The Intercession of the Saints - Catholic Productions

The Intercession of the Saints - Catholic Productions
(Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDY1h_RBNp0&ab_channel=CatholicProductions)

[NOTE: The following text is an almost 1:1 transcript of Catholic Production's video. All credit goes to them. I have removed any filler words such as uh, um, etc. God bless.]

Hebrews 12 is very important; [it] comes right after Hebrews 11. The reason that's so significant is in Hebrews 11 you have the famous catalog of all of these various saints and figures from the Old Testament who exemplified the virtue of faith. And so what's happening in chapter 12 is a kind of summary statement that follows from the catalog of the Old Testament Saints and the witness of their faith of what the implications are for the readers of the letter to the Hebrews. For our purposes here, I wanna hone in and focus on most important of all the image of the cloud of witnesses. Cause that's very well-known image, but it's also somewhat nebulous. Sorry about that. It's just, I couldn't pass up the pun.

All right. So what is he referring to here? Well, in Greek when he says a cloud of witnesses, the Greek word is μαρτύρων (martyrōn). Now, we might think he means, oh, cloud of martyrs, but he doesn't mean a cloud of people. A group of people who've been put to death for the sake of Christ. Remember μαρτυράω (martureó) in Greek means to bear witness or to give testimony. So what he's describing there is the list of all of those Old Testament saints that he's just finished cataloging in chapter 11. He's describing them as a cloud of witnesses, of souls, of people who give testimony to faith in God ... who bear witness to God and to the truth of his promises. What Paul seems to be describing here, this is really powerful, is the fact that although all of the people that he's mentioned in chapter 11 are dead (they've all passed away), they are still not only alive to God, but they somehow surround the members of the church on earth like a cloud descending from heaven to envelope them and surround them, right? Even in the present, although they've already passed away. So what the author of Hebrews is describing here is, is it's a description of all of the figures from the Old Testament and from salvation history that he's just cataloging Chapter 11, all of whom are dead. It's an assertion that they are somehow, not just still alive to God, but that they surround the saints on earth like a cloud of witnesses, just like a cloud might descend from heaven, and surround us.

Think here of, for example, the transfiguration where the cloud overshadows Peter, James, and John, and you have these two Old Testament saints, Elijah, and Moses appear and are conversing with Jesus. So to the letter the Hebrews here is saying that we are surrounded by this cloud of witnesses from the Old Testament. Now, where does the author of Hebrews get this idea that even though the Saint Old Testament are dead, they can somehow still surround Christians on earth, believers on earth? The answer is he gets it from Jewish tradition; in this case from the Catholic Old Testament, but not from the Jewish scriptures.

So there's a very important passage, that frequently gets overlooked, from 2 Maccabees, which is in the old Catholic Old Testament, but not in the Protestant Old Testament, and not in the contemporary Jewish Bible either. In 2 Maccabees 15, there's a description of two figures from Jewish history who had died, but who continued to be aware of what the Jewish people were doing on earth. And not just to be aware, but to be present to them, to intercede for them and to even be able to communicate with them, right? In other words, it's a description of the communion, or we would call the communion of the saints, although this is the communion of the Old Testament saints. So in the book of 2 Maccabees 15:12, listen to this description of a vision that was had by Judas Maccabee, one of the leaders of the Maccabean revolt of two deceased figures, Onias the high priest, and Jeremiah the prophet. This is what it says,

2 Maccabees 15:12-14

What he saw was this: Onias, who had been high priest, a noble and good man, of modest bearing and gentle manner, one who spoke fittingly and had been trained from childhood in all that belongs to excellence, was praying with outstretched hands for the whole body of the Jews. Then in the same fashion another appeared, distinguished by his gray hair and dignity, and of marvelous majesty and authority. And Onias spoke, saying, 'This is a man who loves the family of Israel and prays much for the people and the holy city—Jeremiah, the prophet of God.'”

What 2 Maccabees is describing here, and this is written by a Jewish author during the second Temple period. So it would reflect the beliefs of Jews at the time of Jesus, is that the high priest Onias and the prophet Jeremiah, who are both righteous men, are not only aware of what's happening to the Jewish people on earth, but they are actively praying for the Jewish people on earth through intercession and able to speak to certain representatives of the Jewish people like Judah himself, and be encouraged in the face of the trials and tribulations that they were going through at the time of the Maccabean Revolt. So, what this text bears witness to ... is an Old Testament foundation for the Catholic belief, and Orthodox as well, that, although figures from the Old Testament have died, they still are alive to God and not just alive to God, but able to intercede for the saints on earth. So we have an Old Testament scriptural foundation for the intercession of the saints.

So if we take that basic idea back to the letter to the Hebrews, and we go back to Hebrews 12, we can then see what Hebrews is doing with it. So what the letter to the Hebrews is doing here is saying that because we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, in other words, because the saints of the Old Testament who live lives of faith themselves while they were on earth, continue to be present to us and surround us, therefore, let us also lay aside every weight and sin that clings to us and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us. In other words, just as the Old Testament saints exhibited, not just faith, but for perseverance in following the path that God had laid out for them, so to we who are surrounded by the saints must follow the path of perseverance, the path of faith, and run the race that is set for us.

Now, pause here for a second, this is a fascinating use of a metaphor because the letter to the Hebrews appears to be describing the relationship between the saints in heaven or the saints who have gone on and the saints on earth like the participants in a race at an amphitheater, right? So, it was very popular in the first century AD you had chariot races, right? And so the stands would be filled with all of the fans, and then you'd have the racers who were in their chariots. If you've ever seen Ben-Hur or one of these films you'll get a kind of visual idea of what I'm talking about with the chariot races. They were very popular. They're extremely popular. And so what Hebrews is kind of doing here is comparing the saints on earth. They're like the chariot of tears. They're running the race. And then the saints who have gone before us, the cloud of witnesses are like the crowds cheering us on and encouraging us, interceding for us, so that we too might run with perseverance the race that is set before us.

So it's kind of an interesting image there. The chief cheerier of them all is Christ himself looking to Jesus the pioneer, the one who paves the way, the one who goes ahead of us, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Christ was the first one to run the race. He did it with perseverance and the goal, the victory that he achieved, was resurrection from the dead and his ascension to the right hand of the Father. So that's the ultimate destination, and that's the goal of our race as well. According to the author of the letter to the Hebrews.