Membership in the communion of saints

The month of November by a long tradition has been the month in the Church’s year of grace and favor from the Lord when we celebrate liturgically the article of Catholic faith regarding the Communion of Saints. In fact, Nov. 1 is the Solemnity of All Saints, followed by Nov. 2, the Feast of All Souls; both days recall for us the eternal destiny Almighty God wills for each of us if we but listen to Him and act on His word in the course of our lives.

To be clear, when we profess our faith in the communion of saints, we are stating clearly that we believe and know to be true that there are four last things: death, judgment, heaven and hell. When we profess our faith in the communion of saints, we are stating clearly that our earthly lives are the times given to each of us during which we either accept by a holy and virtuous life or reject by a sinful life God’s gift of faith for the salvation of our souls.

From an early age, we should have learned that the communion of saints is composed of the saints in heaven who possess perfect and eternal joy in seeing God face to face, that is, the saints possess the beatific vision and therefore need nothing else. The communion of saints is also composed of all who in their earthly lives were faithful to God and His Church, but died with some of the effects of their sins still attached to them and thus, while judged worthy of heaven, need to be cleansed or purged of these effects of sins in purgatory and they will go to heaven when their time of purification is complete. The communion of saints is also composed of all of us who are alive and still striving to be faithful to our baptismal vocation to be holy and still striving to be holy and virtuous in the particular vocations God has given us.

What makes us a communion of saints is our common faith received in baptism, ratified and completed in confirmation, sustained, renewed and strengthened in the Most Holy Eucharist, restored in reconciliation, and made manifest in lives of true and abiding charity in imitation of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Every saint in heaven, every holy soul in purgatory, and each of us living now has been and will be judged justly and mercifully by the same Lord Jesus at the moment of our deaths not on our good intentions, but on what we did or did not do for and to Him in the least of His brethren.

So, we come to this month of the communion of saints and what should we do? Pray to the saints to intercede for us with the Lord, pray for the holy souls in purgatory who cannot any longer help themselves, but rely on the prayers and sacrifices of others to sustain them and hasten the day of their entrance into heaven. Pray for ourselves in all sincerity and truth for greater fidelity to God and His Church and strive daily to imitate the lives of the saints who have gone before us in faith. 

These two wonderful days remind us of the great inheritance we have received but also remind us that we must not squander this inheritance. Our eternity depends on it!