Chapter III

Are the Saints' Prayers to God for us always heard?

In 2 Maccabees xv. 14 it is said: _This is he that prayeth much for the people, and for all the Holy City, Jeremias the prophet of God_; and that his prayer was heard is evident from what follows, for _Jeremias stretched forth his right hand and gave to Judas a sword of gold, saying: Take this holy sword, a gift from God_, etc.

Further, S. Jerome says[282]: "You say in your book that while we live we can pray for one another, but that after we are dead no one's prayer for others will be heard"; and S. Jerome condemns this statement thus: "If the Apostles and Martyrs while still in the body could pray for others while as yet solicitous for themselves, how much more when they have won their crown, completed the victory, and gained their triumph?"

Moreover, the Church's custom confirms this, for she frequently asks to be helped by the prayers of the Saints.

* * * * *

The Saints are said to pray for us in two ways: firstly, by express prayer, when they by their ardent desires appeal to the ears of the Divine Mercy for us; secondly, by interpretative prayer--namely, by their merits which, standing as the Saints do in the sight of God, not only tend to their own glory but are, as it were, suffrages--and even prayers--for us; just as the Blood of Christ, shed for us, is said to ask pardon for us. And in both ways the prayers of the Saints are, as far as in them lies, efficacious in obtaining what they ask for. But that we do not obtain the fruit of their prayers may be due to defects on our part, according, that is, as they are said to pray for us in the sense that their merits avail for us. But according as they actually do pray for us--that is, ask something for us by their desires--they are always heard. For the Saints only wish what God wishes, and they only ask for what they wish should be done; what God, however, wishes is always done--unless, indeed, we are speaking of the _antecedent_ will of God, according to which _He wills all men to be saved_: this will is not always fulfilled. Hence it is not to be wondered at if what the Saints also will according to this kind of will is not always fulfilled.

But some maintain that the Saints' prayers for us are not always heard, thus:

1. If the Saints' prayers were always heard, they would be especially heard when they pray for those things which affect themselves. Yet they are not always heard as regards these things, for to the Martyrs who prayed for vengeance upon the inhabitants of the earth it was said _that they should rest for a little time till_ the number of _their brethren should be filled up_.[283] Much less, then, are their prayers heard for things that do not concern them.

But this prayer of the Martyrs is nothing more than their desire
to obtain the garment of the body and the society of the Saints
who are to be saved; it expresses their agreement with the
Divine Justice which punishes the wicked. Hence on those words
of the Apocalypse,[284] _How long, O Lord_, the Ordinary Gloss
says: "They yearn for a greater joy, and for the companionship
of the Saints, and they agree with the justice of God."

2. It is said in Jeremias[285]: _If Moses and Samuel shall stand before Me, My soul is not towards this people_. The Saints, then, are not always heard when they pray for us to God.

But God here speaks of Moses and Samuel according as they were
in this life, for they are said to have prayed for the people
and thus withstood the wrath of God. Yet none the less, had they
lived in Jeremias' time they would not have been able to appease
by their prayers God's wrath upon the people, so great was the
latter's wickedness. This is the meaning of that passage.

3. The Saints in our Fatherland are said to be the equals of the Angels.[286] But the Angels are not always heard in their prayers to God, as is evident from Daniel[287]: _I am come for thy words. But the Prince of the kingdom of the Persians resisted me one and twenty days._ But the Angel who spoke had not come to Daniel's assistance without asking his freedom from God; yet none the less the fulfilment of his prayer was hindered. In the same way, then, neither are the prayers of other Saints to God for us always heard.

But this contest of the good Angels is not to be understood in
the sense that they put forth contrary prayers before God, but
that they set before the Divine scrutiny conflicting merits on
either hand, and awaited the Divine decision. Thus S. Gregory,
expounding the above words of Daniel, says: "These sublime
Spirits who rule over the nations in no sense strive for those
who do evil, but they scrutinize their deeds and judge justly;
hence, when the faults or the merits of any nation are submitted
to the Council of the Supreme Court, he who is set over that
particular nation is described as either losing or failing in
the contest. But the sole victory for all of them is the supreme
will of his Creator above him; and since they ever look towards
that Will, they never desire what they cannot obtain,"[288] and
hence never ask for it. Whence it is clear that their prayers
are always heard.

4. Whoever obtains something by prayer in a certain sense merits it. But the Saints who are in our Fatherland are no longer capable of meriting. Therefore they cannot obtain anything for us from God by their prayers.

But although the Saints when once they are in our Fatherland are
not capable of meriting for themselves, they are still capable
of meriting for others, or rather of helping others by reason of
their own previous merits. For when alive they merited from God
that their prayers should be heard after death. Or we might say
that in prayer merit and the power to obtain what we ask do not
rest on the same basis. For merit consists in a certain
correspondence between an act and the end towards which it is
directed and which is given to it as its reward; but the
impetratory power of prayer rests upon the generosity of him
from whom we ask something. Consequently prayer sometimes wins
from the generosity of him to whom it is made what perhaps was
not merited either by him who asked nor by him for whom he
asked. And thus, though the Saints are no longer capable of
meriting, it does not follow that they are incapable of winning
things from God.

5. Again, the Saints conform their will in all things to the Divine Will. Therefore they can only will what they know God wills. But no one prays save for what he wishes. Consequently they only pray for what they know God wills. But what God wills would take place whether they prayed or not. Consequently their prayers have no power to obtain things.

But, as is evident from the passage of S. Gregory quoted above
in reply to the third difficulty, neither the Saints nor the
Angels will anything save what they see in the Divine Will. And
consequently they ask for nothing else save this. But it does
not follow that their prayers are without fruit, for, as S.
Augustine says in his treatise, _On the Predestination of the
Saints_,[289] and S. Gregory in his _Dialogues_,[290] the
prayers of the Saints avail for the predestinate, because
perhaps it was pre-ordained that they should be saved by the
prayers of those who interceded for them. And so, too, God wills
that by the prayers of the Saints should be fulfilled what the
Saints see that He wills.

6. Lastly, the prayers of the entire Court of Heaven should, if they can gain anything at all, be far more efficacious than all the suffrages of the Church on earth. But if all the suffrages of the Church on earth were to be accumulated upon one soul in Purgatory, it would be entirely freed from punishment. Since, then, the Saints who are in our Fatherland have the same reason for praying for the souls in Purgatory as they have for praying for us, they would by their prayers, if they could obtain anything for us, wholly deliver from suffering those who are in Purgatory. But this is false, for if it were true, then the suffrages of the Church for the dead would be superfluous.

But the suffrages of the Church for the dead are, as it were,
satisfactions offered by the living in place of the dead, and
thus they free the dead from that debt of punishment which they
have not paid. But the Saints who are in our Fatherland are not
capable of making satisfaction. And thus there is no parity
between their prayers and the Church's suffrages.

FOOTNOTES:

[267] xiv. 21.

[268] _Moralia in Job_, xii. 14.

[269] _Dialogue_, li. 35.

[270] _Contra Vigilant._, vi.

[271] S. Augustine: _Of the Trinity_, xiii. 5.

[272] _Of the Heavenly Hierarchy_, iii.

[273] lxiii. 16.

[274] _De Cura Mortuorum_, 13, 14, 15.

[275] S. Matt, xviii. 10.

[276] _Of the Heavenly Hierarchy_, vii.; and _Of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy_, vi.

[277] v. 1.

[278] _Moralia in Job_, v. 30.

[279] Rom. xv. 30.

[280] _Of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy_, v.

[281] Dan. ix. 14.

[282] _Ep. contra Vigilantium_, vi.

[283] Apoc. vi. 11.

[284] vi. 10.

[285] xv. 1.

[286] S. Matt. xxii. 30.

[287] x. 12-13.

[288] _Moralia on Job_, xvii. 12.

[289] _De Dono Perseverantiae_, xxii.

[290] i. 8.

QUESTION CLXXIX

OF THE DIVISION OF LIFE INTO THE ACTIVE AND THE CONTEMPLATIVE

I. May Life be fittingly divided into the Active and
the Contemplative?
S. Augustine, _De Consensu Evangelistarum_, I., iv. 8
" _Tractatus, cxxiv. 5, in Joannem_
II. Is this division of Life into the Active and the
Contemplative a sufficient one?
S. Augustine, _Of the Trinity_, I., viii. 17