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 Question

Dear Father,

A hermit saint of the Russian Orthodox Church, Saint Seraphim of Sarov (1755-1833), said: “Acquire a peaceful spirit, and thousands around you will be saved”.

What I understand is: whilst searching for your sanctity, other people will benefit from it although they may not be aware of it.

I would like to know if the Catholic Church’s teaching is the same.

Pietro d’Inghilterra

 Answer

Dear Pietro d’Inghilterra,

1. The Orthodox and the Catholic Churches are not the only ones to tell this beautiful truth. God himself, by the mouth of Saint Paul, said that we are one body: “so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually parts of one another” (Rom, 12:5).

But how are we parts of one another?

Saint Thomas Aquinas says: “the foot is called the eye’s member, inasmuch as it carries the eye, and the eye is called the foot’s member, inasmuch as it directs the foot. […] So, too, in the mystical body one who has received the gift of prophecy needs the one who has received the gift of healing, and so on for all the others.

Hence, as long as each believer uses the grace given him to help another, he becomes the other’s member” (Pauline Commentaries, Romans, 12:4-13).

2. That is why Saint Paul further says: “for the unbelieving husband is made holy through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through the brother” (1 Cor 7:14).

Husband and wife become one thing in the supernatural order, therefore the merits of one pass to the other, if he or she does not obstruct it.

3. It is a matter of faith that the prayers of one benefit the other in the light of this supernatural and mysterious communion.

Saint Paul was fully aware of the fact that the prayers of other people would have helped. Therefore he implores: “be watchful with all perseverance and supplication for all the holy ones and also for me, that speech may be given me to open my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, so that I may have the courage to speak as I must” (Eph 6:18-20).

However the prayers for Saint Paul would not benefit only him, but the Church as a whole.

4. That is why Saint Thomas Aquinas reasonably said that Jesus wanted us to address God by saying Our father rather than My father. What we ask for ourselves in the moment, we actually ask for everybody, for our friends, for those who have different beliefs from us, and for the atheists too.

Elisabeth Leseur stated that when a soul prays, it elevates itself and the entire Church, thus the whole world.

5. The conclusion is therefore obvious: the more we grow, the more we edify the Church.

The good we do to the Church is first and foremost the good we do to ourselves, because “the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, with the proper functioning of each part, brings about the body’s growth and builds itself up in love” (Eph, 4:16).

Hoping that you will always edify the Church, I promise I will pray for you and I bless you.

Father Angelo

Translated by Chiara Midea