Is Your Life a Spectator Sport?
Evelyn Webster, Catholic Evidence Guild of Guam
 
You are running a cross-country race against formidable opponents. You are moving into the lead when a rival trips you. You go down but the cheering crowd revitalizes your spirit and you run on. Sore and tired, you mindlessly follow the feet ahead. Suddenly, you realize that they are an opponent’s and you are both going down the wrong path! Fortunately, the spectators know the way and help redirect you. Your coach provides good counsel and your fans smooth the trail before you. You persevere and your finish is glorious! You are an asset to your team. Have you guessed by now that this is a spiritual race? You know who “the opponent” is but who are these spectators? They are the Saints in heaven; those holy souls who “lived a life of exemplary fidelity to the Lord” (CCC 2156).
 
 Our disbelieving friends might ask, “What makes you think that people who have gone to heaven have any interest in you?” We would look to the Letter to the Hebrews for a response: “We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses (those for whom Christ opened the gates of heaven), let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race…” (Heb 12:1). Witnesses at today’s sporting events watch with interest and we should expect that spectators in the Apostles’ days were no less enthusiastic than today.
 
We can also point to the Apostle’s belief in the communion of saints (The Apostles’ Creed), but what does that mean? The Catholic Catechism tells us “The communion of saints is the Church” (CCC 946). So who is the Church? The Church “is all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 1:2) who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus and are called to be holy.
 
The unity of Christ’s Church, both the living and the dead, is demonstrated throughout the New Testament. Saint Paul tells us “…whether we live or die we are the Lord’s. For this is why Christ died and came to life that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living” (Rom 14:7-9). Saint Paul uses the analogy: “As a body is one, though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many are one body, so also Christ” (1 Cor 12:12). “He is the head of the body, the Church” (Col 1:18). “If one member suffers all suffer together; if one member is honored all rejoice together”(1 Cor 12:26). From these Scripture verses, we see that the saints in heaven care about us and want to share in the joy of our victory.
 
Still, our friends from different faith traditions may assert that you need only to pray to Jesus for help. While it is true that we should have a personal relationship with God, we must also remember, “None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself” (Rom 14:7-9). Since we are all connected to the one mediator Christ, we can intercede for one another through Him. We routinely ask people to pray for us and for others in need. Why would you not want to include the holy saints in your requests for prayers? Even the rich man being tormented in hell prayed to Abraham for intercession (Lk 16:19-30).
 
 For the rich man it was too late, but Christ tells us “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you” (Jn 15:7). How much more pleasing to God our prayers are when they are presented before Christ by “the holy ones” as “gold bowls filled with incense”(Rev 5:8). Jesus also said, “I am the vine you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing”(Jn 15:5). We know saints can do something because we know that those deemed holy by God are not removed from the vine after death (Rom 8:38). Therefore, we must advise our friends that if they want to be team players and believe that “the fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful” (James 5:16), then they would do well to recruit the saints. Because could be more righteous than those we know who are in heaven?
 
Catholics know that asking the saints for help is effective since we have been able to attribute miracles to their intercession from the very dawn of Christianity. A wonderful book, Secular Saints by Joan Carroll Cruz of TAN Books and Publishers, provides detailed accounts of the lives of 250 lay men, women and children. An index categorizes them by the subject of their challenges such as ones who had a “bad tempered or nagging wife, trouble with in-laws, difficulty with parents, a jealous husband…” Having triumphed over “the opponent,” they are eager to help us make it to the celebration at the finish line. When we are enduring a particular trial or temptation, we can turn to the saints for their example, intercession, and guidance.