We read: " The Council of Trent teaches that ' the saints who reign together with Christ offer their prayers to God for men ' and that ' it is a good and useful thing suppliantly to invoke them and to flee to their prayers, help and assistance,' and that they are ' impious men ' who maintain the contrary " (The Papacy. Dr. Wylie, p. 363).
This is what the Council of Trent teaches, but not a line in Scripture is there to support such an idea. The Author of Catholic Belief says: " All Christians allow that it is right and useful to ask the prayers of holy persons who are upon earth; it cannot be wrong or useless to ask the prayers of the Saints in heaven, now that they are so near to God and in no danger of offending Him " (Catholic Belief, p. 102).
In this extract the author displays a serious lack of logic. We do not pray to our Christian friends on earth, but we ask them to pray for us, and with us. That is quite right. But our friends in Heaven are beyond the reach of a request to pray for us, and we cannot pray to them. How can they hear our prayers? Are they omnipresent, omniscient? We know that they are not. The difference between asking Christian friends to pray for us and praying to saints in Heaven is very obvious. A child can see it.
In the book we have quoted several times, Catholic Belief, there is given a list of saints, who have been canonized by the Church of Rome, and we are told that the list could be multiplied a hundredfold. The list given contains 258 names of saints and mediators. How does this list look beside the Scripture: "There is one God, and ONE MEDIATOR between God and men, the Man, Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:55For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; (1 Timothy 2:5)).
Job, speaking of God and himself, in despair of a solution of his troubles, cried out: "Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both " (Job 9:3333Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both. (Job 9:33)).
Who is great enough to lay his hand upon God in all His supreme holiness, and then upon the wretched sinner, needing pardon and cleansing? None but a Divine person can do that. Jesus was "God manifest in the flesh." He was and is Divine, the eternal Son in the Unity of the Godhead. And who can lay his hand on the sinful and needy? None but Jesus. The Virgin Mary, the 25,800 canonized saints, cannot put their hand on God as meeting in their persons His claims on a world of sinners, nor can any priest on earth give the pardon of sins. Our Lord, who could put His hand on the loathsome leper and bid foul disease to depart, who could heal the sick, the blind, the deaf, the lame, who could preach the Gospel to the poor, alone can put His loving hand of pardon and forgiveness on the sinner.
We learn a great lesson by what took place on the Mount of Transfiguration. When Peter saw Moses and Elias he proposed three tabernacles; one for the Lord, one for Moses and one for Elias. He seemed to wish to put the three on an equality. What was the answer, but a gracious rebuke? A bright cloud overshadowed the disciples, and a voice out of the cloud was heard, saying: " This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye HIM" (Matt. 17:55While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. (Matthew 17:5)).
The disciples fell on their faces and were sore afraid. Our Lord touched them, and bid them not to be afraid. Then we read: " And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save JESUS ONLY " (v. 8).
This surely is a little picture of Heaven. There we shall see, as far as worship is concerned, Jesus ONLY. The Virgin and all the saints that are there will unite with us in seeing Jesus ONLY, as the adored Object of our worship forever and ever. There will be then, as now, only one Object of worship in Heaven, Jesus ONLY.