16th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C

07-21-2019Weekly ReflectionRev. Emmanuel I. Ihemedu

Isn’t Having Statues or Pictures of Saints Idolatry?

Perhaps, as you are reading this, you have in your wallet pictures of your loved ones, such as your wife, husband, mother, father, son, daughter or pictures of your grandchildren. Maybe you carry their pictures to remind you of people you love, to help you feel that they are close to you when you are not together, or to share with people you meet. But you probably would not say that you worship them.

These are the same reasons we have statues and pictures of Saints. Seeing a statue of Saint Therese of Lisieux, who lost her mother when she was a child, might make us feel less alone when we are grieving. A picture of Saint Francis of Assisi might remind us of how much he loved God’s creation and make us more aware of our environment.

But Don’t Catholics Pray to Saints?

We do not pray to saints as we pray to God. Only God is worthy of worship. One definition of pray, however, is “earnest petition.” When we as Catholics say we “pray” to saints, we are not saying we worship saints. We are asking the saints in “earnest petition” to pray to God for us.

Have you ever asked anyone to pray for you when you were having a hard time? If so, why did you choose that person?Some of your answers may include because the person was someone you could trust or someone who understood your problems or someone who was close to God. Those are all reasons we ask saints to pray for us in times of trouble.

Since saints led holy lives and are close to God in heaven, we feel that their prayers are particularly effective. Often, we ask particular saints to pray for us if we feel they have a particular interest in our problem. For example, many people ask Saint Monica to pray for them if they have trouble with unanswered prayers because Monica prayed for twenty years for her son to be converted. Finally, her prayers were answered in a way she never imagined. Her son, Augustine, became a saint and a doctor of the Church.

The question is: why would they stop caring when they went to heaven? If Saint Martin de Porres loved helping the sick so much that he gave up his food and his bed to sick people and animals, would he stop loving the sick when he went to heaven? Or would he actually love them more now that he no longer had earthly cares and anxieties weighing him down?

Find a book on the lives of the saints and look up a saint who shares your name or whose feast day is your birthday. Some versions also have a list of patron saints and you might find a saint on that list who is patron of your occupation or interest. Read about that saint’s life.

Is there something you find inspiring about that saint’s life?

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