The Communion of Saints

How often we seek the presence of the saints. Particularly in times of need, large or small, we pray to Mary and the saints to intercede for us.  St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Anthony, St. Jude, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton all have their devotees. The Church provides us each year in the liturgical calendar with a reminder of these heroic women and men, virtuous and undaunted, who have gone before us giving an example of what it means to follow Christ. We feel comfortable invoking their name and asking their intercession because we are all members of the same family. They have achieved the goal to which we are still working.

The Creed professes our faith in the "communion of the saints." The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that in a certain sense this article is a further explanation of what it means to profess our faith in the "holy catholic Church." "`What is the Church if not the assembly of all saints?' The communion of saints is the Church" (946).

Just as eternal life begins in baptism, so our fellowship with the saints in heaven begins by our membership in the Church on earth. It is the same family bound together by one bond the Holy Spirit - that finds its beginning here on earth and its culmination in glory. When we profess our faith in the communion of saints, we are really addressing the essence of the word communion - community.

Our explanation of communion takes us back to the opening of the Acts of the Apostles when the Spirit is poured upon all of those who hear the proclamation of Peter and accept Jesus as lord. "Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified" (Acts 2:36).

When they heard this the crowd was deeply touched and asked Peter and the other Apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?  "Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ ... and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:37-38).

The account goes on to tell us the fruit of their baptism: "They devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers" (Acts 2:42). These first followers of Jesus who received the gift of faith and the out pouring of the Holy Spirit became a community of believers - just as we do through our baptism - and joined in their new ecclesial life by the celebration of the Eucharist and their attentiveness to the word of God.  They became in a profoundly spiritual and equally real sense one with Christ in this new communion in the Holy Spirit.

In the one Spirit in which we are baptized, we take on a new life that transcends any bonds, blood or ethnic, that ties us to this world. We become brothers and sisters through the power of the Holy Spirit that makes us adopted children of God.

It is for this reason that the Church calls us to recognize our spiritual unity and prays incessantly for the peace and unity of all the members of the Church so that we might realize that which we have the power to be - one family embracing all people of all colors, ethnic backgrounds and national origins united in the truth that is Jesus Christ and in the gift of his Holy Spirit.

We are still a long way from that full communion, but the Church is its beginning. We should be prepared to see in what the Church teaches, in her sacramental life and in her challenge to unity, the far deeper reality that will develop and mature into a universal oneness before God if we allow it.

The growth of the Christian community parallels the gradual growth of our own spiritual life. While in baptism we receive the seeds of eternal life, we can only see that life flower into everlasting life if we nurture and strengthen it through prayer, the sacraments and our good works that manifest the love of God within us. So, too, the communion that we speak of is struggling to come to be. Every word or deed that encourages fellowship and community, in fact, builds up the communion of saints. The Catechism of the Catholic Church lists a number of spiritual goods that manifest and build up the unity of the Church. It speaks of a communion in the faith, a communion of the sacraments, a communion of charismas and a communion in charity (949-953).

Our bonds of community are not broken in death. The death of an individual must be understood in his or her ecclesial dimension. For the Church is not only the family of those living in faith here on earth, it is also an eternal communion of persons made blessed by the Holy Spirit. Such a family reaches into eternity, embracing also those who are being purified to enter the blessed vision and all who are already rejoicing in beholding God's glory.

The entrance into eternal life of those we love has not ended their relevance to us. There is a sense in which by their passing on to glory we are somehow brought nearer to God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that "the union of the wayfarers with the brethren who sleep in the peace of Christ is in no way interrupted, but on the contrary, according to the constant faith of the Church, this union is reinforced by an exchange of spiritual goods" (Lumen Gentlum, LG, 49) (955).

Here the catechism speaks of the three stages of the Church. Directly quoting from the Second Vatican Council we are reminded, "When the Lord comes in glory, and all his angels with him, death will be no more and all things will be subject to him. But at the present time some of his disciples are pilgrims on earth. Others have died and are being purified, while still others are in glory, contemplating `in full light, God himself triune and one, exactly as he is"' (LG, 49) (954).

Our faith in the communion of saints is a belief that the bonds that hold us together as a spiritual family in the Church endure after death and keep us one with those who are being purified of their transgressions as well as with those who are already with God in heaven. There is more that unites us than separates us. What keeps us apart is the termination of this natural life and the passage of some through the doors of death into the life yet to come. What binds us together are the threads of the new life begun in baptism, nurtured in the Eucharist, strengthened on our pilgrim way by the sacraments, purified of any stain or mark after death and flowering into eternal fullness in the life that sees God as he is, face to face.

It is because of this belief that the Church, in the full consciousness of this communion of the whole mystical body of Jesus Christ, has honored with great respect the memory of the dead. "Because it is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins" (2 Maccabees 12:45). The Church offers her prayers for them.

We cannot reflect on the communion of saints without being reminded of our obligation to each other in the Church. We are called to build up this visible community of God's people.  At the same time we recall our obligation to pray for those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith and who await the fullness of union with God. Finally we are made aware in our study of the communion of saints of the fruitfulness of praying to those who, like us, were members of the Church in its pilgrim journey. Through perseverance, faith and love they have now arrived at full communion with God and stand before the throne of justice prepared to intercede for us.

Is it any wonder then that we pray to those holy men and women who have gone before us and for whom the battle is over and the triumph secure? First among these is Mary, the virgin mother of God and our mother, who with particular care responds to our needs and hears our cries for help. Each of us who has been baptized carries the name of a personal patron with whom we are well advised to build up bonds of friendship that allow us to call upon him or her in our own particular needs.

Our faith in the communion of saints is nothing less than our belief in the enduring power of God's promise, the life-giving gift of the Holy Spirit, and the unity we all share because we are all in some way already one with each other through the grace of God's life within us whether we are still struggling in this temporal order, enduring purgation in anticipation of heaven, or already enjoying the glory of the vision of God.

Bishop Donald Wuerl is ordinary of the Diocese of Pittsburgh. He has a weekly television program entitled The Teaching of Christ with Bishop Wuerl on the Odyssey channel each Friday at 9:30 a.m. (EST) and on Sunday at 8:30 a.m. (EST).

The Archive of his articles in Columbia Magazine can be found at

http://www.kofc.org/columbia/wuerl/showcolumns.cfm?colnum=28&language=E

Article reprinted with permission given to LEAP OF FAITH from Columbia Magazine, P.O. Box 1670 , New Haven, CT 06507-0901- December 1996 Vol LXXVI No. 12, pages 10-11.