One charge made against it is that the saints in heaven cannot even hear our prayers, making it useless to ask for their intercession.
Well of course it is speculation to say the souls of the departed faithful can or cannot hear our prayers.
Do our souls receive an omniscient or supercharged ability to hear millions of prayers once we depart these bodies? A serious question. Is St. Francis getting any rest even though the priest at his funeral said "eternal rest grant unto him oh Lord"?
Or should we consider that when we are absent from these bodies and present with the Lord (awaiting the resurrection) that the affairs of this world no longer concern us and we are in bliss being in the Presence of Jesus Christ? Frankly, I don't want to hear the babblings of people here on this rock we call Earth when compared to the Glory of being in Gods' Presence. That would be His Real Presence indeed.
However, this is not true. As Scripture indicates, those in heaven are aware of the prayers of those on earth. This can be seen, for example, in
Revelation 5:8, where John depicts the saints in heaven offering our prayers to God under the form of "golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints."
Fair enough, let's look at the text:
Revelation 5: NABRE (USCCB Bible)
6 Then I saw standing in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and the elders a Lamb that seemed to have been slain. He had seven horns and seven eyes; these are the [seven] spirits of God sent out into the whole world. 7He came and received the scroll from the right hand of the one who sat on the throne. 8When he took it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each of the elders held a harp and gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the holy ones.
There is a problem with your quoted statement above
"John depicts the saints in heaven offering our prayers to God under the form of "golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints."
The prayers of the saints [holy ones as in the USCCB Bible] are being held by the 24 elders. These elders are not the saints as you try to indicate. Meaning these are not their own prayers. We have elders distinctly mentioned and gold bowls filled with incense with are the prayers of the 'holy ones' (aka saints).
So are the saints offering their own prayers as you indicate in the
brown italicized above?
Or are you stating the prayers of the saints are our (puny little humans) prayers and the elders are the canonized saints of Catholicism?
Therefore, please answer the following to properly exegete the verses:
Who are the 24 elders in the passage?
Who are referenced to as 'saints' or 'holy ones?'
What do the golden bowls signify?
What do the harps represent?
Given you have exhibited an enthusiasm that the One Holy and Apostolic Church is the source of truth, let's see how the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops interprets these verses.
From:
scripture
5:1–14] The seer now describes a papyrus roll in God’s right hand (Rev 5:1) with seven seals indicating the importance of the message. A mighty angel asks who is worthy to open the scroll, i.e., who can accomplish God’s salvific plan (Rev 5:2). There is despair at first when no one in creation can do it (Rev 5:3–4). But the seer is comforted by an elder who tells him that Christ, called the lion of the tribe of Judah, has won the right to open it (Rev 5:5). Christ then appears as a Lamb, coming to receive the scroll from God (Rev 5:6–7), for which he is acclaimed as at a coronation (Rev 5:8–10). This is followed by a doxology of the angels (Rev 5:11–12) and then finally by the heavenly church united with all of creation (Rev 5:13–14).
* [5:1] A scroll: a papyrus roll possibly containing a list of afflictions for sinners (cf. Ez 2:9–10) or God’s plan for the world. Sealed with seven seals: it is totally hidden from all but God. Only the Lamb (Rev 5:7–9) has the right to carry out the divine plan.
* [5:5] The lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David: these are the messianic titles applied to Christ to symbolize his victory; cf. Rev 22:16; Gn 49:9; Is 11:1, 10; Mt 1:1.
* [5:6] Christ is the Paschal Lamb without blemish, whose blood saved the new Israel from sin and death; cf. Ex 12; Is 53:7; Jn 1:29, 36; Acts 8:32; 1 Pt 1:18–19. This is the main title for Christ in Revelation, used twenty-eight times. Seven horns and seven eyes: Christ has the fullness (see note on Rev 1:4) of power (horns) and knowledge (eyes); cf. Zec 4:7. [Seven] spirits: as in Rev 1:4; 3:1; 4:5.
Absolutely nothing is mentioned about the golden bowls, and prayers of the 'saints.' Nothing. In fact the USCCB Bible totally avoids verse 8.
Given I have heard your interpretation before, I will assume there is some official RC interpretation the USCCB Bible left out. Please provide where you received the interpretation of verse 8 from. The Vatican website? Your Local Ordinary? Your own personal interpretation? RCIA booklet? Staples? Hahn? Mother Angelica?
But if the saints in heaven are offering our prayers to God, then they must be aware of our prayers. They are aware of our petitions and present them to God by interceding for us.
As mentioned above, the 24 elders are not identified as 'saints.' I will need to see the official Roman Catholic interpretation of this. If not, you are just another dude exercising private interpretations.