Enjoying the best of company: The Communion of the Saints

An unsurpassed image

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5). This metaphor of Jesus spoken at the Last Supper is powerful and timeless and invites frequent meditation. The vine and its branches speaks of the unheard of intimacy with our Lord, a real communion of life which surpasses the greatest of human hopes. We truly share the life of Christ. We are rooted in him (cf. Col 2:7). We share his life-giving sap, the grace of the Holy Spirit. We can truly say with St Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20).

The vine and the branches also speak of the profound communion among themselves of the branches of this one vine. The Christian faithful are intimately united since they share the life of the one Vine. They share the “divine sap” which is the Holy Spirit. This is the wonderful reality of the Communion of the Saints. As Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz has written: “We Christians, more than being many brothers and sisters, are one: ipse Christus [Christ himself]”.

A consoling dogma

The vine and the branches speak therefore of the reality of the Church which “is in Christ like a sacrament or as a sign and instrument both of a very closely knit union with God and of the unity of the whole human race” (Lumen Gentium 1).

In the month of November we are particularly immersed in this consoling mystery of the Communion of Saints, since we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints, the Commemoration of all Souls and the Feast of All the Saints of Ireland. Besides we pray and offer suffrages for our loved ones who have died and for all the faithful departed. We are thus presented with the “big picture”, the immense horizon of all our brothers and sisters, of all places, times and cultures, intimately united in, with and through Christ. As Joseph Ratzinger wrote: “In the Body of Christ, death no longer works as a limit; the Body, past, present and future interpenetrate”.

In our spiritual life we are not alone. We sustain others on earth and in purgatory through our efforts to respond to God’s gracious invitation to grow in holiness. In turn, we are constantly supported and protected by the prayers and lives of so many brothers and sisters, on earth, in purgatory and in heaven. The Letter to the Hebrews encourages us: “Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (12:1-2).

The greatest family reunion

“The term ‘communion of saints’ has two closely linked meanings: ‘communion in holy things’ (sancta), and ‘among holy persons’ (sancti)” (Catechism 948). In other words, the Communion of the Saints, which is the Church, is simultaneously the family of those who share the life of grace, and also their sharing in the sacraments (“holy things”).

The high-point of the Communion of Saints is the Eucharist, where all the faithful are intimately united in and through Jesus Christ, truly present in the “holiest of things”, the Blessed Sacrament. The Mass is the greatest family reunion ever. Here, as Ronald Knox put it poetically, “we find ourselves at one with the living and the dead; there is a rush and a stir about us of the angels’ wings, and we hear the hum and bustle of the Church’s prayer, all part of ours, and ours part of it”.

In the Confiteor, we ask “Blessed Mary ever-Virgin, all the Angels and Saints” and all our brothers and sisters to pray for us to the Lord our God. Even if there are very few people at a given Mass, the whole Church of all places and times is there gathered around the Lord. We sing the Holy, holy “with all the Angels and all the Saints”. We do not merely call to mind our heavenly brothers and sisters, but we realise that they are intimately united to us in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. We are really “in communion with those whose memory we celebrate” (Eucharistic Prayer I).

Holy Communion unites each of the faithful to Jesus in an ineffably close way. At the same time all who receive Jesus are made “one body in Christ” (cf. 1 Cor 12:12-14). In Holy Communion, Christ gives us his Eucharistic Body and makes us his Mystical Body. In every Celebration of the Eucharist the heavenly, earthly and purgatorial Church are one in adoration of God and love of each other (cf. St John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia 19).

The Hope of being Saints

In his catechesis of 21 June 2017, the Holy Father recalled that at Baptism “we were given the gift of the companionship of ‘big’ brothers and sisters – the saints – who had taken this same path before us, who knew the same struggles and who live forever in God’s embrace. On the journey towards heaven, which involves effort and struggles as we respond to God’s loving grace, we are not “lone rangers”.

In the mission entrusted to each and every baptized person of sharing and spreading the Gospel always and everywhere, we are not powerless or alone. The Christian can be tempted to be fearful when faced with the challenges of becoming a saint and of being a daring apostle in daily life. However, as Pope Francis reminds us, “feeling that all of heaven is in his favour, that the grace of God will not be lacking because Jesus is always faithful, then one can set out feeling calm and encouraged. We are not alone” (Audience, 21 June 2017).

Yes, thank God: we are not alone.