"You're talking to the dead.
They can't hear you.
They can't do anything for you.
In fact, in trying to talk to them
you are committing
the sin of spiritualism
of necromancy.
In talking to the dead
you are like the Witch of Endor,
not a Christian."
Wow!
Have you heard people
talk to you like that
when they hear you say
"Hail Mary full of grace"
or
"St Anthony, pray for me"?
Are we really praying to the dead?
[PAUSE]
Let's listen to Jesus.
"Blessed are the pure in heart
for they shall see God."
"Blessed are those who are persecuted
for righteousness' sake:
for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."
Those who are reviled and hated
for Christ's sake
have a reward in Heaven
If Christ is faithful
then His promises are fulfilled.
This means that
all those who have died
and have been faithful to God
are enjoying the Kingdom of God.
And St John says that
they saints in Heaven praise God.
And we know that
the Dead do not praise God
so the saints in Heaven
are not dead, but alive.
St Paul also tells us
that we are surrounded by
a cloud of witnesses
watching us run the race
to the Kingdom of Heaven.
They watch us and are aware
of our lives,
they rejoice in Heaven
when sinners repent.
And the prayers of the saints
rise up before the throne of God
as incense.
For us Christians
Death has ceased to be a state
which prevents us
from living.
In Christ,
Death loses its power
to curtail our life
but becomes the gateway
to an opening up
of our little lives on Earth
into the Eternity of God's life.
So, when we pray "Hail Mary"
she heard us.
Even if a countless number
of people pray
"Hail Mary"
every second,
she hears every single one
because she sees Christ
and is like Him
because she sees Him as He is.
This is not being all-knowing
because the prayers
of a finite number of people
are finite, though large in number.
Only God knows the
infinities of truths
that are and might be.
If Our Lady's life
is Eternal now
then it lies beyond the comprehension
of those of us who are not
in Eternity.
We can be sure
that the saints hear our prayers.
But we must be careful.
[PAUSE]
We may pray to St Anthony
when we lose our keys
as long as we don't expect him
to find them for us.
We can pray to Our Lady
for the undoing of
the knots of our lives
as long as we don't expect her
to be doing the disentangling.
The prayers of the saints
go to God directly.
Indeed,
nothing stops us
from praying to God directly.
It is God,
and God alone,
who answers prayers.
In praying to the saints
we are opening ourselves up
to the Church.
Just as St James
bids us to confess our sins
in the presence of the Church
so we offer our concerns to God
in the presence of the Church
for those who stand around
are there to support us
to raise us up to God,
to will our perfection in Him.
The prayers of the saints
are nothing less
than our expression of love for us
and to ask those prayers
recignises our need for love
and to love.
This is also why we pray
for the dead.
Our prayers are expressions
of our love
for those we cannot reach
and help physically.
To pray is to reach out in love.
To ask for prayers is to seek
to be perfected
and allow others to love us.
It's not spiritualism
because we aren't seeking
knowledge of the future
or secret knowledge of Heaven.
We seek only love
for one another.
The communion of the saints
us exactly that.
It's just that some of us
have passed through death
some of us haven't
and some of us
have not yet been born.
But we are nonetheless
one Church because there is
one Lord Jesus Christ
who reconciles all who believe in Him
to His Father in His
one perfect sacrifice on the Cross
in which we participate
in the Mass.
[PAUSE]
The saints are not dead,
they live in Heaven
and yet surround us.
They pray for us
and so continue to love us
across death's divide.
They don't do anything for us
beyond the will of God
but stand alongside us
and support us
as we stand before
the Throne of Grace.
We may use the "direct line"
to God if we wish
but there are many friends
around us right now
who see the Face of God
and want us to see it, too.
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