the children of God. It is he who bestows this ‘eternal crown’ of glory on his faithful disciple by making him/her an intercessor with him in the heavenly realm. There cannot be a greater reward than this given by Christ to his faithful servants.

Later on, in the Church, the concept of ‘martyrdom’ which means ‘witness’ was extended to those who had chosen to imitate more closely the poverty and virginity of Christ in the monastic vocation and those who had manifested in their life an outstanding practice of the Christian virtues for the sake of the Church and human society in a variety of contexts.

All these ‘saints’ are presented to the pilgrim Church as examples to be imitated and intercessors before God for all the blessings we need, both spiritual and material, on our earthly journey until we reach the ‘eternal city’ (cf. Hebrews 13: 14).

Communion of saints

An important aspect of our faith is the ‘communion of saints’ that exists between the Church on earth (militant - against sin), the Church suffering (in purgatory) and the Church victorious (in heaven). We celebrate this mystery of the ‘communion of saints’ in the Holy Eucharist when we commemorate the pilgrim Church on earth, pray for the souls in purgatory and honour and glorify the most glorious Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph her Blessed Spouse, the holy apostles and all the saints. Mary, by her unique calling to be the Mother of God, occupies the place of highest honour among the saints.

It is in perfect accordance with the Gospel to venerate the saints and ask for their intercession. Therefore, chaplets in honour of saints do not take us away from Christ, rather bring us closer to him and his Gospel of salvation.

The icons and statues we make of the saints and even of Jesus Christ Our Lord and the Holy Trinity are not ‘essential’ to our Christian faith. Without all these representations we can still be very fervent Christians who live our life according to God’s Word and for whom the Bible is the absolute norm; but the living ‘memory’ of the saints and living communion with them is indispensable for the building up of the Body of Christ.

We have been prayerfully studying this year the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium of the Second Vatican Council in preparation for the Jubilee Year 2025. This document teaches with authority that those who have faithfully followed Christ inspire us with new reason to seek the city which is to come (cf. Hebrew 13:14) and offer us a safe path whereby we will be able to arrive at perfect union with Christ, that is holiness of life, despite the vicissitudes of this world. In the lives of the saints God shows us in a more vivid way his presence and his face. They reflect the image of Christ (cf. 2Corinthians 3:18) in a more perfect way. God speaks to us in this great cloud of witnesses (cf. Hebrews 12:1) and offers us a sign of his kingdom to which we are powerfully attracted because we find in them such a witness to the truth of the Gospel. Our veneration of the saints is not only by way of learning from their example but for the building up of the whole Church in the Spirit (cf. Ephesians 4:1-6) (cf. LG 50).

Abuses of the past and renewal of the Church

Nevertheless, we must remember that there were ‘excesses’ in the veneration of saints in the Middle Ages which degenerated into ‘abuses’. The cult of images and icons seemed to have replaced the redemptive work of Christ due to a general ignorance of the Bible. The widespread cult of saints had bordered on the superstitious and this was promoted by sections of the clergy to help common causes of the Church or even for personal gains. The famous or infamous practice of the ‘sale of indulgences’ belonged to this era whereby forgiveness of sins or God’s grace could be bought for a price eclipsing the need for repentance, penance and a personal faith and trust in a God who justifies us because of his infinite mercy and not because of our ‘works’. It was indeed time of ‘decline’ in the Church, and corrective measures for the comprehensive renewal of the Church were put in place by the Council of Trent (1545-1563).

In the 8th and 9th centuries there was a movement called ‘iconoclasm’ (breaking of icons) in the Eastern Church. It campaigned for the removal of icons from the churches and homes since they were seen as unbiblical; but the movement was firmly condemned through a council and with that the controversy ended.

On account of the rampant ‘abuses’ which had reached their peak in the 16th century, the Protestant Reformation emphasised ‘justification by faith alone and not by works’ (cf. Romans 3:17) as the norm of salvation; hence ‘Bible alone’ became the slogan of Protestant Christianity in the West which is there with us to date, though we have come a long way from the polemics of the 16th century, thanks to the Ecumenical Movement.

The Second Vatican Council asks for all such abuses, excesses and defects to be removed and the authentic cult of saints to be promoted which “does not consist so much in a multiplicity of external acts, but rather in a more intense practice of our love, whereby, for our own greater good and that of the Church, we seek from the saints ‘example in their way of life, fellowship in their communion, and the help of their intercession’”(LG 51).