Biblical Evidence for Intercession of the Saints

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Hey everyone,

 

Welcome to The Sunday Catholic Word, a podcast where we reflect on the upcoming Sunday Mass readings and pick out the details that are relevant for explaining and defending our Catholic faith.

 

I’m Karlo Broussard, staff apologist and speaker for Catholic Answers, and the host for this podcast.

 

In this episode, we’re going to focus on three details that have significance for apologetical discussions. The first two, which will take up most of our time, come from the second reading, which is taken from Hebrews 7:23-28.  The relevant topics are the Sacrifice of the Mass and the intercession of the saints. The detail from the Gospel reading, taken from Mark 12:28b-34, relates to the topic of justification and its relation to love.

 

Let’s start with the second reading. Here’s what the author of Hebrews writes:

 

The levitical priests were many
because they were prevented by death from remaining in office,
but Jesus, because he remains forever,
has a priesthood that does not pass away.
Therefore, he is always able to save those who approach God through him,
since he lives forever to make intercession for them.

It was fitting that we should have such a high priest:
holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners,
higher than the heavens.
He has no need, as did the high priests,
to offer sacrifice day after day,
first for his own sins and then for those of the people;
he did that once for all when he offered himself.
For the law appoints men subject to weakness to be high priests,
but the word of the oath, which was taken after the law,
appoints a son,
who has been made perfect forever.

 

The first detail that I want to focus on is the author’s statement, “[Jesus] is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them.” This detail relates to the topic of the Intercession of the Saints. And it does so in two ways.

 

First, some Protestants might appeal to this passage and argue that since Jesus is our heavenly intercessor, there cannot be others, like the saints. But if that’s the case, then we’d have to reject the heavenly intercession of the elders in Revelation 5:8 and the angel in Revelation 8:3-4. Here’s what John sees in Revelation 5:8:

 

And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

 

In Revelation 8:3-4, John describes an angel doing the same thing:

 

And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer; and he was given much incense to mingle with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne; and the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God.

 

The “prayers of the saints” in both passages refers to Christians on earth. And the elders and the angel are presenting their prayers to the Lamb, Jesus, in the heavenly throne room. That’s heavenly intercession.

 

If the elders in Revelation 5:8 and the angel in Revelation 8:3-4 can be heavenly intercessors without taking away from Christ’s unique mediation as our heavenly high priest, then so can the saints. There is in fact enough “room” in the heavenly throne room for multiple intercessors, especially when those other intercessors intercede with Christ in virtue of their union with Christ through grace.

 

Second, rather than this statement by the author of Hebrews providing evidence against the intercession of the saints, I argue it actually provides support.

 

Consider that in many instances, the Bible speaks of us being transformed to be like Christ. For example, Paul writes in Romans 8:29, “Those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren” (see also 1 Cor. 15:49-52, 2 Cor. 3:18, 2 Pet. 1:4). And we know that that transformation will be complete in heaven. We can take another look at 1 John 3:2: “Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

 

Here is where our focused detail comes into play. Recall, the author of Hebrews says in 7:25 that Christ, as priest of the heavenly temple, “always lives to make intercession.” If Christ always lives to make intercession for Christians on earth, and the saints are going to be perfectly like Christ, it’s at least reasonable to think the saints would be doing what Christ does—namely, interceding for Christians on earth. And since Christ’s intercession involves knowledge of Christians on earth, even specific knowledge, it’s reasonable to infer that such knowledge would be shared with the saints who participate in that intercession.

 

The second detail that I want to focus on here in this second reading is the inspired author’s teaching that Christ offered himself “once and for all.” He writes,

 

He has no need, as did the high priests,
to offer sacrifice day after day,
first for his own sins and then for those of the people;
he did that once for all when he offered himself.

Many Protestants appeal to this passage as evidence for the claim that the Catholic understanding of the Mass as the “divine sacrifice” in which Christ is “contained and offered” (CCC 1367) contradicts the Bible. If Christ offered himself once and for all, so it’s argued, then how can Catholics say he’s offered at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass?

 

I deal with this objection in my book Meeting the Protestant Challenge: How to Answer 50 Biblical Objections to Catholic Beliefs. I’ll share a few of those ideas here.

 

First, the objection makes a false assumption about the Catholic doctrine of the eucharistic sacrifice.

 

The “once for all” statement in this verse comes within the context of contrasting Jesus’ sacrifice for sins with the sacrifices that the Jewish priests had to offer on a daily basis. The author of Hebrews is making the point that Jesus doesn’t have to offer regular animal sacrifices because his one sacrifice was sufficient to forgive the sins of all people throughout all time: “He [Jesus] has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily…he did this once for all when he offered up himself.”

 

The Catholic doctrine of the eucharistic sacrifice would contradict this biblical teaching if it entailed a re-crucifixion of Jesus. But that is not case. The eucharistic sacrifice is not another sacrifice of Christ, as if Christ were repeatedly shedding his blood and dying. His bloody offering on the cross was a one-time event in the past and is never to be repeated. The offering in the eucharistic celebration re-presents—without blood, without making Jesus suffer and die anew—that one historical sacrifice. The Catechism explains:

 

The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice: “The victim is one and the same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross; only the manner of offering is different” (1367, citing the Council of Trent).

 

Inasmuch as the Church’s doctrine of the eucharistic sacrifice affirms that Christ died once on the cross, and that he does not and cannot die again, it in no way violates the “once for all” teaching of Hebrews 7:27.

 

A second response is what we’ve already talked about in last week’s episode, namely, that the Bible reveals that Christ continues to offer his very own sacrifice to the Father in an unbloody manner in the heavenly sanctuary. I’m not going to rehearse that answer here again. Check out last week’s episode for the 30^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B.

 

The last thing we can say in response is that death is not essential to a sacrifice.

 

One of the reasons why many Protestants think the “once for all” passage undermines the Eucharistic sacrifice is that they think sacrifice must involve death. This is why they immediately think that the eucharistic sacrifice is a re-crucifixion of Jesus.

 

For these people, to speak of sacrifice is to speak of death. And since Jesus only died once, the eucharist can’t be his sacrifice.

 

But this is not the only way that the Bible views sacrifice. The Old Testament is full of drink offerings and grain offerings, for instance, neither of which involves death.

 

There was also the “wave” offering, in which the gift was waved before God to present it to him. This type of sacrifice didn’t involve the destruction of the gift.

 

For example, Numbers 8:11-21 records God’s instructions for Aaron to “offer the Levites before the Lord as a wave offering from the people of Israel” (v.11, 13). This act constituted the Levites as ministers of the Tabernacle, bestowing upon them the duty to “do service for the people of Israel at the tent of meeting” (v.19).

 

Similarly, Paul tells the Christians in Rome to “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rom. 12:1). We don’t allow ourselves to be killed as a sacrifice; rather, we are to present ourselves as wave offerings to the Lord.[i]

 

It’s this type offering that Jesus makes of himself before God in the heavenly sanctuary. Christ waves the offering of his body and blood to the Father as a living sacrifice. Because it’s the same priest making the offering (Jesus), the same victim (Jesus), and the same person to whom the offering is made (the Father), it’s the same sacrifice. The only difference is that his sacrifice in heaven doesn’t involve him shedding his blood and dying. It’s offered in an unbloody way, since the shedding of his blood was done “once for all” on the cross (Heb. 7:27).

 

Now, we turn to the Gospel reading. Mark records,

 

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
“Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Jesus replied, “The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these.”
The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
‘He is One and there is no other than he.’
And ‘to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself’
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him,
“You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

 

Notice Jesus tells the scribe that he is correct in knowing that love of God and love of neighbor are the greatest. And it’s this knowledge that puts him close to the kingdom of God.

 

But the question naturally arises, “What’s lacking for him to actually be in the kingdom of God?” The implied answer is living it. The implication is that if the scribe lives out the commandments of loving God and neighbor, then he will be in the kingdom of God.

 

Now, if that’s the case, then love would be the ground for membership in God’s kingdom. Given that to be a member of God’s kingdom is to be justified, or at peace with God and thereby no long subject to condemnation, it follows that love for God and love of neighbor is the ground for our justification.

 

But love is something that’s interior. It involves the will be properly ordered to the good of another, both God’s goodness, which our wills rejoice in because he is goodness itself, and our neighbor’s goodness, which we desire they come to possess.

 

From this it follows that our justification is rooted or grounded in something interior to us, the love of God poured forth into our hearts. Therefore, the belief that our justification is merely forensic—that’s say, the ground for our being at peace with God is merely an extrinsic declaration by God that we are at peace with him, is false.

 

Conclusion

 

Well, my friends, that brings us to the end of this episode of the Sunday Catholic Word. The readings for this upcoming 31^st Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B. The second reading and the Gospel reading gives us opportunity to reflect on

 

• The sacrifice of the Mass,
• The intercession of the saints, and
• Justification and its relation to love.

 

As always, thank you for subscribing to the podcast. And please be sure to tell your friends about it and invite them to subscribe as well at sundaycatholicword.com. You might also want to check out the other great podcasts in our Catholic Answers podcast network: Trent Horn’s The Counsel of Trent, Joe Heschmeyer’s Shameless Popery, and Jimmy Akin’s A Daily Defense, and Tim Staples’ 1-on-1 with Tim, all of which can be found at catholic.com.

 

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I hope you have a blessed 31^st Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B. Until next time, God Bless!

 

 

 

[i] See Jimmy Akin, “The Priesthood Debate,” www.jimmyakin.com.