INTERCESSION
70
INTERCESSION
As to the recipients of the sacraments, it is certain
that no intention is required in children who have not
yet reached the age of reason, or in imbeciles, for the
validity of those sacraments which they are capable
of recei\ing. In the case of adults, on the other hand,
some intention is indispensable if the sacrament is not
to be invalid. The reason is that our justification is
not brought about wdthout our co-operation, and that
includes the rational will to profit by the means of
sanctification. How much of an intention is enough,
is not always quite clear. In general, more in the way
of intention will be demanded in proportion as the
acts of the receiver seem to enter into the making
of the sacrament. So for penance and matrimony
under ordinary conditions a virtual intention would
appear to be required; for the other sacraments an
habitual intention is sufficient. For an unconscious
person in danger of death the habitual intention may
be implicit and still suffice for the validity of the sac-
raments that are then necessary or highly useful;
that is, it may be contained in the more general pur-
pose which a man has at some time during his life,
and which he has never retracted, of availing himself
of these means of salvation at so supreme a moment.
For the gaining of indulgences the most that can
probably be exacted is an habitual intention.
WiLHELM AND ScANNELL. Manual of Cal/icUc Theology (Lon- don. 1909); Slater, Manual of Moral Theology (New York, 190S); DE AUGUSTINIS. De re sacramentaria (Rome, 1889): Ballerini, Opus theologicum morale (Prato, 1900); (jEnicot, T/imlogia: moralis inslitutiones (Louvain, 1898).
Joseph F. Delany.
Intercession (Mediation). — To intercede is to go or come lietween two parties, to plead liefore one of them on behalf of the other. In the New Testament it is used as the equivalent of ivrvyxdi'ei.i' (Vulg. intcr- pcllare, in Heb., vii, 25). " Mediation " means a stand- ing in the midst between two (contending) parties, for the purpose of bringing them together (cf. mediator, /xe<riTi7s, I Tim., ii, o). In ecclesiastical usage both words are taken in the sense of the intervention pri- marily of Christ, and secondarily of the Blessed Mrgin and the angels and saints, on behalf of men. It would be better, however, to restrict the word mediation to the action of Christ, and intercession to the action of the Blessed Virgin, the angels, and the .saints. In this article we shall briefly deal with: I. the Mediation of Christ; and at more length with, II. the intercession of the saints.
I. In considering the Mediation of Christ we must distinguish between His position and His office. As God-man He stands in the midst between God and man, partaking of the natures of both, and therefore, by that very fact, fitted to act as Mediator between them. He is, indeed, the Mediator in the absolute sense of the word, in a way that no one else can possibly be. " For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Chri-st Jesus" (I Tim., ii, 5). He is united to both: " The head of every man is Christ . . . the head of Christ is God " (I Cor., xi, 3). His office of Mediator belongs to Him as man. His human nature is the princijiium quo, but the value of His action is derived from the fact that it is a Dixdne Person Who acts. The main ol)ject of His mediation is to restore the friendship between (Jod and man. This is at- tained first by the meriting of grace and remission of sin, by means of the worship and satisfaction offered to God by and through Christ. But, besides bringing man nigh unto God, Chri.st brings God nigh unto man, by revealing to man Divine truths and commands — He is the Apostle sent by God to us and the High- Priest lca<ling us on to God (Heb., iii, 1). Even in the physical order the mere fact of C'hrist's existence is in itself a mediation between God and man. By uniting our humanity to His Divinity He united us to t!od and God to us. As St. .\thanasius .says, " Christ became man that men might become gods" (" De Incarn.", n.
54; cf. St. Augustine, "Serm. De Nativitate Dom.",
St. Thomas, III, Q. i, a. 2). And for this Christ
prayed: "That they all may be one, as thou, Father,
in me, and I in thee. ... I in them, and thou in me;
that they may be made perfect in one" (John, xvii,
21-23). The subject of Christ's mediation belongs
properly to the articles Atonement, Doctrine of
the; Jesus Christ; Redemption (q. v.). See also
St. Thomas, III, Q. xxvi; and the treatises on the
Incarnation.
II. We shall here speak not only of intercession, but also of the invocation of the saints. The one indeed implies the other; we should not call upon the saints for aid unless they could help us. The foundation of both lies in the doctrine of the communion of saints (q. v.). In the article on this subject it has been shown that the faithful in heaven, on earth, and in purgatory are one mystical body, with Christ for their head. All that is of interest to one part is of interest to the rest, and each helps the rest: we on earth by honouring and invoking the saints and pray- ing for the souls in purgatory, and the saints in heaven by interceding for us. The Catholic doctrine of intercession and invocation is set forth by the Council of Trent, which teaches that " the saints who reign together with Christ offer up their own prayers to QiOt\ for men. It is good and useful suppliantly to invoke them, and to have recourse to their prayers, aid, and help for obtaining benefits from God, through His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, Who alone is our Redeemer and Saviour. Those persons think impiously who deny that the Saints, who enjoy eter- nal happiness in heaven, are to be invoked ; or who assert either that they do not pray for men, or that the invocation of them to pray for each of us is idol- atry, or that it is repugnant to the word of God, and is opposed to the honour of the one Mediator of God and men, Jesus Christ" (Sess. XXV). This had already been explained by St. Thomas': "Prayer is offered to a person in two ways: one as though to be granted by himself, another as to be obtained through him. In the first way we praj- to God alone, because all our prayers ought to be directed to otitaining grace and glory wdiich God alone gives, according to those words of the psalm (Ixxxiii, 12): 'The Lord will give grace and glor.y.' Bvit in the second way we pray to the holy angels and to men, not that God may learn our petition through them, but that by their prayers and merits our prayers may be efficacious. Wherefore it is said in the Apocalypse (viii, 4) : ' And the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God from the hand of the angel'" (Summ. Theol., II-II, Q. Ixxxiii, a. 4). The reasonableness of the Catholic teaching and practice cannot be better stated than in St. Jerome's words: "If the Apostles and Martyrs, while still in the body, can pray for others, at a time when they must still be anxious for themselves, how much more after their crowns, vic- tories, and triumphs are won! One man, Moses, obtains from God pardon for six hundred thousand men in arms; and Stephen, the imitator of the Lord, and the first martyr in Christ, begs forgiveness for his persecutors; and shall their power be less after having begun to be with Christ? The Apostle Paul declares that two hundred three score and si.xteen souls, sailing with him, were freely given him; and, after he is dissolved and has begun to be with Christ, shall he close his lips, and not be able to utter a word in behalf of those who throughout the whole world believed at his preaching of the Gospel? And shall the living dog Vigilantius be better than that dead lion?" ("Contra Vigilant.", n.G, in P. L., XXIII, 344).
The chief objections raised against the intercession and invocation of the saints are that these doctrines are opposed to the faith and trust which we should have in God alone; that they are a denial of the all- sufficient merits of Christ; and that they caopot be
