{"id":15201,"date":"2012-11-01T15:01:05","date_gmt":"2012-11-01T22:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=15201"},"modified":"2015-03-19T15:57:52","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T22:57:52","slug":"saint-worship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2012\/11\/01\/saint-worship\/","title":{"rendered":"Saint Worship"},"content":{"rendered":"

I went to Mass at lunch today\u00a0and was thinking about the common concern among Protestants\u00a0that Catholics and Eastern Orthodox worship<\/span> the Saints.<\/p>\n

Let me just say up front that we don’t worship<\/span> the Saints, we honour<\/span> them. Now, that’s a fine and dandy thing to say, but really, is there a difference between “worship”<\/span><\/em> and “honour”<\/span><\/em>?<\/p>\n

\"All<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A Lesson From History<\/h2>\n

The difference between “worship”<\/em><\/span> and “honour”<\/em><\/span> is beautifully shown in a document known as the “Martyrdom of St. Polycarp”<\/em><\/span>. It was composed sometime around AD 155 and describes the death of the great bishop of Smyrna, St. Polycarp, about fifty years after the death of his teacher<\/a>, St. John the Apostle. (The document\u00a0can be found in the\u00a0Patristics<\/a>\u00a0section of this blog)<\/em><\/p>\n

In Chapter 17 of the martyrdom\u00a0account, after Polycarp’s murder, we are told that there was contention concerning Polycarp’s body. At the\u00a0urging\u00a0of the Jews, a man called Nicetas asked the Roman Magistrate to withhold Polycarp’s body from the Christians, saying:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026or else they will forsake Him who was crucified and worship this man instead<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The response given by the document’s author is wonderful and beautifully expresses the Catholic attitude towards Christ and the Saints:<\/p>\n

“They did not realize that we could never abandon Christ<\/span>, He who suffered for our salvation \u2013 the blameless one for sinners! \u2013 or worship any other. Him we worship<\/span> as being the Son of God, the martyrs we love<\/span> as being disciples and imitators of the Lord; and deservedly so, because of their unsurpassable devotion to their King and Teacher<\/span>. May it be our good fortune, too, to be their companions and fellow disciples<\/span>! “<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Christ we worship, the Saints we love and honour.<\/p>\n

It’s time to celebrate!<\/h2>\n

The Christians did eventually get their hands on Polycarp’s remains:<\/p>\n

“…we collected Polycarp\u2019s bones, being more precious than the most exquisite jewels and more purified than gold<\/span>, we interred them in a fitting place<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

There the Lord will permit us, as far as possible, to assemble in rapturous joy and celebrate his martyrdom<\/span> \u2013 his birthday \u2013 both in order to commemorate the heroes that have gone before<\/span>, and to train the heroes yet to come<\/span>\u2026”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

On this Feast of All Saints<\/a>, let us celebrate those who have gone before us, marked with the sign of faith and be inspired as we\u00a0imitate\u00a0their example to live lives of heroic virtue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I went to Mass at lunch today\u00a0and was thinking about the common concern among Protestants\u00a0that Catholics and Eastern Orthodox worship the Saints. Let me just say up front that we don’t worship the Saints, we honour them. Now, that’s a fine and dandy thing to say, but really, is there a difference between “worship” and “honour”?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,17],"tags":[1755,2969,1338,91,117,220],"class_list":["post-15201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apologetics","category-faith","tag-all-saints","tag-featured","tag-honour","tag-liturgy","tag-polycarp","tag-worship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15201"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56594,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15201\/revisions\/56594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}