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Are Relics Biblical?

Question: I've heard that some Catholics treat relics of the saints with respect. Is this Biblical?

Absolutely. In fact, the Bible records that a number of miraculous healings occurred when people came into contact with the relics of the holy men and women of God. For example, the Bible tells us that a dead man was restored to life when his body accidentally came into contact with the bones of Elisha:

"So it was, as they were burying a man, that suddenly they spied a band of raiders, and they put the man in the tomb of Elisha; and when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet" (2 Kings 13:21).

Such miraculous cures in association with the relics of the saints continued even into the age of the New Testament Church. We are familiar with the instances in which a woman was cured when she touched the garment of Jesus (Mat. 9:20-22), and of the multitude of sick people who waited in the streets, hopeful that at least the shadow of Peter might fall on them as he passed (Acts 5:15). But the Catholic respect for the relics of the saints is prefigured in the fact that God chose to work great deeds through even the relics of St. Paul:

"Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them" (Acts 19:11-12).

Catholics take great comfort, as should all Christians, that God has not ceased to work great deeds and unusual miracles through the relics of His saints. Lourdes and countless other shrines stand witness to the continued working of miracles among the people of God.

Is it Biblical to Call a Priest "Father"?

Question: Surely Catholics contradict the Bible when the call their priest "Father"?

It is 100% Biblical to call a priest "father".

To understand this, we first have to recognize that there is no real Biblical taboo on the word "father." In Mat. 15:4-6, we find Jesus talking in a very normative manner about earthly fathers: He gives an injunction to honor them, but never a mention of any prohibition of the name "father." So too, throughout Romans 4, Paul calls Abraham "our father". In Eph. 6, he talks about relations between fathers and sons, and is seemingly oblivious to the idea that it is naughty to call anyone on earth "father". Finally, the author of Hebrews speaks reverentially of our "fathers of our flesh" (Heb. 12:9).

Moreover, even in New Testament times, the word "father" was regularly used as an endearing honorary title for Church officials. Paul confirms that God is our adoptive Father (Ro. 8:15; Ga. 4:6), but also calls himself the father of his flock of the faithful (e.g., 1 Co. 4:15-17, Gal. 4:19, 1 Thes. 2:7, 11, and 2 Cor. 6:13,). For Paul, then, an apostle such as he was truly a spiritual father to his congregations.

The honorary title of "father" was also applied to the elders in the Church. Paul, for example, instructs Bishop Timothy to exhort the elders (presbyters) as fathers (1 Tim. 5:1). If you recall that the Catholic priest is a descendent of the New Testament office of elder, or presbyter, then this is text stands as full Biblical mandate for our use of the term "father" in a Church setting.

But there is one more text that is worth considering for a further, and I think telling, insight. John, in his first Epistle, directly addresses the elders of the Church as "fathers" (1 John 2:13-14), just as Paul instructed Timothy to do. But recall that John was himself one of the 12 apostles, who heard the discourse in Matt. 23:9, and yet here he refers to elders in the Church as "fathers".

This preponderance of Scriptural evidence suggests that fundamentalists may be reading way too much into Matt. 23:9. Paul, John and Timothy all used the title "father" to refer to presbyters. If it's good enough for the apostles, then it's good enough for me.

Relics. I took a relic of a saint, which our mother had, to the hospital on one of the many occasions my younger brother had to be there. I told him I brought it, and put it with his personal belongings.

From the onset of his illness in early 2003, I firmly believed that he would recover. I put all my faith in God and would not waver.

He died March 28, 2006.

My faith in prayer died also, as in, whether we pray or whether we don't, God decides.

I've been asking God daily for years and years to please heal my daughter's eyesight, to give the answer to the researchers working on Stargardt's disease which left her legally blind at age eight.

She'll be 45 in a few months, but still no cure.

Fortunately, with the specialized computer screen and camera she has at work and at home, along with her gift of intelligence and her determination, she is a CPA and works as an auditor. But her daily life is harder for her than most of us.

I've begun to pray to God again. It's what I've always done, yet I don't know if it matters.

The only explanation I've ever heard is that God will say yes or no. Of course...because the explainer has no real answer either. The answer would be exactly the same to someone who did not pray, and the outcome would be the same, too.

From any comments I've read on the subject of Catholicism, for the most part, any doubts or questions are not tolerated.

Nevertheless, many Catholics do have questions. God gave them a brain and many have been blessed with intelligence, and I believe they have the innate right to use their own mind to determine what is logical or illogical.