I have recently been involved in giving a retreat to people on friendship with God and how through friendship with others we grow in virtue and discover God's love for us as we love others. In preparing for it, I grew deeper in my understanding of the Communion of Saints - especially in regards to how all of us support eachother in our growth in Christ, upbuilding eachother and upbuilding the Church. The more we understand that the Saints were friends of God, then it helps us to grow in our own friendship with the saints and with God and then extend that to others. This overflow of the love of God poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit helps us to love others in the Church, and this strengthens and builds communion in the Church.
The more each of us grow in holiness, it has an overflow effect to everyone else in the Church which also helps them grow in holiness. The saints glorified in heaven have gone before us, but still support us and encourage us in our journey to fight the good fight and run the race towards our homeland.
As we come close to November where we celebrate All Saints day, and All Souls day - let us take some time to reflect on how we are all interconnected in the Church. We are all members of the Mystical Body of Christ and this means we are all connected intimately to eachother through grace and love. We have all been created by God for relationship with the Blessed Trinity and with eachother - this is a mystery we cannot understand fully here, but one day we will come to understand it and fully experience it when we see God face to face in the glory of heaven.
None of us ever becomes a saint in isolation. We are always part of a greater whole. None of us is ever alone in life. God has created us for relationship, and through relationships we grow into the maturity in Christ that God draws us into every moment.
Sin isolates us from God, from eachother and from ourselves. The devil will always try to isolate us because he hates unity. This is why he is always sowing division in the Church, in our relationships, our families and our own heart. St Teresa of Avila had a vision of hell and she described the torment of the souls there with the usual images of fire and weeping, but she also said that it appeared that even the souls themselves there seemed to be tearing themselves to pieces. What a powerful and frightening image!
Every Sunday we profess that we believe in the "Communion of Saints", this means we believe that in the Church we have communion with eachother who are all saints in the making, as well as the saints glorified in heaven. It is easy to often think of the saints as these distant, heroic, ideal figures removed from your personal circumstances. But we forget they had the same struggles we do, same sins, same problems - but through loving Jesus, growing in virtue and lead by the Holy Spirit they have been able to be faithful to Jesus and enter the gates of holiness. We too are called to this. This is not a unrealistic or unachievable goal - our brothers and sisters in the faith, the saints have shown us that it is possible in every age and generation and varied circumstances to be holy! We too through our witness and struggles in this life, will one day be examples to others to keep following Jesus and become holy.
St Paul in the Letter to the Hebrews beautifully uses this image of the saints all encouraging and cheering us on in the arena of life as we compete in the race to run to Jesus. Jesus in the Gospel of Luke 15:17 also refers to this when he tells us the all of heaven REJOICES when one sinner repents. This means they are watching us in this battle here below, they are supporting us in our struggles, encouraging us to never give us and rejoicing in our victories! We are never alone in the struggle of holiness, we are all interconnected here and now. Your growth in holiness and prayers help me personally, just as mine do for you. We may not be aware of this dynamic of mutual support and interconnectedness, but this is precisely what it means when we profess we believe in the Communion of Saints.
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." (Hebrews 12:1-3)
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