On the Communion of Saints

The Octave Day of Easter

ALMIGHTY Father, who hast given thine only a Son to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification: Grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve thee in pureness of living and truth; through the merits of the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Easter

O GOD, who makest us glad with the yearly remembrance of the resurrection from the dead of thy only Son Jesus Christ: Grant that we who celebrate this Paschal feast may die daily unto sin, and live with him evermore in the glory of his endless life; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

In the season Eastertide, we further consider the implications of the resurrection. Given how for many Christians, Easter is a time for baptism through which we gain entrance into the family of God. For many, though, this raises a question of what this membership in the body of Christ entails.

The Apostle's Creed is the creed used as a baptismal symbol, in which the newly baptised profess belief in, among other things, the Communion of Saints, to which they have become a part.

The Communion of Saints is a term rooted in Holy Scripture, where  in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, St Paul says, “to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,” (1 Cor 1. 2) and “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ,” (1 Cor 12. 12).

The term Communion of Saints, in the context of the fuller doctrine to mean the faithful both on earth and in heaven, is first known to have been used in the early 5th century by St Nicetas of Remesiana in his Explanatio Symboli. Even in the time of the early church, the Communion of Saints was not something limited solely to an expression in the Apostle’s creed, but was a doctrine of a life of faith, and a doctrine of community.

There are different ways to define the doctrine of the Communion of Saints. In the Book of Common Prayer, the Catechism touches on the issue, discussing it in terms of the people of God who comprise Christ's holy Catholic Church. In the Roman Catholic Catechism, it is similarly defined when it states simply that, “The communion of saints is the Church.”

Both definitions discuss it as a body of people. As they have been developed and understood, they express a deep doctrine, one that at first glance is not obvious.

There are two components to the Communion of Saints: communion and saints. What do they refer to. To use the BCP definition, communion means a group of people, and saints is specified by people of God. Phrased another way, it is a group of people who are in some way related to God, and which is specified as that relationship being incurred through the sacrament of Holy Baptism. So now we are looking at the group of people who are baptised. Communion, however, is a word with a very powerful and sacramental meaning.

Communion implies more than just a simple group, it implies, ultimately, intimate community. A group of people who have been bound together; who have been set apart. It relates to the Eucharist in the Sacramental sense, which according to St Paul is a participation in Christ’s sacrifice, (1 Cor 10. 16). Surely, this implies not merely then a team but something greater, a family. In our Baptism, we are adopted as children of God, and marked as his own forever. The Communion of Saints, therefore, are not just a group, but a family.

Saints, as the BCP mentions, are those people of God. What does that then mean? Saints are those undergoing the process of sanctification. By his grace, baptised Christians are transformed and made holy.

This transformation, therefore, extends merely being able to describe the Communion of Saints as a community of believers to a community of disciples.

A believer is someone who accepts Jesus as Lord, but there can be more to faith than that. But there is more to following Christ than simply belief, for as Scripture says, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works... So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead,” (St James 2. 14, 17).

St James does not argue here that salvation can be purchased through good works. Rather, good works are the fruit of true faith. Given that the Holy Spirit descended on the faithful like fire, it is often used as a metaphor for faith. True faith sometimes burns bright and large, and at other times can fall down to coals. The faith is still there, but it does not dictate the actions in our lives.

Someone whose faith has burned low can still be a believer, and still accept Christ as Lord. When faith burns bright, however, Christianity is more than just belief, it becomes discipleship. It is no longer about simply believing, but about living life in the model of Christ's life. It is about more than believing in community, but rather participation in community.

The Book of Common Prayer provides for a prayer for the Communion of Saints that sums up this mentality, both of community and of discipleship:

O ETERNAL Lord God, who holdest all souls in life: We beseech thee to shed forth upon thy whole Church in Paradise and on earth the bright beams of thy light and heavenly comfort; and grant that we, following the good example of those who have loved thee and served thee here and are now at rest, may at the last enter with them into the fulness of thine unending joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Ask God to fan the flames of faith in our lives that we cannot merely believe, but seek to be disciples of Christ who live out that faith, in a community of disciples. Be a full member of the Communion of Saints. In our baptismal vows we become part of a living history of those committed, by the grace of God, to following the Jesus lifestyle.