On Prayer and The Contemplative Life Part 19

5. Lastly, that must be held superfluous which is done for the sake of something which, whether the former were done or not, would yet take place--or not take place--all the same. But similarly, the Saints would pray for us or not pray for us whether we asked them to do so or not.

For if we deserve that they should pray for us, they would pray for us, even though we did not ask them to do so; if, on the other hand, we are not deserving that they should pray for us, then they do not pray for us--even though we ask them to do so. Hence to ask them to pray for us seems altogether superfluous.

But a man becomes deserving that some Saint should pray for him from the very fact that with pure-hearted devotion he has recourse to him in his needs. Hence it is not superfluous to pray to the Saints.

III

Are the Saints' Prayers to G.o.d for us always heard?

In 2 Maccabees xv. 14 it is said: _This is he that prayeth much for the people, and for all the Holy City, Jeremias the prophet of G.o.d_; and that his prayer was heard is evident from what follows, for _Jeremias stretched forth his right hand and gave to Judas a sword of gold, saying: Take this holy sword, a gift from G.o.d_, etc.

Further, S. Jerome says[282]: "You say in your book that while we live we can pray for one another, but that after we are dead no one's prayer for others will be heard"; and S. Jerome condemns this statement thus: "If the Apostles and Martyrs while still in the body could pray for others while as yet solicitous for themselves, how much more when they have won their crown, completed the victory, and gained their triumph?"

Moreover, the Church's custom confirms this, for she frequently asks to be helped by the prayers of the Saints.

The Saints are said to pray for us in two ways: firstly, by express prayer, when they by their ardent desires appeal to the ears of the Divine Mercy for us; secondly, by interpretative prayer--namely, by their merits which, standing as the Saints do in the sight of G.o.d, not only tend to their own glory but are, as it were, suffrages--and even prayers--for us; just as the Blood of Christ, shed for us, is said to ask pardon for us. And in both ways the prayers of the Saints are, as far as in them lies, efficacious in obtaining what they ask for. But that we do not obtain the fruit of their prayers may be due to defects on our part, according, that is, as they are said to pray for us in the sense that their merits avail for us. But according as they actually do pray for us--that is, ask something for us by their desires--they are always heard. For the Saints only wish what G.o.d wishes, and they only ask for what they wish should be done; what G.o.d, however, wishes is always done--unless, indeed, we are speaking of the _antecedent_ will of G.o.d, according to which _He wills all men to be saved_: this will is not always fulfilled. Hence it is not to be wondered at if what the Saints also will according to this kind of will is not always fulfilled.

But some maintain that the Saints' prayers for us are not always heard, thus:

1. If the Saints' prayers were always heard, they would be especially heard when they pray for those things which affect themselves. Yet they are not always heard as regards these things, for to the Martyrs who prayed for vengeance upon the inhabitants of the earth it was said _that they should rest for a little time till_ the number of _their brethren should be filled up_.[283] Much less, then, are their prayers heard for things that do not concern them.

But this prayer of the Martyrs is nothing more than their desire to obtain the garment of the body and the society of the Saints who are to be saved; it expresses their agreement with the Divine Justice which punishes the wicked. Hence on those words of the Apocalypse,[284] _How long, O Lord_, the Ordinary Gloss says: "They yearn for a greater joy, and for the companionship of the Saints, and they agree with the justice of G.o.d."

2. It is said in Jeremias[285]: _If Moses and Samuel shall stand before Me, My soul is not towards this people_. The Saints, then, are not always heard when they pray for us to G.o.d.

But G.o.d here speaks of Moses and Samuel according as they were in this life, for they are said to have prayed for the people and thus withstood the wrath of G.o.d. Yet none the less, had they lived in Jeremias' time they would not have been able to appease by their prayers G.o.d's wrath upon the people, so great was the latter's wickedness. This is the meaning of that pa.s.sage.

3. The Saints in our Fatherland are said to be the equals of the Angels.[286] But the Angels are not always heard in their prayers to G.o.d, as is evident from Daniel[287]: _I am come for thy words. But the Prince of the kingdom of the Persians resisted me one and twenty days._ But the Angel who spoke had not come to Daniel's a.s.sistance without asking his freedom from G.o.d; yet none the less the fulfilment of his prayer was hindered. In the same way, then, neither are the prayers of other Saints to G.o.d for us always heard.

But this contest of the good Angels is not to be understood in the sense that they put forth contrary prayers before G.o.d, but that they set before the Divine scrutiny conflicting merits on either hand, and awaited the Divine decision. Thus S. Gregory, expounding the above words of Daniel, says: "These sublime Spirits who rule over the nations in no sense strive for those who do evil, but they scrutinize their deeds and judge justly; hence, when the faults or the merits of any nation are submitted to the Council of the Supreme Court, he who is set over that particular nation is described as either losing or failing in the contest. But the sole victory for all of them is the supreme will of his Creator above him; and since they ever look towards that Will, they never desire what they cannot obtain,"[288] and hence never ask for it. Whence it is clear that their prayers are always heard.

4. Whoever obtains something by prayer in a certain sense merits it. But the Saints who are in our Fatherland are no longer capable of meriting.

Therefore they cannot obtain anything for us from G.o.d by their prayers.

But although the Saints when once they are in our Fatherland are not capable of meriting for themselves, they are still capable of meriting for others, or rather of helping others by reason of their own previous merits. For when alive they merited from G.o.d that their prayers should be heard after death. Or we might say that in prayer merit and the power to obtain what we ask do not rest on the same basis. For merit consists in a certain correspondence between an act and the end towards which it is directed and which is given to it as its reward; but the impetratory power of prayer rests upon the generosity of him from whom we ask something. Consequently prayer sometimes wins from the generosity of him to whom it is made what perhaps was not merited either by him who asked nor by him for whom he asked. And thus, though the Saints are no longer capable of meriting, it does not follow that they are incapable of winning things from G.o.d.

5. Again, the Saints conform their will in all things to the Divine Will. Therefore they can only will what they know G.o.d wills. But no one prays save for what he wishes. Consequently they only pray for what they know G.o.d wills. But what G.o.d wills would take place whether they prayed or not. Consequently their prayers have no power to obtain things.

But, as is evident from the pa.s.sage of S. Gregory quoted above in reply to the third difficulty, neither the Saints nor the Angels will anything save what they see in the Divine Will. And consequently they ask for nothing else save this. But it does not follow that their prayers are without fruit, for, as S.

Augustine says in his treatise, _On the Predestination of the Saints_,[289] and S. Gregory in his _Dialogues_,[290] the prayers of the Saints avail for the predestinate, because perhaps it was pre-ordained that they should be saved by the prayers of those who interceded for them. And so, too, G.o.d wills that by the prayers of the Saints should be fulfilled what the Saints see that He wills.

6. Lastly, the prayers of the entire Court of Heaven should, if they can gain anything at all, be far more efficacious than all the suffrages of the Church on earth. But if all the suffrages of the Church on earth were to be acc.u.mulated upon one soul in Purgatory, it would be entirely freed from punishment. Since, then, the Saints who are in our Fatherland have the same reason for praying for the souls in Purgatory as they have for praying for us, they would by their prayers, if they could obtain anything for us, wholly deliver from suffering those who are in Purgatory. But this is false, for if it were true, then the suffrages of the Church for the dead would be superfluous.

But the suffrages of the Church for the dead are, as it were, satisfactions offered by the living in place of the dead, and thus they free the dead from that debt of punishment which they have not paid. But the Saints who are in our Fatherland are not capable of making satisfaction. And thus there is no parity between their prayers and the Church's suffrages.

FOOTNOTES:

[267] xiv. 21.

[268] _Moralia in Job_, xii. 14.

[269] _Dialogue_, li. 35.

[270] _Contra Vigilant._, vi.

[271] S. Augustine: _Of the Trinity_, xiii. 5.

[272] _Of the Heavenly Hierarchy_, iii.

[273] lxiii. 16.

[274] _De Cura Mortuorum_, 13, 14, 15.

[275] S. Matt, xviii. 10.

[276] _Of the Heavenly Hierarchy_, vii.; and _Of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy_, vi.

[277] v. 1.

[278] _Moralia in Job_, v. 30.

[279] Rom. xv. 30.

[280] _Of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy_, v.

[281] Dan. ix. 14.

[282] _Ep. contra Vigilantium_, vi.

[283] Apoc. vi. 11.

[284] vi. 10.

[285] xv. 1.

[286] S. Matt. xxii. 30.

[287] x. 12-13.

[288] _Moralia on Job_, xvii. 12.

[289] _De Dono Perseverantiae_, xxii.

[290] i. 8.