A Morbid Connection to Heaven:

An Investigation of Relics & The Modern Need for Them

Chapter Two: Relics Today and Their Defense

 

In the movie Singing in the Rain there is a moment near the beginning in which fan-girls start attacking the lead male character and rip his clothing in an attempt to have a piece of him to keep as a memento. It is interesting to note that a culture filled with autograph hounds and with those who become star struck whenever a celebrity comes by can consider the Catholic veneration of relics a joke. A lovely dish is just a lovely dish, but one owned by your grandmother is a special treasure. A pocket-watch gotten at a pawn stop is just a time piece, but one given to you by a grandfather is one you dread losing and would mourn if that were to happen. People are willing to pay a ridiculous amount of money for an article of clothing worn by some famous person, faint at Beatles concerts, and engage in riotous behavior to get their hands on an article of clothing or some other item belonging to a new pop icon; but when a relic of Saint Catherine is mentioned, people snicker.

Especially today, in a world filled with atheists and misinformed Catholics, the snickering gets louder. In the year 2009, some of the relics of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux went on tour around England, even going to a correctional facility, after visiting forty other countries. Many English pilgrims came to see and touch the remains of the French saint. Simon Jenkins, a self proclaimed “Dawkins-ite”, wrote an article concerning the saint's visit to his country. Jenkins finds the whole event rather distasteful, crediting the frenzy that the faithful display towards the relics as “brainwashing of unreason.” But Jenkins decided to be gracious towards the less rational of his fellow man and take up the mantle of courtesy, the same he “would show a Hindu elephant worshiper or a Polynesian medicine man.” Such a mantle is hard to see in the rest of his article, which consists of a rather snarky description of how the relics came across the English channel and what the faithful would do once in reach of the relics. He blatantly states that relics are nothing more then “jujus, [or] religious placebos for the credulous classes” while most rational people “find them ghoulish.”

One of the members of the committee which arranged for Saint Thérèse to visit England, Father Stephen Wang, quickly responded to Jenkin's article. Wang quickly goes into an explanation of why so many come to the relics. People “come to pray; to find inspiration in the life of an extraordinary woman; to deepen their sense of community and belong; to connect with a person they love”; basically people are coming because they are seeking spiritual help. Wang explicitly states that relics are not, as Jenkins says, 'jujus', which are magical charms. A common misconception about relics held by non-Catholics and some Catholics is that relics possess magical powers; there is a supernatural aspect to relics, but there is no 'hocus-pocus' involved with them. The relics are part of the physical aspect of the faith, it is “not just about abstract spiritual truths.” The very act of the Incarnation confirms this – people were able to touch the Word of God and interact with Him. It is of little wonder then that Christianity developed with tangible ways to express the faith; this includes church architecture, polyphonic music and statues alongside of relics.

Today, relics are found in several different states in general. The first is relics lost and forgotten in a museum, where people gawk and wonder why there is a skull in a glided box. Next, the relics become a tourist attraction, like Pope Blessed John XXIII; the Swiss guards usher people along as they take pictures of a partially decomposed man under an altar. The last state, which is probably the most common, is that of relics in some form of a storage room, whether it be in a church or in a museum's back closet; they are hidden away out of sight, and the only way to see them is if one knows somebody with connections to the relics. But above all these states is that in every altar in the churches there has to be a relic, inside according to Cannon Law.

There are three classes of sacred relics depending on the closeness of the object to the saint. The first class are instruments of the Passion of Christ or a part of a saint's body. The relics found in church altars are first class, most likely one of a martyr. Then, the second class relics is a piece of the saint's clothing or something used often by the saint, such as the letters written by Saint Teresa of Ávila. Lastly, third class relics are objects touched to first class relics.

To venerate the relics of the saints is a profession of belief in several doctrines of the Catholic faith. The first of these is the belief in everlasting life for those who have obediently witnessed to Christ and the Holy Gospel whilst on earth. Next is the truth of the resurrection of the body of all persons on the last day, which relates to the doctrine of the splendor of the human body and the respect which all should show toward the bodies of both the living and the deceased. Also, there is the belief in the special intercessory power which the saints enjoy in heaven because of their intimate relationship with God. Last is the truth of our closeness to the saints because of our connection with the communion of saints, since we are all part of the same Church.

To understand how to venerate relics, one must understand the difference between latria, dulia and hyper-dulia. Latria is sacrificial in character, and may be offered only to God. Catholics offer other degrees of reverence to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to the Saints; these non-sacrificial types of reverence are called hyper-dulia and dulia, respectively. Hyper-dulia is essentially a heightened degree of dulia provided only to the Blessed Virgin since she is the revered Mother of God. 

End of Part One.
To Be Continued............
(Copyright: Belongs to the Wanderer)
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