Called To Be Holy: The Communion of Saints

Second Sunday of Ordinary Time (A)

“Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” – 1 Corinthians 1:1-3

When we gather for Mass on Sundays, we recite the Nicene Creed together after the homily. The Roman Missal gives us another option for this moment in the Mass. We can recite the Apostles’ Creed instead. This version of the Creed is part of the Rosary, and one which many of us learned in Catholic school or in the religious education programs in our parishes. Shorter than the Nicene Creed, it is easier to memorize.

There is one phrase near the end of the Apostles’ Creed that (oddly enough) wasn’t included in the Nicene Creed, even though it has been an article of faith since the earliest days of the Church. It is still treated as such in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The phrase is: the communion of saints.

The ‘communion of saints’ is a largely forgotten teaching in the contemporary Church. Few homilies are preached on it. Few books are written about it (though that is beginning to change). Yet, this teaching has the potential to be a tremendous means of grace and encouragement for each one of us, because it helps us to get a glimpse of the “big picture” as each one of us tries to live out our own lives in faithfulness to the Lord and the calling each of us has received. What does this teaching mean for us?

To get a good taste of this, we need to begin by being clear as to what we mean by “saints”. We Catholics usually reserve the word “saint” for those believers who have lived lives of extraordinary fidelity to the Lord and who have been officially canonized by the Pope. Saints are the “expert” Catholics, so to speak. If anyone were to call you or me a saint, odds are that we’d both feel embarrassed and uncomfortable. We would immediately think of ways in which we fall short of living out the teachings of Christ. We would be reluctant to claim that we are “expert” Catholic Christians.

This was not the original meaning of “saint”, however. Paul, in his opening words to the church at Corinth quoted above, writes that the Corinthians are “called to be holy”. This could also be translated “called to be saints”. The original Greek word is the same. Paul refers to all Christians as “saints”, even when he is about to point out ways in which they are straying from the way of Christ. God is the Holy One. God then chooses a people – first, the Israelites, and then the Church – and calls them to be holy as God is holy. Holiness – sainthood, if you will – is a gift given by God to every person who is baptized into the People of God. Holiness is an act of grace. It is the Holy Spirit, the Giver of Life, pouring out into our hearts, minds, bodies and souls the very life of God. This gift is given equally to every Christian, no matter what that person’s calling in the Church happens to be. All are given the gift of holiness. All are empowered to receive the very life of God. Yes, some of our fellow Christians have lived lives of such fidelity to the Lord that the rest of the Church remembers them in a special way and holds them up as examples to inspire and to follow. These are our canonized saints. But all Christians share equally the call to be holy, to be saints. All are given the grace to be holy.

One more word about “holiness” before we move on to “communion”. What is holiness?

In the Scriptures, we learn that God is the Holy One. The word “holy”, in Hebrew, means “dedicated” or “set apart”. To quote the theologian Elizabeth Johnson, “it carries the connotation of something separate, pure and clear, unmixed with evil, like a wellspring of clear running water, something rock hard in the strength of its integrity”. It’s little wonder that, for the Israelites, holiness belongs, properly, to God alone.

There is another side to holiness. God is called the “Holy One of Israel”. Holiness also speaks of the quality of God’s involvement with Israel, and through Israel, with the whole world. As Johnson says, “Over and over again the psalms and the prophets link the active presence of divine holiness with justice, love of the truth, glory dwelling in the land, and hope… This link is so consistently made that compassionate and challenging engagement with the world becomes the very form in which divine holiness makes itself known.” This is precisely the kind of engagement with the world that our canonized saints have shown. This is the kind of engagement we, too, are meant to show, since we, too, are “called to be holy”.

But how can we? After all, any one of us would say, “I’m no saint!” By this, we really mean that we can’t live up to this standard by our steam alone. Very true. Ah – but here’s where the “communion” part comes in. What is this “communion” of saints?

First of all, it reflects our belief that, by baptism, we have all been made one body with Christ. We are one with Christ, and through Christ, united with the Father and filled with the Spirit of love and life. Moreover, being one with Christ makes us one with every other Christian. We share the same calling. We belong to the same Lord. We are given the same Spirit. The very life of the Triune God flows through our spiritual veins and makes us one with God and with one another.

This communion extends to all believers in every place and in every time. It includes all who have gone before us in faith and have died. People in every age, known and unknown, who have faced every challenge – poverty, sickness, oppression, persecution, death – and remained faithful witnesses to the Lord. They are now our “cloud of witnesses”, as the Letter to the Hebrews puts it, cheering us on like retired athletes in a stadium encouraging those who are still playing to persevere until they, too, win the victory in Christ. We never face any challenge alone. This communion includes all who now live – Christians of every race, nation, and language across the whole world, who share in all the joys and the sorrows of life and do so together, as one family in Christ. This communion includes all who will be born, those whom we will one day encourage as part of their “cloud of witnesses”. We live and work for them even now, wanting them to know the same strength and life that comes to us from God alone. We want to leave them a world that is closer to the Kingdom of God than the world we inherited, if God gives us the grace to do so.

This communion is one of prayer. We pray for one another and bear one another’s burdens and share one another’s joys. Alone or with a crowd, we always carry the community in our hearts, as they carry us in theirs.

This communion is one of gifts. We share our gifts for the upbuilding of the community and the world. We help one another realize our gifts and find ways to share them according to God’s will.

This communion is one of goods. The first Christians shared their material possessions and saw to it that each one had what was needed. This continues in our day through our generosity to one another and to those in need in every place.

This communion is one of justice. If every Christian is equally given the call to holiness, then living in communion means that we help one another believe that we are all one before God. To act unjustly or to treat some as “losers” is to spit in the face of Christ. Simply ponder Matthew 25:31-46.

This communion is not limited to Catholics or all other Christians. We are called to show God’s holiness to the world by how we live this communion in union with all peoples and with all of creation.

Now, having had this brief encounter with the communion of saints, look again at that quote at the beginning of this post. It begins with individual people, Paul and Sosthenes. It then moves to the local community at Corinth. It then reminds the Corinthians that they are one with believers everywhere. Finally, it moves to God and our union with God. This quote, our second reading this Sunday, is not a bad summary of our faith in the communion of saints.

Much more could be said of this. But this, I pray, will be enough to whet your appetite for more.