Sunday Meditation: The Feast of Intercessors -- May All the Saints March Us into Paradise!

I love All Saints Day, the feast of all our friends and intercessors who have gone before us. How I look forward to the day I'm included "when the saints go marching in!" What an opportunity to thank them all for their prayers and support. I expect my patron saints to be there cheering me on and, of course, my guardian angel. But then I expect to walk hand in hand with my beloved parents and side by side with my deceased brothers and all the priests who impacted by life from my Baptism. If my husband goes before me, I will look for him in the crowd and run to accept his welcome. So many pro-life friends will be there as well accompanied by the babies we helped to save by God's grace. What rejoicing!

Meditating on intercessors got me thinking about the poor Protestants who claim to be people of the book, but ignore all the Biblical intercessors, especially the Blessed Mother. Are they really believers in "sola scriptura?" Are they believers in scripture at all? Think of all the Old Testament intercessors. Abraham begged the Lord to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if only ten faithful souls could be found in the city. It's almost funny to listen to him begging over and over to lower the number of the faithful. And then, intercessor extraordinaire, Moses intercedes for the people of the Exodus, not once, but over and over and over. And, of course, finally the people enter the promised land and settle there with the Judges and Prophets as their guides praying and interceding for them relentlessly.

But the intercessors have just begun to pray. Think of Esther who risks her life to go to the king without being summoned. Her intercession saves the Jewish people from annihilation spurred by the enmity of Haman.

Can I forget David with his many psalms and prayers interceding for, not only Israel, but for his enemies. "Deliver Israel, O God, from all his tribulations." He refused to raise his hand against Saul because he was the Lord's anointed. He exemplifies the biblical passage, "A contrite and humbled heart, O God, You will not spurn."

I could go on and on and I haven't even begun to address the New Testament intercessors including Christ Himself and His mother who interceded for the young couple at the marriage feast in Cana. 

Martin Luther scrubbed Maccabees from the Bible because of its underlying recognition of Purgatory and the necessity of praying for the dead. But he would have had to wipe clean the entire Bible to eliminate the Catholic doctrine of interceding for those who go before us. Impossible!

We have so many friends in heaven! What a wealth of support there is for us when we turn to them. And on this feast of All Saints let us do exactly that. 

All you saints and angels of God, pray for us.