Why we venerate saints

Wow, new blog. There is no mission statement as such. This is pretty much going to be random musings about music and Orthodoxy (though rarely the two at the same time). Still, for the first post, let's tackle a subject that is way over my head.

Recent "conversations" (that I have tried my best to avoid) with certain Evangelical family members has brought the topic of the Orthodox veneration of saints to the forefront of my mind. This post is not directed at the more vocal family members- they are less interested in discussion and more so in pontificating and argument in its most combative form. Still, I thought I would post my thoughts on the subject in hopes that someone might benefit.


The first thing that should be addressed is the concern that veneration of saints somehow takes away from the glory that should be given to God. This could not be further from the truth. We do not go through the saints to get to God (save in the same way that everyone must go through the saints to get to God- more on this in a second), we go to God and get the saints added as a wonderful extra. The saints are members of the Church as we are members of the Church- their parish just so happens to be The Parish of Parishes, that parish of which all earthly parishes are the copy. Whereas we attend a parish a few times a week and participate in worship and the Mysteries (or Sacraments) the saints are ever-present at their parish and participating in the fullness of Christ. We partake of the Body and Blood of Christ through bread and wine, the saints partake of the Body and Blood of Christ directly. We worship around an altar, the Saints worship at the very throne of God. We hear the Gospel proclaimed, the Saints gaze upon the very Word of God Incarnate. We must travel- whether down the block or several miles or even entire countries- to get to the services, the saints traveled their entire lives and stayed on the straight and narrow path to get to the Eternal Service.

Our saints are as much a part of the Church as anyone physically present, the fact that their physical body is asleep does not take this away. Showing respect for the saints and asking for their prayers does not take away from the glory of God any more than showing respect toward a favorite evangelist (say Billy Graham, Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, or Pope Benedict) or asking one's pastor for prayer takes away from the glory of God. We go to our favored pastors or "prayer warriors" because we recognize that they are in a better place spiritually than we might be or that they have certain gifts that we lack or insights and ways of thinking that don't come naturally. The Orthodox go to the saints for the same reason.

The idea that one can get to God without the help of the saints (and here I use the word "saint" to mean any member of the Church, present here on earth or in the Heavenly Throne Room) creates a conundrum. It creates a theology of vacuum that is contrary to any observation. Faith does not exist in a vacuum, there is no individual that comes to God entirely on their own without any aid from Man. Since the fall of Adam, God has delighted in using one person to reach out to another. There could be no Abraham without Noah, no Israel without Abraham, there could be no Judaism without Moses, no expectation of the Messiah without the Prophets, no worship songs without David, no New Testament without the Apostles, no present-day Church without the Martyrs, and no one calling themselves Christian today without this great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1. Read Hebrews 11 for the full context). Even someone who gets "saved" alone in a hotel room reading a Gideon Bible is only brought to where he is through the translators who worked to bring the Bible in his native tongue, the organization that paid for the Bibles and donated them to the hotels, the saints that wrote the Bible, and the Church that preserved and recognized those writings as being Scripture.

The second thing that must be addressed is death. "Dead is dead," says the anti-saint, "and we are forbidden to communicate with the dead. There is nothing in the New Testament to over-ride this." Unless this person is a Seventh-Day Adventist or Messianic Jew they must examine themselves. Do they labor on a Saturday? There is nothing in the New Testament abolishing the Sabbath as a day of rest- Christ telling us that it is okay to heal on the Sabbath instructs us on the spirit of the Law, it does not over-turn it. Certainly a doctor should be expected to make emergency hours on any day of the week, but from the point of view stated in the beginning of this paragraph one certainly sins by working at say, a retail store, on a Saturday or even by doing unnecessary tasks on a Saturday (you couldn't have done your shopping on a different day of the week?). But, the Law is fulfilled in Christ. And more is done through the act of Incarnation: Death is abolished. Our saints are not dead, their physical body is asleep, but our saints surround the Throne of God where our prayers are offered up as incense in the sight of all (Revelation 8:4).

The final thing I will address in this post is Time. Christians are united as the Body of Christ (pretty much anywhere in the NT), they are united through participation in the Eucharist which is partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ, they are adopted sons of God, and they are the Bride of Christ. The Risen and Ascended Christ is beyond Time, in the Heavenly time the creation of the world did not take place 6,000 years ago or billions of years ago, the foundation was laid around 33 A.D. (Revelation 13:8). In this ever-present that the Christian inhabits there is no past or future, the saint martyred in 321 A.D. is just as here as the person reading this is just as here as someone born long after this time. We do not ask for prayer and intercession from someone "dead" for a thousand years but from someone alive and present now, through the mystery of the Incarnation.