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A Word From Our Associate&
The Communion of Saints
All Saints Day, that glorious feast, is nearly upon us.
I remember a headline from a major news magazine sometime during this last year which ran the provocative question: "Will the Catholic Church Survive?" My immediate thought upon seeing it was that however grave the difficulties facing the American Church for the moment might be, whoever penned that line did not understand one of the crucial, and captivating, truths about Catholicism: the truth that we call the doctrine of the communion of saints.
The
communion of saints refers to the comforting and even
thrilling reality that the Church we belong to, the body of
believers we are mystically united to, transcends both time
and space. It includes not only those who happen to be
alive on earth at the moment, but also those who have come to
the end of their pilgrimage, and behold the face of God.
Mary the Blessed Mother is a member of the Church, as are St.
Peter and St. Paul, St. John and the other apostles. And
all the saints, both those we know and those whose precious
hidden lives are known only to God, are one with us, members
of the same body. This is part of what we mean when we
say that the Church possesses a living tradition. Not only do we remember the lives and deeds of those who have gone before us, in the way that a country might remember a famous statesman or war hero. It is much more: these older brothers and sisters of ours are still part of our Church, and they have a continuing influence upon its fortunes and its progress. In fact, they are the most significant part of the Church, if one is speaking of power and "pull." We can sometimes fall into the illusion of believing that we who are alive at the moment have the freedom to organize and change the Church in whatever way seems good to us. The Church resists this attitude, as she always has, but not merely because she insists that we ought not depart from our Tradition. It is rather that we cannot depart from it. The Church is like some mighty mountain whose strong foundation is deep under the waters of the ocean, and only the tip pops out above the surface. The part of the Church that is already home, the so-called "Church Triumphant," basks in the beauty of the living God. Heaven is theirs, and angels, and eternal life. Theirs is the light of truth and perfection of love, while we still live in shadows and half-understandings. Theirs is unchanging perfection; it is we who are changing and imperfect. They won't be coming over to us; we need to align ourselves with them. Will the Catholic Church survive? Well, yes: most of it is already beyond the reach of any harm, resplendent and eternal. It is we stragglers whose fate is in doubt, as we attempt to make permanent our part in that heavenly human race, made in the image of Christ, the only humanity that will survive.
How good it is to know that we have brothers and sisters who are pulling for us, who by their past example and their present prayers are helping us along the road to the fullness of joy in the complete possession of God.
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