Saintly Veneration Qua Fan Fiction

This post largely consists in something I wanted to say but never had the opportunity to in class. We had at least a twenty minute back and forth about whether the saints are individually meaningful for the spiritual life of the Christian. Professor Brown said that she rarely prays to saints other than Mary Immaculate (if they are all un-hyper versions of her, why bother dulia-ing them?) and many other students suggested that the other saints are of such indistinguishable merit and experience that individual consideration would be superfluous. My contention in response to such claims is best summed up by James Thomas O.P.: "Those who are consistently correct are regarded as annoying principally by those who prefer the darkness of error."

For what is the work of God in every additional Saint other than another work of human perfection, and thereby the perfection of God's creation? When we ask "why saints" are we think only of the spiritual edification of the Christian we miss the focus of the Christian life; namely, the worship of God the Creator. This refocus is not to say that the Christian life in the communion of saints does not edify; rather, that the edification is secondary to the worship of God.

Now the critical question: how does the veneration of so many similar saints provide fitting worship to God? The worship of God consists in recognition of the glory due to one's creator. Recalling Hugh, we know that God's reflection in human beings is born out in the soul through his 1) image and 2) likeness. We know from both Hugh and the Mellifluous Doctor that these attributes of the soul are pointed to God in reasoning about God and love for God's works, respectively. As human beings were created for the glorification of God, understanding how God performs his creative process in each saint helps the Church to respond to his creativity. By recognizing the work of God in the life of every saint, the Church grows in an understanding of God's design (reason) and a thanksgiving for his works (love). Thus, the honor provided to every single saints' body, life, writings, and name is an act of honor given to the works of God on earth. The contemplation of these works of God on earth allows the Christian to better worship Him.

Next, I thought to myself: "the purpose of this class is to better understand Medieval Christianity qua fan fiction. Professor Brown is trying to find the way that saints were used to do what we have been talking about before, so I should think about this notion." And so I have. We have spoken thus far on the ways that the Medieval Christian reads/builds his way into the life of God, and vice versa. The incarnation as the manifestation, conquest, and piercing of the veil brings the life of heaven into the life of earth. Thus, the Christian seeks to unite these lives. The Medieval English Christians dressed up in biblical plays not merely for veneration or remembrance of the events, but so as to bring the life of the heavenly Jerusalem to earth (See Professor Brown's Medieval England Class on the York festivals).

But what does this life of heaven on earth have to do with the saints? Everything! The saints are the temples of the LORD on earth, and thereby contain the life of heaven within them. The LORD Jesus Christ says "If anyone love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him" (John 14:23). Given that, as said by the Doctor Saint Therese, the vocation of every saint is love, the life of the saint on earth is the abode of the Most High God. To bring all these imperfect notions to fulfillment, we see how the hyperdulia due to the Queen of Heaven is due in an un-hyper form to every saint qua fan fiction: just as the Life of God came to dwell bodily in All Holy Mary, so the Life of God comes to dwell spiritually in every saint wherein the divine Trinity makes His abode. I will answer the question of why the Tree of Life, who is Mary, is deserving of hyperdulia next week, but for now we take it as an unquestionable point of dogma.

Royal David wished to dwell in the house of the LORD, the temple in Jerusalem all the days of his life. It was the one true temple, with the tabernacle, presence, priests, victims, and laws. Most importantly, God was there. The devotees of temple Judaism were unequivocal about the greatness of the presence of God. Now the saints permit that same presence to dwell among all believers. Why? It would appear as if the saints merely increase the number of places where God dwells, but they do not necessarily allow every Christian to enter into that presence. Wrong! The lives of the saints also serve to inspire all Christians to holiness such that they themselves become the abodes of the divine trinity and permit the life and presence of God to extend throughout the world.

"And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase. Her ways are ways of gentleness and all her paths are peace."- I Vow to Thee my Country, Sir Cecil Spring Rice

Nicholas Duffee