By Fr. Anthony Aneke
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith – Heb. 12:1
Introduction:
We cannot reflect on the “Communion of Saints” without a clear concept of what the Church is. What do we have in mind when we refer to the Church. Is it an organization or a structure/building? Many people see the Church in this perspective. But simply put, the Church is the mystical body of Christ – Christ is the head of his body the Church and we are his members. “Because Christ is the head, his riches are given to all the members through the sacraments” (St. Thomas Aquinas). Ephesians 1:22–23 says, “And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” “Since all the faithful form one body, the good of each is communicated to the others. . . . We must therefore believe that there exists a communion of goods in the Church. But the most important member is Christ, since he is the head. . . . Therefore, the riches of Christ are communicated to all the members, through the sacraments.(CCC No.947)
The Catechism of the Catholic Church further highlighted – “What is the Church if not the assembly of all the saints!(No.947) The communion of saints is the Church. To St. Paul, as to all the Catholic Church, all Christians are “Saints” by virtue of their baptism. “Saint” means “holy one”, and Christians are made holy not by anything they have learned or done, but by the indwelling of almighty God. We are holy because we are temples of the Holy spirit – and in Paul ‘s worldview, nothing on earth is holier than God’s Temple.
As saints, we have been forgiven through His death and saved by His life (Romans 5:10), set free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2), and passed from spiritual death to eternal life (1 John 3:16). We have all been permanently adopted as children of God by the will of God (John 1:12-13). We have become God’s handiwork to do good works that He has prepared for us (Ephesians 2:10), and we have all been given an eternal home in the New Jerusalem in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Lamb, our Temple, and our Light (Revelation 21:22–27). These are only a few of the blessings we have in common with all other believers.
Thus, St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians begins: ” to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ at Colossae, we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of you faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have for all the saints…may you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father. who has qualified us to share in the in heritance of the saints in light (Col. 1:2-12)
The basis of our Communion
Holiness/sainthood – is simply the common Christian vocation. But, in that short passage from Colossian, Paul also distinguished between the saints on earth (Col.1:2) and the “saints in light” (Col.1:12) – what Catholic devotion would later call, respectively, the Church militant and the Church triumphant“. The epistle to the Hebrews (12:1) tells us that the later are: a cloud of witnesses around the former.
Therefore, the doctrine of the Communion of the Saints presupposes three states of the Church: The Militant Church– saints struggling with sin and temptation; the Suffering Church – saints who have died and are being purified, and Triumphant Church – saints who have died and have attained the beatific vision (heaven). A union exists between believers who are still on this earth and those who have died. This union is reinforced by an exchange of spiritual goods. “Yet, we all form one Church and in Christ we cleave together”.
The word communion means “an act or instance of sharing.”. The idea of communion also emphasizes fellowship or community. In other words, communion of the saints includes the idea of living in unity with other believers. The Apostles’ Creed refers to communion of the saints in reference to all believers, past and present, who share in salvation in Jesus Christ. In other words, The communion of saints is the spiritual solidarity which binds together the faithful on earth, the souls in purgatory, and the saints in heaven in the organic unity of the same mystical body under Christ its head, and in a constant interchange of supernatural offices. The participants in that solidarity are called saints by reason of their destination and of their partaking of the fruits of the Redemption (1 Corinthians 1:2 ). The damned are thus excluded from the communion of saints. The living, even if they do not belong to the body of the true Church, share in it according to the measure of their union with Christ and with the soul of the Church.
St. Thomas teaches that the angels, though not redeemed, enter the communion of saints because they come under Christ’s power and receive of His gratia capitis. The solidarity itself implies a variety of inter-relations: within the Church Militant, not only the participation in the same faith, sacraments, and government, but also a mutual exchange of examples, prayers, merits, and satisfactions; between the Church on earth on one hand, and purgatory and heaven on the other, suffrages, invocation, intercession, veneration. These connotations belong here only in so far as they integrate the transcendent idea of spiritual solidarity between all the children of God.
THE SAINTS: Our Ancestors in Faith
To the saints on earth who share our calling, we give our love. To the saints in heaven, we give a special honor called veneration. It is not the same kind of honor we give to God alone. It is more like the profound respect we owe our parents and grandparents. We love them so much that we frame their photos and give them prominent place in our home. We should not hesitate to ask our parents for prayer; nor should we hesitate to ask our ancestors in the faith.
St. Paul himself asked for the intercession of the “saints” in the Colossae (Col. 4:3). For as we share in the life and divine nature of Jesus Christ, we share in his singular office as one mediator between God and man.(1 Tim. 2:5) So St. Paul could urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men.(1 Tim. 2:1) He could, moreover, promise to assure the saints in Colossae of his own intercession on their behalf: “we have not ceased to pray for you” (Col.1:9). The book of revelation shows that the martyrs in heaven, are very much aware of events on earth, and crying out to God for redress. Jesus himself, in one of his parables, depicts a heavenly intercession.
The early Christians kept a lively devotion to the communion of the saints, it was not simply a matter of honoring their ancestors because they did not think of the saints as dead and therefore removed from their presence. The saints were more present to the Church on earth, because the saints lived in the presence of God. The saints were not dead; indeed, they were more alive than the church on earth.
The devotion of the early Church to the saints is evident in hundreds of archaeological finds, in great artworks and in semi-literate graffiti, in monuments and on common household items. The cry of the Church on earth goes up constantly to the saints in heaven: pray for us and bless us. The saints in glory were part of the great family of the Church, the anniversaries of their deaths celebrated as “birthdays” by the Christians who outlived them, many of them observed perpetually in the calendar of the universal church.
In his book Saint of the Day, editor Leonard Foley, OFM says this: the “Saints’ surrender to God’s love was so generous an approach to the total surrender of Jesus that the Church recognizes them as heroes and heroines worthy to be held up for our inspiration. They remind us that the Church is holy, can never stop being holy and is called to show the holiness of God by living the life of Christ.”
Catholics are interested in the life of saints as they are normal human beings who lived a life in allegiance to Jesus. It is much more easy to relate to the life of a saint or learn from them as they are like you and me who strive to follow Jesus. Saints in general lived a good life. However, most of them were not born perfect. St Therese would get upset for the slightest thing, as a young girl. Some had to struggle through their own weaknesses. St. Peter denied Christ three times before he professed his love for Christ three times. St. Paul was persecuting Christians before he became a zealous preacher who travelled the world to proclaim the good news. Saints were normal human beings prone to temptation like us. Yet, in their desire to live a good life, they would fight the temptation through prayer, penance and acts of charity. It is the conversion story of the lives of saints that causes an impact on us. This is the reason, Jesus allows his followers, the saints to teach us and help us. Because through their trials and errors, we can easily learn how we too can rely on God’s mercy and grace in order to improve our lives. St. Augustine’s life story is an excellent example.
Because we are in communion with saints, who live in the presence of God, we can ask the saints to intercede on behalf of us. It is just like asking a good friend who lives a holy life to say a prayer for us.
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