Why do Celtic Catholics "pray" to the saints?
I am often asked about our relationship with the Saints. The questioner generally says something like this: "Why ask the intercession of a saint when you can just pray directly to God? You don't have to; you can just pray to God. Worship of anyone but God is idolatry." This is a very important question, and I hope to shed some light on it. In doing so, I will be explaining what is a universal practice of the Church until the Protestant reformation, something all Christians everywhere have done until very recently in the church's history.
Why pray to the saints? Why indeed! It is not necessary. We are saved by Grace, not by works or prayer to the saints; by Grace through faith, and this not from ourselves, but it is a gift from God, so that no one can boast. Prayer to saints is not necessary. Receiving Communion is not necessary. Baptism is not necessary. Evangelising is not necessary. Church attendance is not necessary. Bible reading is not necessary. Prayer is not necessary. Nothing is necessary, since it is by grace we have been saved through faith. We do not have to do any of this stuff.
But is "have to" really what we are interested in as Christians? It seems to me that worrying about whether it is necessary or not is awfully close to legalism. The old covenant was concerned with "what is the minimum I have to do to get God's favor?" The new covenant seems more to ask, "Now that I have been saved by Christ's sacrifice, what can I do to respond? What can I do to grow more like Christ in reality?" Nothing that we catholic types (since we are the ones who supposedly "worship the saints") do is motivated by "have to," I believe, but by "want to," as in "God is so good, what can I do to thank him? How can I respond to what he has done? Even though I know he does not need it or require it, even though it will not get me any more saved. What can I do to answer his great love?"
Worship of the saints is certainly a misnomer. Nobody I know does that. I have never seen it happen, and I have spent time with a lot of Celtic and Roman Catholics. I have heard stories of certain backwoods Mexican Indians who actually worship their old pagan gods using the statues of the saints, but nobody actually worships the saints. We don't really even pray to them. Not if by prayer one means, "talking to God." If, though, prayer is defined simply as "talking to someone who is present spiritually but not physically," then yes, we do pray to the saints. And why not? The Body of Christ does not consist of only those who are physically alive right now. It is all those who are redeemed by the Lamb and washed in his Blood.
And this is very important for an understanding of Celtic Christian spirituality. The "great cloud of witnesses" which surrounds us is very much a part of our consciousness as celts. Our whole approach to the Gospel centers around the tuath, the tribe. The Celtic Christian concept of salvation can be said to center on being engrafted into a family, an extended family it is, but a very real and actual one. And it is a family in Christ, which means that its members are identified with him. That means similar to him in timeless-ness. That means there are No Dead Saints! They are all alive in Christ. We do not actually believe in death. Or rather we do, but it happens to us Christians long before the body dies. After that is only life, regardless of what the body may chose to do. So St. Andrew, St. Bride, St. Mary Hazel, St. Francis, St. Columba, are fellow members of my tribe, my very literal extended family.
Now, if Christianity consisted only of what one knew, or only in "getting saved", then the whole celtic Christian tribal structure of the redeemed is meaningless. Who needs anybody else if you just need to know the right answers to a theology quiz? Who needs the saints if salvation is just a matter of keeping one's tookus out of hell? But if salvation is being made a part of a family, being adopted into a tribe, then the fellow tribe members become very important to you. And just knowing about them is not enough. One must actually be in relationship with them.
Why ask the intercession of the saints when I can just pray to Christ? Well, of course I can just pray directly to God through Christ. We take that for granted. But why not ask the prayers of those who love me. I ask my friends whose bodies are still living. Why not ask those whose spirits are now fully alive in Christ? Why insult the saints by not allowing them to do what they most love -- talking with their Lord, loving me by praying for me, enjoying the holy mutual fellowship which brings the joy divine. It is a favor I do them, and a favor they do me. I ask them to pray for me because I love them, not because I think I need to in order to get God to do something for me. Who cares about that?! If God is going to do it, he will. If not, all the saints in heaven will not help. If all I were interested in is what I can get from God, then just praying to him for "stuff" would be enough. But if it is the fellowship of the "tribe of God", one family in Christ, that I am after, then I need to be actively engaged in talking to my relatives and asking them to pray for me.
Anyway, that is what we do with the saints, I believe. At least, it is what I do with them and what I see those around me doing. Not worshiping, not usurping any of the dignity due to God, not thinking God will not hear us directly. Just talking to my relatives.
After all, enjoying holy fellowship, overflowing with gratitude to God, not worrying about the minimum I "have to do" to get saved, is called ... heaven!
We do, naturally, have to be cautious of idolotry. As we pray in our church every time we celebrate the Holy Eucharist, "Deliver us, O Lord, and all people from the worship of idols, and turn us to you, the true God." Idolatry is an ever-present threat. Parents sometimes idolize their children. Teen-age boys idolize their private parts. Young women idolize the un-human and un-godly images of 47 pound models. Christians idolize the Bible every time we call it "the Word" (only Jesus Christ is the Word of God.) Idolatry has nothing really to do with statues. It is simply the sin of putting anything in place of God, letting anything other that him be our primary reference point in determining our values. With the possible exception of one elderly lady who did not know any better, I have never seen anyone do that with a saint.
And yet the saints to whom I pray (but never worship) are the very ones who have inherited the promises through faith. By following them, by conversing with them, by learning from them, I discover how to avoid idolotry in all its subtle, serpentine forms.
