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Relics, I: The Theological Context
Christianity is a faith that embraces the physical, the material. In the Incarnation, Christ assumed a physical body to save the world. He healed people through physical touch (Lk. 13:13); His saliva could work miracles (Mt. 8:23; Jn. 9:6-7); His breath could impart the Spirit (Jn. 20:22). Even the very clothes He wore transmitted healing power to those who touched them (Lk. 8:44). For this reason, people reached out to Him in faith, believing they could be cured by even the slightest contact with His physical body and clothing. (Lk. 6:19; Mk. 3:10; Mt. 14:36 || Mk. 6:56).
It is within this context that one can understand the Christian use of relics. As the dwelling places of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19), the physical bodies of holy men and women can also be channels of healing (cf. Jn. 14:12). This is certainly true in life; the touch of the apostles' hands healed the sick (Acts 9:17; 28:8). However, even in death, precisely in anticipation of the future resurrection, the bodies of holy people remain vessels of God, capable of transmitting miraculous power. In one startling example, the dead bones of Elijah the prophet raised a dead man to life:So Elisha died, and they buried him. Now bands of Moabites used to invade the land in the spring of the year. As a man was being buried, a marauding band was seen and the man was thrown into the grave of Elisha; as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he came to life and stood on his feet. (2 Kings 13:20-21)
For this reason, physical contact with the bodies of the holy people, living or dead, has become a desire of faith-filled Christians. This instinct is evident even in the New Testament, which notes that individuals would go so far as to touch pieces of cloth to the bodies of the apostles, confident that they would be healed: "God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that when the handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were brought to the sick, their diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them" (Acts 19:11-12). Even the shadows cast by the bodies of the apostles were desirable: "they even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on cots and mats, in order that Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he came by" (Acts 5:14-15).
These instincts remain as vibrant as ever in the Church. Christians continue to touch cloths to holy individuals in hope of healing. Likewise, they preserve and approach the bones of Christians with great reverence, recognizing the permanent and life-giving power of the Spirit in them. These responses are not superstitious, but biblical acts of faith in a God who works miracles through the physical, lives in His people, and who will restore their bodies on the last day. Nor do they undermine the unique place of God. Early Christians longed to sit under the shadow of Peter, or hold an apron touched to the body of Paul, not because they placed their trust in human beings rather than God, but because they knew God worked through these human beings. In the words of the old Douay Rhiems: "God is wonderful in his saints: the God of Israel is he who will give power and strength to his people. Blessed be God" (Ps. 68:35).
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