The saints rarely built in isolation, rarely carved into the ground, digging beneath the earth alone. They, year after year, decade after decade, dug deeply into solid rock, so that we may enjoy the benefits of their labors. When one died, another continued his work, chiseling, digging, and reaching more deeply into God. Not to ask for the intercession of saints, to live the Christian life without such gold in our satchels, is to start from scratch digging into hard rock from the surface of the earth, only to penetrate two or so meters, when we could all along have reached hundreds if not thousands of meters deeper, finding crystals, gold, ores of iron for strength in the prayers, gifts, love, and salvation of the saints.
Did not Jesus say that we now reap the fruit of the labors of Abraham to Moses and to David?
For the Lord has said, I sent you to harvest something in which you were not laboring, for another labored and you have entered upon their labors.