The Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines waits with bated breath for October 21, 2012 for the canonization of Blessed Pedro Calungsod, the second Philippine saint to be canonized.

The practice of invoking divine aid through the mediation of another person who is morally superior in character to the worshipper dates back to pagan times. Animistic religion in the Philippines teaches that spirits are all around and their aid may be implored in times of distress. Philippine folklore abounds in stories of diwatas and anitos who may be benevolent or malignant.  Their aid may be implored for the worshipper to triumph over adversity or else to imprecate (send a curse or malas) to an enemy.

The Greeks, the Romans and the Norse have a pantheon of gods and goddesses whom they ask for help or intervention.  These gods and goddesses are arbitrary; they are whimsical and most often vindictive and petty.  They are selfish and they often use humans as pawns in intrigues and schemes to grab power from each other.

The idea of imploring the aid of “holy” and “spiritual” beings is a newer concept.  It did not arise until after AD 100, after the death of the Apostles.  During the time of the Apostles, there were many who were “martyred for the faith:” they died horrific deaths after excruciating torture without renouncing their belief in Jesus Christ.  Many died in “defense of the faith:” that is to say, they stood up to barbarian and pagan hordes who threatened to kill them if they did not renounce their faith in Jesus Christ or at least retract their preaching that Jesus Christ was King of Kings and Lord of Lords thus meaning that their God, Jesus Christ was greater than the gods worshipped and venerated by the barbarian and pagan hordes.

Early Christians collected the mortal remains of these martyred men and women to give them proper burial; so that they can be mourned. Soon persecuted Christians began to inhabit the same burial places of those martyrs.  They began to live in hiding with the bones of those martyred brethren.  They were usually not discovered as they hid in burial caves.  They began to attribute “power” to the remains to keep them from being discovered by their persecutors. Soon, it became an obsession to collect relics or remains of the martyred Christians for bodily protection.

This obsession with relics stems from the belief that Jesus Christ is pleased with Christians who, like him, suffered and died for the faith.  Grace was given to these saints to experience peace while they suffered.  They were “favored” ones. Thus, people began to believe that when these “saintly” ones ask God for anything no matter how humanly impossible, Jesus Christ would be more predisposed to grant their requests; Jesus Christ would be constrained to give these “saints” what they intercede for.  The sinful worshipper then invoked not only the name of the most favored Son, Jesus Christ, he also invoked the intervention and mediation of other “holy” and “saintly” men and women whom God would be hard put to refuse.  Even in religion, it mattered whom you know; whose name you dare invoke.

Another teaching that arose more recently puts forth the view that when Jesus Christ died, grace poured out for all humankind.  This grace is kept in a bank in heaven, deposited, ready to answer for all sin and need.  The martyred believers, by their pious lives and martyr deaths also bring about an outpouring of grace.  The grace stored in heaven, is much more than humans can consume.  There is simply too much grace; and too many who ask for grace that volunteers are necessary to dispense grace. All “holy” men and women who died martyr deaths are necessarily enlisted to dispense small bits of this grace when they are venerated or when their aid is implored. Priests even have the power to dispense grace when sinners do penance.

BUT WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

In the Old Testament, everyday things like pots and pans, curtains and ladles are made <qodesh> “holy.” They are “set apart for the sole and exclusive use in the worship of God.”  By setting them apart only for the use in the temple these ordinary everyday things become “holy.”  They are not holy by their very nature they become holy because they are used for the things of God.  In the New Testament, all believers are considered “holy.”  They are not holy because of their nature (they are sinners, after all); they are not holy because they behave well in life (Abraham was a liar, Jonah ran away from God; Peter denied Christ); they are made “holy” because they have been separated from their sin.  Their sins have been blotted out from their record because Jesus Christ has redeemed them.  In the sight of God, these “believer-saints” stand holy before God because they stand on the merit of Jesus Christ who redeemed them.

“Believer-saints” are also made holy because of the work of the Holy Spirit in their daily lives, daily separating them from their sinful thoughts and appetites and motivations.  This is what the New Testament calls <hagiasmos> or “sanctification.”  Finally, “believer–saints” are holy because of their abiding relationship with God and his Son, Jesus Christ.  They become adopted sons of the Father, they become brethren to Jesus Christ and to each other; they become workers in the vineyard and fields of the world; they become faithful servants of the Lord Jesus Christ as they pledge to him their lives, their beings and their right to choose what to do with their lives.

“Believer-saints” in the New Testament are not declared to be holy by a panel of cardinals.  The minute details of their lives are not scrutinized by investigators who recommend their canonization.  These “believer-saints” are not required to cause miracles.  They need not prove their saintliness by miracles of healing attributed to them by those who devotedly pray to them.

Believer-saints in the New Testament are made holy and made saints because of a relationship with Jesus Christ.  Whether their lives reflect the beauty and glory of Jesus Christ is quite another issue: a holy and “Christ-like” life is an outward testimony of an inward spiritual reality.  The spiritual reality that the Spirit of Jesus Christ indwells the believer-saint will manifest in the life and dealings of the believer-saint.  If the life of the “believer-saint” is not Christ-like, the inference which can be made is that “there is no life in him” that is, Jesus Christ’s Spirit does not really indwell him, he is not really saved although he professes to be saved.  Or, another inference that can be made is that although he is saved, he holds on tightly to his life as though he owned it still, unaware that Jesus Christ has redeemed him and so he has been bought with a price and he no longer owns himself. He does not manifest the life of Jesus Christ in his life because he has not surrendered to the work of the Holy Spirit in him. He is immature and has not had a grasp of what it means to “belong” to Christ.

There is a choice, then: to believe that in order to be a saint you have to be declared to be a saint; or, to take the Word of God and believe it that one becomes a saint by virtue of a relationship with Jesus Christ, no human declarations necessary.  Called or canonized?  You choose.