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Asleep in the Lord or merely dead People?


One of the many, special characteristics of Christ's Church on earth is the 
teaching that we can, and should, venerate the Saints in heaven - with the 
added blessing that we can ask them, who are so dear and close to Almighty 
God, to pray on our behalf. History bears witness to the countless favors 
and miracles wrought through the intercession of the Saints since apostolic 
times. While the Jews had the true religion (until their Messiah came in 
the person of Jesus Christ), it did not include the practice of praying to 
holy "dead people" - as non-catholics may be prone to comment!  Prayer to 
those who have died is not found in the Old Testament scriptures. Although 
this practice of praying to Saints in heaven is so prominent for Christians 
down through the centuries, it still does not appear in the New Testament 
scriptures. Protestants, who believe in "private interpretation" while 
ignoring history and "tradition", reject prayer to the Saints largely 
because they erroneously accept only that tradition which is written. But 
as St. Paul clearly says in his second letter to the Thessalonians (2:14): 
"brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, 
whether by word, or by our epistle."

Catholics know there are unwritten traditions, and this prevents us from 
becoming concerned that the New Testament does not mention praying to the 
Saints in heaven. But for those who want a reason, the matter is simple - 
heaven was not opened for mankind until the Redemption was completed!  If 
heaven was closed during the Old Testament times, both written and 
unwritten Jewish Teaching would logically not include such a mention of it. 
In fact, it was shortly before the birth of the Church at Pentecost that 
the souls of the Just were first lead by Christ from "Abraham's bosom" into 
heaven. Only from that moment were they in the position to "pray for us". 
However, living Christians were already accustomed to praying mutually for 
each other while on earth. This was practiced in the Old Testament as we 
can see with Abraham, Moses and Job; and it continued into the New, where 
St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians, "Brethren, pray for us." (1 Thess. 5:25)

The Church grew quickly from the "mustard seed" it was compared to, but all 
was not complete for many years. For instance, we know from Church teaching 
that Divine Revelation officially ended with the death of the last Apostle, 
Saint John. That was about 63 years after the ascension of Our Lord. We 
know, too, that it was not until 24 years after Our Lord ascended that St. 
Luke wrote his Gospel. Unknown to most Protestants is the fact that the New 
Testament scriptures were not compiled into "the Bible" until almost three 
centuries after Christ walked the earth. So it must have also taken some 
years for the faithful, as a whole, to have taken full advantage of the 
prayers of the Saints in heaven. The Resurrection was new and fresh in the 
minds of the early Christians. With a lively hope, they lived this truth 
with thoughts of eternal life being close at hand. They referred quite 
simply to those who died as having "fallen asleep in the Lord". As more and 
more Christians experienced their fellow man die, it was quite natural to 
continue asking them to "pray" for them beyond the grave if they appeared 
to have died in great holiness - which would mean they had been save and 
gone to directly to heaven. The people of the Old Testament looked to Moses 
to pray for them, because they new he was close to God, and so it was with 
the Christians, who asked the prayers of those deceased they recognized as 
being very holy up until their death. And we see the practice accelerate 
quite rapidly and continue throughout the centuries unabated as the graces 
flowed abundantly through the intercession of the Saints..

Naturally, Christians recognized Jesus Christ's mother Mary to be a special 
Saint to pray to. What more powerful prayer could be made on our behalf 
than by the Mother of God herself?  We venerate her far above all the other 
saints as she was endowed with the special privilege of being born without 
the stain of original sin, chosen to give birth to our Creator, and lived 
her whole life free from sin, and with the highest degree of all 
virtue!  We find in St. John's Gospel the account showing us the power of 
Our Lady's intercession (John 2:1-9):

1 And the third day, there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee: and the 
mother of Jesus was there..
2 And Jesus also was invited, and his disciples, to the marriage..
3 And the wine failing, the mother of Jesus saith to him: They have no wine..
4 And Jesus saith to her: Woman, what is that to me and to thee? My hour is 
not yet come..
5 His mother saith to the waiters: Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye..
6 Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner 
of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three measures apiece..
7 Jesus saith to them: Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them 
up to the brim..
8 And Jesus saith to them: Draw out now, and carry to the chief steward of 
the feast. And they carried it..
9 And when the chief steward had tasted the water made wine, and knew not 
whence it was, but the waiters knew who had drawn the water.....

By inspiration of the Holy Ghost, St. John has related this story for us to 
have us realize that - even though it was not time for Jesus to perform His 
first public miracle, Our Lady's request was nevertheless granted, and the 
miracle was performed. We indeed have a special advocate in heaven!  It is 
interesting to note that of the four Gospels, only St. John has related 
this story - Matthew, Mark and Luke do not mention it. This may very well 
be because St. John's Gospel was written about a year before his 
Apocalypse. This latter contains prophecies concerning the last days in the 
Church where Our Lady is expected to take a singular role. The Apocalypse 
mentions (12:1,17):

"a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the 
moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars....And the 
dragon was angry against the woman: and went to make war with the rest of 
her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the  testimony of 
Jesus Christ."

We see likewise how devotion to the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary has 
increased over the centuries; with the many approvals by Popes, finally 
coming to a climax with the miracle at Fatima in 1917 which involved the 
sun, and laid special emphasis on devotion to the Mother of God, especially 
by saying the daily Rosary in order to lessen or prevent unprecedented 
sufferings for the world..

Below is a first hand account of an amazing conversion of a sinner through 
the intercession of Our Lady. It was written by the venerable Passionist 
priest, Fr. Germanus, in 1913. He was the spiritual director of St. Gemma 
Galgani until her death. Saint Gemma was an Italian laywoman who died in 
1903 at age 25, after years of suffering the passion of Our Lord each week. 
She was canonized in 1940 by Pope Pius XII. This account was taken from, 
"The Life of St. Gemma Galgani"..

Saint Gemma Galgani, pray for us!

______________________________________________
By Fr. Germanus, C.P.  (1913):

My feelings on that occasion, still vivid in my memory, baffle explanation. 
Our Lord was then assuredly preparing me to see great things by which every 
shadow of doubt remaining in my mind should be dispelled. It happened to be 
Thursday, and about the middle of supper, Gemma, feeling signs of the 
coming ecstasy, rose from the table and left the room. After a little time 
her adopted mother came to call me. I followed her and found the child in 
ecstasy..

The subject of the ecstasy was the conversion of a sinner, and the form was 
a wrestling between the blessed maiden and the Divine Justice to obtain 
this conversion. I confess that I never beheld anything more affecting. The 
dear child was sitting on her bed with her eyes, face and all her person 
turned toward a part of the room where Our Lord appeared to her. She was 
not agitated, but earnest and resolute, like one in a struggle who is 
determined to win at any cost. She began by saying, "As Thou hast come, 
Jesus, I renew my supplications for my sinner. He is Thy child and my 
brother; save him, Jesus"; and she named him. He was a stranger whom she 
had met in Lucca, and moved by spiritual impulse, she had already warned 
him very often by word of mouth and by letter to listen to the dictates of 
his conscience and not be contented with the mere public reputation of 
being a good Christian..

Jesus seeming disposed to deal as a just Judge with this man, remained 
unmoved by the entreaties of His servant. But she, nowise deterred, 
rejoined: "Why today, O Jesus, dost Thou not heed me? For one soul only 
Thou hast done so much! Why then wilt Thou not save this other one? Save 
him, Jesus, save him. Be good, Jesus. Do not say that to me. In Thy mouth, 
Who art Mercy itself, that word `abandon' sounds bad. Thou must not say it. 
Thou hast not measured the Blood Thou hast shed for sinners, and now dost 
Thou wish to measure the enormity of our sins? Dost Thou not heed me? And 
I, to whom must I turn? Thou hast shed Thy Blood for him as well as for me. 
Wilt Thou save me and not him? I will not rise from here. Save him. Promise 
me that Thou wilt save him. I offer myself victim for all, but particularly 
for him. I promise not to refuse Thee anything. Dost Thou grant it me? It 
is a soul. Remember, O Jesus, it is a soul that has cost Thee so much. He 
will become good and not relapse."

In answer to all her entreaties, Our Lord put forward the Divine Justice. 
But she, growing still more fervent, replied: "I am not seeking Thy 
Justice. I am imploring Thy Mercy. Then Jesus, go in search of that poor 
sinner; press him to Thy Heart and Thou wilt see that he will be converted. 
At least try it . . . Listen, Jesus, Thou sayest that Thou hast made many 
forcible attempts to convince him, but Thou hast not called him `son.' Try 
that now, and tell him that Thou art his Father and that he is Thy child. 
Thou wilt find that on hearing this sweet name of `Father,' his hardened 
heart will soften." And here Our Lord, to prove to His servant what reason 
He had for remaining firm, began to show her one by one, with the most 
minute circumstances of time and place, the evil deeds of that sinner, 
adding that he had filled up their measure. The poor child showed her 
dismay. She let her hands fall and heaved a deep sigh, as if she had almost 
lost the hope of succeeding. But quickly recovering from the shock, she 
returned to the attack..

"I know, Jesus," she said, "I know it, that he has offended Thee thus 
grievously. But I have done worse and, for all that, Thou hast shown me 
Mercy. I know, I know, O Jesus, that he has made Thee weep. But now, 
Jesus-Thou must not think of his sins. Thou must think of the Blood Thou 
hast shed. What immense Charity, O Jesus, hast Thou not lavished on me! Use 
with my sinner, I implore of Thee, all those delicacies of Infinite Love 
that Thou hast used toward me. Remember, Jesus, that I want his salvation. 
Triumph, triumph, I ask him of Thee in Charity."

In spite of all these efforts, Our Lord remained inflexible, and Gemma 
again relapsed into anguish and discouragement, remaining silent, as if she 
had abandoned the strife. Then, all of a sudden, another motive flashed to 
her mind that seemed invincible against all resistance. She became all 
animated and spoke thus: "Well, I am a sinner. Thou Thyself hast told me 
so, that worse than me Thou couldst not find. Yes, I confess it, I am 
unworthy that Thou shouldst listen to me. But look, I present Thee another 
advocate for my sinner; it is Thine own Mother who asks Thee to forgive 
him. Oh, imagine saying no to Thy Mother! Surely Thou canst not say no to 
her. And now answer me, Jesus, say that Thou hast saved my sinner." The 
victory was gained, the whole scene changed aspect, the tenderhearted 
Saviour had granted the grace, and Gemma, with a look of indescribable joy, 
exclaimed: "He is saved, he is saved! Thou hast conquered, Jesus; triumph 
always thus." And then she came out of the ecstasy..

This most affecting scene lasted quite half an hour. The words in which I 
have described it were in part taken down in writing, and in part preserved 
in my memory, from which I have faithfully drawn them. When it was over, 
having withdrawn to my room, with my mind engrossed by a thousand thoughts, 
I suddenly heard a tap at my door. "A strange gentleman, Father, has called 
and wishes to see you."

I bade him come in. He threw himself at my feet sobbing and said: "Father, 
hear my Confession." Good God! I thought my heart would burst. It was 
Gemma's sinner, converted that same hour. He accused himself of all that I 
had heard repeated by her in the ecstasy. He had forgotten one thing only, 
and I was able to remind him of it. I consoled him, told him what had just 
happened, got his permission to narrate these wonders of the Lord, and 
after a mutual embrace we parted. Some years have passed since that event, 
and I still seem to find myself present at it. In my copious notes I have 
particulars of other conversions similar in many ways to that just 
described and equally well authenticated. For the sake of brevity and to 
avoid uncalled-for repetition, I have not given them here..







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