A co-worker and I are debating whether a person has to be declared a saint before they can generate relics. My position is that they do not have to be declared a saint. I have a relic from Blessed Miguel Pro.

I work with Bishop Sheen’s grand nephew I tease him about wanting a relic and wonder if a lock of Bishop Sheen’s nephew’s hair would count as a relic.

Yours truly,

Beau N. O’Suarry

Strictly speaking, you are correct. A relic is something, anything, left over. We talk about the relics of the past, or the relics of ancient civilization. 

In the religious sense Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, and lots of other religions respect relics, but we Catholics really go for relics. In some churches, especially in Europe, you will see the occasional dead saint under glass, dressed in his or her Sunday best, and it is not unusual to trip over an American tourist, usually a Baptist, who has fainted at seeing his (or her) first Catholic relic, peacefully awaiting the resurrection of the dead. 

In order to answer your simple question about Bishop Fulton J. Sheen’s nephew’s hair, and relics in general, let me explain in my usual smug and long-winded style, why we Catholics are so fond of keeping bits and pieces of dead saints lying around.

First for those who say relics are an abominable, non-biblical practice, there is a story in the second Book of Kings in which the bones of Elisha raise a dead man to life. (2Kings 13:21)  Since the days of the Old Testament the relics, or earthly remains, of the saints have been honored both by God and His people. 

If you read the 34th Psalm you will find that the bones of the righteous are precious to God. If God honors the bones of the righteous shouldn’t we? 

Some people object to the custom on the grounds that we should not honor the saints. It is sad that some people don’t understand the Communion of Saints, one of the central teachings of the Christian faith. 

The veneration of the saints does not detract from the majesty of God. On the contrary, the honor paid to God’s saints glorifies Him! God does not have an ego problem. Honor paid to your children is a credit to you. How much more is this true of our Heavenly Father? 

People who say, “Jesus only,” don’t understand the familial nature of the oneness of God. God, the Holy Trinity, is a family. The unity of God is a solidarity not a solitude. Jesus prayed “Father, that all may be one, as You and I are one.” (Jn 17:21)  

Jesus wanted Peter to love John and Thomas to love Judas, and so on. The reverence we give to the Saints fulfills the express will of Jesus at the Last Supper. We honor our older brothers and sisters in the family of faith and imitate them as they imitated Christ. The Catholic doctrine of the Communion of Saints is a precious biblical truth and a keystone of  the faith. 

Seen in that light, relics are not just mortal remains, but beautiful reminders of the fellowship which is ours in the Lord, and that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. To those without faith, relics are reminders of mortality.  To those who truly believe, the relics of the saints are reminders of future resurrection, not of death. These things are precious to us because they remind us of the victory of God’s chosen ones, His saints. 

The custom of the veneration of the bones and other relics of the saints goes back to the earliest days of the Christianity. We often read that the first Christians gathered up the bones of the martyrs and gave them proper burial because of their belief in the sacredness of the human body and the hope of  resurrection. 

It was common to celebrate Mass on the very tombs of the martyrs. From that practice, the Church developed the custom of putting a relic in the altar stone in the middle of each altar. This custom persists to this day and is a reminder that the altar is more than a table and that Mass is more than a holy meal.

You wouldn’t put a relic in your dining room table because it is simply that, a table. The altar is more than just a table and the Mass more than just a meal. It is a sacrifice, the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. The sacrifices of the saints and the martyrs are united with the sacrifice of Calvary, and, with them, we unite our sacrifice to Christ on the cross. 

Why is sacrifice so important? 

The Bible tells us that love is always and only what we give away, not simply a feeling. In loving God and our neighbor we give away our very selves. By dying to ourselves and the world we find eternal life and true love. The relics of the saints are beautiful because they remind us that Jesus said, “There is no greater love than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” 

The relics of the saints and particularly the martyrs, those who died for the Christ and His Gospel, are reminders of the resurrection and the victory of love.

I am a little jealous that you have a relic of the Blessed Miguel Pro. He is one of that great band of Mexican martyrs from the early twentieth century.  

Though not yet worthy of veneration, because he is not canonized, or even declared venerable, a lock of Bishop Fulton Sheen’s hair would certainly be worth having and treating with respect, since he was such a respected apologist in the 20th century, and may someday be canonized. As with any human remain it should treated with respect. 

His grand nephew, however, I suspect is not a relic, unless by that you mean that he is very, very old.

Sincerely,

Rev. Know-It-All