21.

 Summarize your understanding of the term communion of saints.

            Although not mentioned by the textbook in its brief discussion of this subject, Protestantism affirms the doctrine of the communion of saints when it recites the Apostles' Creed. (This Creed is recognized as being of authentic provenance by the Orthodox Church, but it is never used by the Orthodox liturgically). However, Protestantism goes on to deny this doctrine in actual fact. Given that inconsistency, and given the fact that the veneration of saints has waned in the Latin Church, the communion of saints is an important matter to examine.

            Explaining the Protestant and Orthodox positions regarding prayers to the saints, Protopriest Victor Potapov writes that:

The Protestants do not recognize the veneration of saints since it, in their opinion, debases the worth of the Savior as “the one Mediator between God and men” and contradicts those passages of Sacred Scripture wherein it says that one should worship God alone. The Protestants consider the veneration of saints as useless, since the saints cannot hear our prayers.

In the Orthodox teaching on the veneration of saints, there is no belittling of the Lord's redemptive sacrifice whatsoever, since we ask of the saints not that which is not within their power — the forgiveness of sins, the granting of grace and the future, blessed life — but we pray to the saints as members of the Church that have been redeemed by the immaculate blood of Jesus Christ and are more proximate to God than we, that they mediate for us before the one Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the passages of Sacred Scripture cited by the Protestants (Deut 6:13, 1 Tim 1:17), the rendering of divine honor to God alone is spoken of; but we do not render such honor to the saints. We venerate God's grace, which resides in them; we venerate God, Who, according to the words of the Psalmist, is “wondrous in His saints.”

As for the hearing of our prayers by the saints, for this there is no necessity to possess omniscience, which is really proper to God alone. It is sufficient to have the gift of clairvoyance, of which the Lord deemed many of His saints worthy while still on earth, and which they, one must suppose, possess to a higher degree in Heaven [Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy].

Protestants have no prayerful communion with the Heavenly Church, with the Theotokos, the Holy Apostles, the saints, martyrs, confessors, the holy angels or archangels, and all the righteous. This practice was present in the ancient Church, yet Protestantism shuns prayer to the saints.

            Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky explains what the ancient Christian Church's understanding was of the veneration of saints, an understanding that is retained in Orthodoxy Christianity to this day. A paraphrase of Fr. Michael's explanation is given here.

            There are certain Christians that the Church glorifies and lists in the Menologia. This glorification, which is an expression of the Church's conscience, takes place when the common conviction of the sanctity of a reposed person is confirmed by martyrdom, by fearless confession, by self-sacrificing service to the Church, or by the gift of healing, especially when the Lord confirms the sanctity of the reposed person by miracles after his death when he is remembered in prayers. The Church cannot do otherwise than glorify those whom the Lord Himself calls His “friends.” “Ye are My friends... I have called you friends” (Jn 15:14-15). These are people whom Christ has received into His heavenly mansions, according to His promise that “where I am, there ye may be also” (Jn 14:3). When this glorification takes place, prayers for the forgiveness of sins and for that person's repose cease, and they give way to other forms of Church communion with him — sc., a) the praising of his ascetic struggles, since “neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house” (Mt 5:15); and b) petitions to that person that he might pray for us, for our forgiveness of sins and for our moral improvement, and that help will be given us in our spiritual needs and in our sorrows.

            Holy Scripture states: “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth” (Rev 14:13), and we do indeed bless them. Again Scripture states: “And the glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given them” (Jn 17:22), and we do indeed give the saints this glory, according to Christ's commandment.

            Christ likewise states: “He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward” (Mt 10:41). “Whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in Heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother” (Mt 12:50). It is therefore fitting that we should receive a righteous man as a righteous man. If he is a brother or sister for the Lord, then he should be such for us too. The saints are our spiritual brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, and our love for them is shown by communion with them in prayer.

            St. John the Theologian wrote to the Christians: “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 Jn 1:3). In the Church, this fellowship with the Apostles continues uninterruptedly, going over with them into the other realm of their existence, the heavenly realm.

            St. John also wrote of the nearness the saints have to the throne of the Lamb, and of their raising up prayers for the Church on earth. He states: “And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands” who praised the Lord (Rev 5:11).

            The Apostle Paul writes that “ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly of the Church of the firstborn, which are written in Heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect” (Heb 12:22-23). Thus, communion in prayer with the saints is the realization in actual fact of the bond that exists between Christians in the Church Militant and those in the heavenly Church.

            Sacred Scripture gives numerous examples that show that the righteous, while still living on earth, can perceive much that is inaccessible to the ordinary understanding. All the more are these gifts present with the righteous ones after they have put off the flesh and are in Heaven. The Apostle Peter saw into the heart of Ananias (Acts 5:3). Again, the lawless act of the servant Gehazi was revealed to Elisha (4 Kings, ch. 4, 2 Kings in KJV). Even more remarkably, to him was revealed all the secret intentions of the Syrian court, which he in turn communicated to the king of Israel (4 Kings 6:12). Even while still on earth, the saints penetrated in spirit into the heavenly world. To some were shown choirs of angels, while others (Isaiah, Ezekiel) were allowed to behold the image of God. Others still were exalted to the third Heaven, where they heard mystical, unutterable words (the Apostle Paul). All the more are these saints, when they are in Heaven, able to know what is happening on earth and of hearing those who pray to them, for the saints in Heaven “are equal unto the angels” (Lk 20:36).

            The parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Lk 16:19-31) shows that Abraham, in Heaven, could hear the cry of the rich man from hell, even though a “great gulf” separated them. Abraham's remark that “they have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them” (Lk 16:29) clearly indicates that Abraham knows the life of the Hebrew people after his death. He knows of Moses and the Law, and knows of the prophets and their writings. Thus the spiritual vision of the saints in Heaven is greater than the vision they had on earth. The Apostle Paul confirms this fact in his words that: “Now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know even as also I am known” (1 Cor 13:12).

            Since the earliest times, the Orthodox Church has held the teaching of the invocation of saints, knowing that they intercede for us before God in Heaven. This is shown in the ancient Liturgies. For example, in the Liturgy of the Holy Apostle James, it is said:

Especially we perform the memorial of the Holy and Glorious Ever-Virgin, the Blessed Theotokos. Remember her, O Lord God, and by her pure and holy prayers spare and have mercy on us.

In explaining the Liturgy of the Church of Jerusalem, St. Cyril of Jerusalem remarks: “Then we also commemorate [in offering the Bloodless Sacrifice] those who have previously departed: first of all, patriarchs, prophets, Apostles, martyrs, so that by their prayers and intercession God might receive our petition.”

            The Holy Fathers and teachers of the Church, especially from the fourth century on, give numerous testimonies about the Church's veneration of the saints. However, even from the beginning of the second century, there are direct indications in ancient Christian literature with regard to faith in the prayer of the saints in Heaven for Christians on earth. The witnesses of the martyrdom of St. Ignatius the God-Bearer (beginning of the second century), for example, state:

Having returned home with tears, we had the all-night vigil.... Then, after sleeping a little, some of us suddenly saw blessed Ignatius standing and embracing us, and others likewise saw him praying for us.

These and other accounts as well that mention the martyrs' prayers and intercession for us, are to be found in the martyrologies from the epoch of persecution against Christians.