As conversations continue to unfold between Catholic and Protestants, we are finding many areas of agreement in places that hadn’t been settled years prior. For instance, we can all now mostly agree that Mary is Theotokos (Mother of God) without charging one another with heresy. However, there are still many conversations to be had about our respective differences. One area of contrast is the doctrine of the intercession of the saints. Protestants often object to the doctrine on account of it either being unnecessary, blasphemous, or contradictory to scripture. In reality, the doctrine of intercession is not contrary to the will of God or the scriptures that he authored.
The origin of the doctrine of intercession comes from the Mystici Corporis Cristi, or the “Mystical Body of Christ”. First, Christ’s body is mystical in that it transcends material reality. Second, his body is one, perfectly and harmoniously united (1 Cor 12:20). When we choose to give our life over to Christ, we enter into participation in all that he shares with us. This means that every person who has given themselves over to Christ shares in being elevated by the gifts of Christ into a divine participation. The mystical body is made up by people participating in these divine gifts while being held together by the power of God to demonstrate his power, goodness, and love for humanity.
Karl Adam, the German theologian and philosopher describes this participation, writing:
There is but one God, the Triune God, and every created thing lives in awe of His mystery. But this one God is a God of life and love. So great, so superabundant is this love, that it not only raises man to its own image and likeness by the natural gifts of reason and will, but also, by the precious gift of sanctifying grace, summons him from his state of isolation to an unparalleled participation in the Divine Nature and in Its blessings, to a sort of active cooperation in the work of God, to effective initiative in the establishment of his kingdom.
Karl Adam, The Spirit of Catholicism, Ch. 7
According to Adam, when we are adopted as children of God, we are raised into supernatural communion with God and with other Christians. God’s community subsists in unicity, like a human body, all parts communicating to ensure homeostasis and subsistence in its oneness of being. Paul illustrates this vision of his anthropology of the body of Christ when he says “If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?”(1 Cor 12:17). In Pauline thought, it is as essential for the mystical body to be perfectly united to receive communication from all of its parts, just as a human body does. In the human body if parts don’t communicate with each other, things start going wrong fast. And God’s body is more perfect than a human body, therefore the unicity that holds together the essence of the body of Christ is more perfect and united than even what takes place in a human being. Most Protestants view those in heaven as completely cut off and unaware of what’s happening to those on earth. Since they are dead, the reasoning goes, they cannot hear or see us. But Paul doesn’t have a vision of separation in his mind for the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:26 says “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it. If one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.”
Further, Jesus uses language in several parts of scripture that seems to imply that what happens on earth is intrinsically tied to events that happen in heaven. In the thought of Jesus there is no sharp contrast between the two, but a joining together of both by his own supernatural power. For instance, part of the Lord’s prayer given to us by Jesus says “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” (Matt 6:10). Again in Matthew 16:19 when Jesus speaks of the church’s supernatural authority he tells Peter “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and what you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
In the Parable of the Lost Sheep Jesus says that there will be more joy in heaven over the repentance of one sinner than ninety nine righteous (Luke 15:7). This would imply that not only do those in the heavenly realm know what’s happening on earth, but events on earth have an effect to some degree on the emotions of those in heaven. This thought may be scary to some, but it manifests God’s love for humanity in a beautiful way. As human beings, we are essentially social creatures designed for communion with one another by our very nature. We have the rationality to know and be known, love and be loved, to choose, and to be chosen.
Our rationality does not diminish when we die, and neither does our need for community. Death is a radical opposition to our very eternal essence, but Christ lifts up the dead and makes them alive in heaven through perfect union and participation in his very own divine life. Christ not only defeats death by the cross, but in his superabundant and perfectly meritorious sacrifice he lifts humanity up to a greater participation than what they experienced pre-fall, thus elevating humans back to the perfect fulfillment of our social nature. Jesus does not view those who have died in their earthly lives as dead, as some Protestants believe about Mary and the saints in heaven. To demonstrate this, when he was questioned by the Sadducees about the resurrection, he referred to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as living (Matt 22:32).
If Christ’s sacrifice brings us to an even greater participation with him and each other in this life, then we should not argue that we lose aspects of that in heaven by not being able to see what happens on earth or to continue loving and praying for those on earth. After death we do not float into our own isolated “vat” so to speak, or isolated cubicle of consciousness, we participate in the goodness of God to the greatest meaning of what it means to be in a family. Our union and communion with God and with each other is made more perfect in heaven, not less.
Adam writes:
It is important to note that the Communion of Saints does not simply mean that every member of the body exercises its own special function faithfully for the good of the whole, and that every saint practices this communion simply by fulfilling his personal task. St. Paul says: ‘If one member suffers anything, all the members suffer with it…all the saints are bound together, over and above their personal functions, by a close community of life and sentiment, by a fellowship and sympathy in sorrow and joy. Being members of Christ, their souls do not stand before God as isolated units. However individual may be the character of their sanctity, yet it is still the life of a member of Christ and as such belongs to all.
Adam, The Spirit of Catholicism, Ch. 7
In line with Adam’s sentiments, Paul says in Ephesians 2:19-20 “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.”
We should ask ourselves what all of this means in comparison to what happened to the dead before the resurrection of Christ and how the dead are treated in other religions compared to the Catholic model of the communion of saints. In Greek mythology, Hades is separated from both the realm of the living and the realm of where the Gods live on Mt. Olympus. The souls in Hades are neither fortunate enough to know what’s happening in the realm of the living or to dwell with the divine, but live a dark, dreary existence. This view of the afterlife is in contrast to what Christ has done, uniting both the dead and living in him by his power and elevating them to share in his divine nature for eternity. I would argue that the Protestant view of the communion of saints more resembles the Greek mythological version of the afterlife, where the living and the dead are completely isolated from each other.
In conclusion, when those who are in Christ die, instead of becoming less complete, they actually become more complete in him. For this reason, we should look at the communion of saints both on heaven and on earth as a celebratory achievement brought about by the power of God, not something that contrasts it. Instead of viewing God as being intimidated by his own saints in heaven, we should look at it as God sustaining his mystical body of believers in a miraculous, perfectly harmonious family that is sustained and ordained by him because he loves us.
