In imitating saints, we imitate Christ himself: distinctively Catholic practice founded in theology of sacramentality - Column

National Catholic Reporter, Nov 1, 2002 by Richard P. McBrien

Hardly any practice is so distinctively Catholic as the cult of saints," Cardinal Avery Dulles once wrote. And, one might add, hardly any theological perspective is so distinctively Catholic as is the sacramental.

The principle of sacramentality reflects Catholicism's core conviction that the infinite, invisible God is present and redemptively active in the finite, visible, human realities of this world, and especially in human persons who embody and practice the goodness and love of God toward one another.

Every woman, man and child who has "heroically" (that is, in some truly extraordinary fashion) responded to God's call to holiness in this life is a saint, canonized or not. They embody in their very persons the invisible presence of the Holy Spirit. As such, they are sacraments, that is, visible signs and instruments of God's presence and saving activity on our behalf.

At the heart of this distinctively Catholic sacramental perspective is the belief that God's redemptive presence has been supremely and uniquely embodied in the person of Jesus Christ. According to this sacramental view, the church is the ecclesial (or "mystical") body of Christ and is also his "fundamental sacrament," that is, the basis and prototype of the whole sacramental life of the church, from baptism to the anointing of the sick.

Because the church itself is a sacrament (it does not simply have sacraments), it has a missionary responsibility to manifest in its own life, members, ministries and structural operations the holiness of the one who alone can be called "the Holy One of God," Jesus Christ. As such, according to Vatican II, the church itself is "a sign and instrument ... of communion with God and of the unity of the entire human race" ("Dogmatic Constitution on the Church").

The relevance of the principle of sacramentality to the church's veneration of saints is underscored in the classic: passage from Paul's Letter to the Hebrews: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith" (12:11.2).

St. Paul was even more to the point in his First Letter to the Corinthians. To those who wondered how they could pattern their lives on Christ's when they did not know him, Paul wrote: "Be imitators of me as I am of Christ" (11:1).

The church lifts up its saints before the world for this same purpose: to provide models and examples of Christian discipleship. We are encouraged to imitate them, in whom the grace of Christ has visibly triumphed, because in imitating the saints we are imitating Christ himself.

The saints, then, are not to be regarded primarily as miracle-workers, intercessors and benefactors, although some function in that way. But when that is where the devotional emphasis lies, it can be a relatively short step from there to acts of superstition and even idolatry.

Out of concern for that risk, the Second Vatican Council called for the removal or correction of "any abuses, excesses or defects which may have crept in here and there" in Catholic devotions to the saints, all the while reminding us that "the authentic cult of the saints does not consist so much in a multiplicity of external acts, but rather in a more intense practice of the love of Christ for all" ("Dogmatic Constitution on the Church").

The 16th-century Christian humanist Erasmus, a contemporary of the Protestant reformers who objected so strongly to the cult of saints, made essentially the same point for his own time: "No devotion to the saints is more acceptable to God," he wrote, "than the imitation of their virtues....

"Do you want to honor St. Francis?" he asked. "Then give away your wealth to the poor, restrain your evil impulses and see in everyone you meet the image of Christ."

The theology that underlies our annual feast of All Saints is aptly expressed in the council's "Dogmatic Constitution on the Church": "In the lives of those companions of ours who are more perfectly transformed into the image of Christ, God shows, vividly, to humanity his presence and his face.

"He speaks to us in them and offers us a sign of his Kingdom, to which we are powerfully attracted, so great a cloud of witness are we given and such an affirmation of the truth of the gospel."

What is true of saints is true of the church. It is a communion of saints and, as such, "a light to the nations."

Fr. Richard McBrien teaches theology at the University of Notre Dame.