The Twenty-four Elders and the Communion of Saints

Like so many Catholics, I expressed belief in the communion of saints each Sunday, for many years before understanding its definition and implications. Our catechism summarizes it, our liturgy reminds us of it, and the Bible dramatizes it. Holy Scripture, ever full of wonder and light, leads us on a journey of understanding. Through images of thrones and clouds and fathers, we return to Earth with reference to baseball as a metaphor for life here and in eternity. We begin as Christians should, in the New Testament.

Part of the daily Gospel reading for this past, August 16, 2016 was taken from Matthew 19:27-28, “{Then Peter said to him in reply}, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” There is similar language in Luke 22:28-30, “It is you who have stood by me in my trials; and I confer a kingdom on you, just as my Father has conferred one on me, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom; and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” In Matthew, our Lord Jesus answers Saint Peter in the aftermath of the encounter with the rich young man whose attachment to wealth prevented him from entering the kingdom. The verses from Luke are set in the Garden of Gethsemane on Holy Thursday.

Despite all their human weaknesses and sins, these friends of God left behind their livelihoods and even the fellowship of family to seek first the kingdom (Matthew 6:33). So what is their position and role in Heaven? Did our Lord speak only metaphorically when using this language recalling the first Israel and old covenant? In Luke 18:29-30, Jesus guarantees eternal life to all disciples who have sacrificed everything for him. Of course the twelve are a special class of disciple and the verses cited previously indicate this. The Book of Revelation illustrates for us both their reward and their continued work for the Church Militant from their position in the Church Triumphant. Hebrews is also helpful here.

The heroes of the old covenant are extolled in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews and 12:1 speaks of being surrounded by a” cloud of witnesses”. Since Exodus, the image of the cloud has been used to connect Heaven and Earth. In Mark 9, Luke 9, and Matthew 17 it bears Moses and Elijah to the transfiguration, indicating that the dead in Christ are very much alive and still being of service. John the author of Revelation is taken up at the beginning of that book and sees God on a Heavenly throne. Chapter 4 verse 4 says, “ Surrounding the throne I saw twenty-four other thrones on which twenty-four elders sat, dressed in white garments and with gold crowns on their heads.”

So what is the significance of the number twenty-four and what is their function? We need to skip around just a bit. First Revelation 21:12-14 describing the Heavenly city, “It had a massive, high wall, with twelve gates where twelve angels were stationed and on which names were inscribed, [the names] of the twelve tribes of the Israelites. There were three gates facing east, three north, three south, and three west. The wall of the city had twelve courses of stones as its foundation, on which were inscribed the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” Keep in mind that each tribe took its original name from a son of Jacob who is also known as Israel. These men are called patriarchs or father-rulers. A tribe is a coalition of extended families (clans, ancestral houses). So twelve tribal names taken from twelve patriarchs who along with the twelve apostles make up the twenty-four elders.

In chapter 5, an angel takes a scroll from the throne of God “When 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.” (Revelation 5:8) The New American Bible citation quoted here directly translates the Greek hagion as holy ones. The RSVCE and many of our older English Bibles render it saints derived from the Latin version.

Revelation 5:8 illustrates the connection between two kinds of saints in two different branches of the church, the militant and the triumphant. The prayers of the saints on Earth are in some cases, passed along to our Lord by the saints already in Heaven. Catholics understand this as a logical extension of James 5:16 which calls us to pray for one another and by implication to ask others to pray for us. Taking all of this into account helps us understand the doctrine of the communion of saints.

For a Catholic, the communion of saints means we don’t stop praying for one another after our physical death. Those who have gone before us “marked with the sign of faith” as a liturgical prayer says, are able to receive our prayer requests and lay them before the throne of God. Nothing in Holy Scripture indicates God is separated from the angels and saints or they from us. The rest of this chapter show us quite the opposite. Revelation 5:13 has Heaven and Earth united in a common chorus, “Then I heard every creature in Heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, everything in the universe, cry out:

“To the one who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor, glory and might forever and ever.”

This vision of saints in eternity related by John is consistent with an earlier one given to Judas Maccabeus in II Maccabees 15:11-16. He saw two men praying for the whole people of God. One was Onias the former high priest who introduced the second one in the following way, “This is a man who loves his fellow Jews and fervently prays for the people and the holy city—the prophet of God, Jeremiah.” So Jeremiah still prays for Israel. Our separated brethren in the Protestant traditions don’t accept II Maccabeus as canonical. Parallels like this are an indication that it does belong in the Bible. It simply confirms the evidence presented above that those already delivered are not separated from those still on the journey.

We do not worship anyone but God alone but the word pray is also understood to mean request even in older forms of English (we pray thee, we pray the court etc.) so it is only natural that we ask those closest to God to help us. Since the Bible is really an instruction book given to the church and passed on by it, it is not surprising to see these lessons summarized in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, (part four, On Christian Prayer, Article 3). Paragraph 2635 reads in part, “In the age of the Church, Christian intercession participates in Christ’s, as an expression of the communion of saints.” Indeed, the age of the church may be seen as a bridge between the unfulfilled pre-messianic faith of the old Israel and the triumphant faith of the church in Heaven.

The canonized saints are perfected by the time they reach the Heavenly court. Our Lord Jesus in Matthew 5:48 tells us to be perfect as the Father is. The Greek translated perfect is a form of the word teleios also understood as complete or mature. The statements above from Matthew and the catechism are confirmed by Hebrews 11:40 regarding the saints of the Old Testament “God had foreseen something better for us, so that without us they should not be made perfect.”

Our friends, the twenty-four elders are servant leaders even as they sit judging. In Biblical terms, a judge usually means a ruler. As Jesus rules from the cross, their thrones are work benches. Their Christ inspired task is to assist the brother who while just, may still fall seven times before rising (Proverbs 24:16). They are safe at home in the Church Triumphant but like all good teammates turn around to root for those still running the bases.