Wednesday, April 18, 2012

A reflection on the saints

One of the things I love about the Church, and note I'm only describing something I love, not a proof or an argument, is the communion of saints.

As Catholics, we believe that those who have died and gone on to heaven are partaking in the fruits of salvation. As such, they can pray for those of us still on our journey to (hopefully) join them one day. We don't know how a saint can hear us, we don't know why they'd chose to join their prayers to ours. We do know that saints do not "do" anything, but rather intercede with God for us.

Time was, most Christians were named after a saint. For Catholics, they'd later choose a saint for their confirmation name as well. As such, a Catholic like me ends up with the name of John Michael George Stegeman.

I, for example, am named for John of the Cross, Michael the Archangel, St. George and then of course my surname.

My folks picked the first two names and I chose the St. George more in honor of the name of my father than out of any devotion to the saint, which isn't the way to go, and someone should have probably advised me better in that regard. But I'm off topic.

Today I'm writing about St. Jude the Apostle (Fun fact: Tradition states the Jude was likely the son of the Virgin Mary's sister, making his a first cousin to Jesus).

I've had a special devotion to St. Jude for years. The Church invokes him as the patron saint of desperate cases, and I'm a little prone to despair, fair or not.

But since I first ended up with one of his prayer cards more than 5 years ago (don't remember how) I've not been without for more than a few days. I "lose" my cards every so often when I come across a person in a desperate situation, and I give them the card.

Anyways, recent family health and other issues have led to me giving away a card again, and blessed me with the opportunity to buy a new one. But the store was out of the regular cards, and only had the slightly more expensive ones that come with a medal, so I got that, and now I wear a medal with a depiction of St. Jude and the engraving "St. Jude pray for us."

Knowing that we have access at our disposal to the ones who went before us ties us as a Church to our past. It connects us personally to the great men and women of faith that have come before. It lets us know that real men and women, normal folks, have attained, through the merits of Christ, what we all seek.

As we read in James "The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." And who can be more righteous than one already living in glory with God in heaven?

Thank God for the Saints, thank the Church for letting us know who they are, and thanks to the saints for their constant intercession on behalf of those of us still on the path.

I leave this shoddy reflection with the prayer for the intercession of St. Jude the Apostle, edited down a little bit for clarity. There are many versions out there.

"O most holy apostle, Saint Jude, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, the Church honors and invokes you universally, as the patron of hopeless cases, and of things almost despaired of. Pray for me, who am so miserable. Make use, I implore you, of that particular privilege accorded to you, to bring visible and speedy help where help was almost despaired of. Come to my assistance in this great need, that I may receive the consolation and succor of Heaven in all my necessities, tribulations, and sufferings, particularly (here make your request) and that I may praise God with you and all the elect throughout eternity.
Amen."