Regarding intercession of the Saints, the following questions are sometimes a stumbling block to some. How can the Saints hear us? Are they even alive? How can a Greek speaking Saint, let's say, understand me if I'm talking to him in English? How can a Saint be here and there simultaneously, meaning, how can he or she respond to several different people on different continents and all at the same time? These are sound questions and the answer is simpler than most realize.
Welcome to answers from an apostolic faith.
In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.
First we must recognize that the Saints are alive. I mean, if a close relative departs from this world, does this person cease to exist or continues to live in the afterlife? If I answer the person ceases to exist and therefore is dead, then why am I even a Christian? Christianity's ultimate good news to the world is that Christ conquered death through His death and was raised from the dead, and thereby giving eternal life to humanity in Him. If a relative is dead when his or her soul leaves the body, then my Christianity is false, meaningless, God forbid. In Matthew 22, Christ clearly says that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, referring to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who left this world centuries before the incarnation. Also we see Moses and Elijah appear in a transfiguration on Mount Tabor. When we leave this body, we are not less alive, but more. And more importantly, in John 8, Christ said the following, as He was reasoning with the Jews:
'' 56 Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad. 57 Then the Jews said to Him, ''You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham? 58 Jesus said to them, ''Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.'' (John 8:56-58)
The beginning of the answer to all these Saints-related questions is given here. The Jews thought from an earthly perspective. How can a man who is not even 50 years old have met Abraham? They missed the point. God is the great I AM; He is the one who is always in the present tense, if you will. He is timeless, always above this chronological time, above time and space. And this is precisely the condition the Saints are in; they are above time and space.
The Jews looked at Christ's physical body with their physical eyes and failed to recognize that He is indeed spirit and divine. Similarly, when we ask ourselves these questions regarding the Saints, we falsely assume that they are still in our limited physical condition. In fact, they are now more alive and their own reality is different than ours.
Our souls are not material but spiritual entities, so it is this spiritual glorified body we will receive. The characteristics of those souls and bodies are very different from our current corrupted bodies. This can clearly be seen through the latest near-death experiences scientifically recorded in our contemporary age. Vicki Umipeg Noratuk is such a case: a woman who was born blind, but after her near-death experience, meaning after her soul left her body and came back, she was able to accurately describe physical appearances of deceased relatives and friends. People who she had never seen with her physical eyes were accurately described by her after her experience.
In this scientific study, Kenneth and Cooper say the following:
''The blind persons in our study saw what they certainly could not possibly have seen physically. Our findings in this section only establish a putative (supposed) case that these visions are factually accurate, and not just some kind of fabrication, reconstruction, lucky guess, or fantasy… the rumors some of us have been hearing all these years, that the blind can actually see during their near-death experiences, appear to be true.'' (Ring, Kenneth and Sharon Cooper. ''Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind'')
It is clear that, once the soul leaves the physical body, its bodily limitations are transcended. It is the same with the Saints. But the afterlife does not transcend only time; it transcends space and matter as well. Dr. Raymond Moody, potentially the first doctor to study near-death experiences, says the following, in his book Life after Life:
''The spiritual state is less limited. Perception, thought, and memory are more perfect, and time and space no longer pose the obstacles they do in physical life.'' (Dr. Raymond Moody, Jr., PhD, MD, ''Life after Life'', p.121)
This conclusion is quite fitting with our Christian understanding of the afterlife. I mean, it shouldn't surprise anyone. Sometimes we just find it difficult to imagine anything beyond this life, and naturally so, because this is where we currently live and see and imagine. Dr. Moody came up with this conclusion based on the near-death experiences of his interviewees. In page 45 of his book, he says the following:
''On the other hand, senses which correspond to the physical senses of vision and of hearing are very definitely intact in the spiritual body, and seem actually heightened and more perfect than they are in physical life. One man says that while he was ''dead'' his vision seemed incredibly more powerful and, in his words, ''I just can't understand how I could see so far.'' A woman who recalled this experience notes: ''It seemed as if this spiritual sense had no limitations, as if I could look anywhere and everywhere.'' This phenomenon is described very graphically in this portion of an interview with a woman who was out of her body following an accident. [She says]: ''I could see people all around, and I could understand what they were saying. I didn't hear them audibly, like I'm hearing you. It was more like knowing what they were thinking, exactly what they were thinking, but only in my mind, not in their actual vocabulary. I would catch it the second before they opened their mouths to speak.'' (Dr. Raymond Moody, Jr., PhD, MD, ''Life after Life'', p.45)
So beyond this life, people can look everywhere and anywhere. We are not, also, limited by languages or physical sound waves. Telepathy is the language of the afterlife and it could be understood before the person can open his or her mouth. Time and space simply function in a different way in the afterlife. So in the same way I can ask for help and for the prayers of our fellow congregants here on earth, I can ask my brothers and sisters in Christ who have already departed.
Dr. Raymond Moody also quotes this other interviewee and he says the following:
''There was a lot of action going on, and people running around the ambulance. And whenever I would look at a person to wonder what they were thinking, it was like a zoom-up, exactly like through a zoom lens, and I was there. But it seemed that part of me - I'll call it my mind - was still where I had been, several yards away from my body. When I wanted to see someone at a distance, it seemed like part of me, kind of like a tracer, would go to that person. And it seemed to me at the time that if something happened anyplace in the world that I could just be there.'' (Dr. Raymond Moody, Jr., PhD, MD, ''Life after Life'', p.44)
Now, he says ''and it seemed to me that if something happened anyplace in the world that I could just be there.'' Those are very interesting and meaningful words. They indeed describe how the Saints are able to transcend the physical boundaries of this world and communicate with us. These spiritual realities are experienced daily in the Orthodox Church and instead of denying these realities and veiling ourselves from the spiritual, we ought to thank God for His gifts and embrace what is beyond our understanding.
Today, many orthodox Christians enjoy relationships with the Saints who have left this physical world and we should follow in their footsteps.
Remember: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith.