One
of those really weird things that Catholics supposedly do is talk to the dead.
Yep, we talk to the dead. We don’t conjure up the dead. We don’t cast spells
and incantations, pull out the tarot cards, consult mediums and witches or use
Ouija boards. All this would be sorcery and magic, which the Church explicitly
condemns, as you might guess from all of the exorcism movies and books that
come out, in which stories there is always inevitably a Catholic priest who
attempts to exorcise the demons from any given person or house. No, we let the
Holy Spirit do all of the wiring for us, per se. (Telephone wiring, that is).
We communicate only by means of the Holy Spirit.
Often
times, Catholics request the prayers of the Saints who are in the presence the
Lord. We might ask for their intercession on behalf of others or for ourselves,
for healing and for the Spirit’s guidance or protection. We might speak with
loved ones for whom we have reasonable hope of their dying in the grace of God.
While some perceive this as a form of idolatry (“prayer can only be directed to
God,” they might say), Catholics see it as a normal continuation of what we
call “the Communion of Saints.”
By that term, all we really mean is
that those who die in Christ, do not perish at all, but are alive all the more.
In that sense, Catholics takes John 3:16 seriously: “whosoever believes will
not perish.” We believe that once a member of the Body of Christ, and dying in
God’s grace, always a member of Christ’s body. And so, “the eye cannot say to
the hand, ‘I have no need of you’” (1 Cor. 12:21 NRSVCE). We also believe that,
as Christ said of the Father, “Now he is God not of
the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive. (Luke 20:38
NRSVCE)” Their life in Christ does not end, nor does their purpose within the
Body of Christ.
Common Sense Catholicity Item #2: Jesus Spoke with Saints, Too
As Catholics, we hold the belief
that Jesus was fully divine and fully human, all built into one Person. We also
believe that Jesus remained completely sinless. These truths mean that at any
given time while Jesus was in the flesh (and is in the flesh), he did not and
could not commit any error. In that way, anything that he did, we can know that
it was free of sin and is worthy of imitation. Only his declaring himself equal
and one with the Father, for us, would be considered sinful to imitate; for
him, it was just a matter of telling the truth.
It just so happens that one of the
things Jesus did, while in the flesh, was to speak with the dead. He did not
conjure up their spirits, or use any power above his human nature to speak with
them. He merely climbed up a mountain and met Moses and Elijah there to speak
with them.
Now about
eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James,
and went up on the mountain to pray. And
while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes
became dazzling white. Suddenly
they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking
of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep;
but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men
who stood with him. (Luke 9:28-32 NRSVCE)
From the
sound of Luke’s story, Jesus had an ongoing conversation with Moses and Elijah,
and it did not seem as though they had just awoken from some great slumber,
unaware of Jesus’ mission and life on earth. No, instead it seems as though
they had spoken with Jesus before about his mission. That’s just speculation.
But what we do know is that Jesus spoke with the Saints who had already died,
and yet were alive in God. Jesus did this in the flesh, under the law (as St.
Paul put it), as one of us, yet sinless.
Perhaps
the natural inclination to speak with our dearly departed, quietly before their
casket or gravesite is not so strange after all. Perhaps speaking with those
who have gone on to be with Christ is a natural act of the heart, which knows
the truth. The heart knows the truth that we should be one in Christ, and if in
grace are certainly one in Christ, alive and united by the Spirit. Christ
destroyed death when he rose again nearly 2,000 years ago. Won’t you let him
destroy death in your life, too?
