The Communion of Saints

The Creed confesses the communion of saints. It means the union of all the members of the Church in Christ: the faithful who still live on earth, the souls being purified before they see God, and the blessed who already contemplate him. This union is not broken by death, and it allows some to pray for others.

One body in Christ

The Church is a body of which Christ is the head, and all the baptized are its members. Saint Paul draws their solidarity from this: “If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice with it.” 1 Corinthians 12:26 This body reaches beyond the bounds of death. Three states compose it: those who still walk toward God on earth, those who complete their purification, and those who already see him. All hold to the same Christ, and all share in the same goods: grace, prayer, charity.

The saints live in God

The blessed of heaven live fully in God. Jesus affirms it, speaking of the patriarchs dead for centuries: “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Matthew 22:32 The saints contemplate him face to face, and from that vision they draw a life higher than ours. They remain united to us in Christ, attentive to those they have gone before.

They pray for us

This life of the saints is wholly turned toward God and toward love. Their charity does not die out at the threshold of heaven; it is brought to completion, and moves them to pray for those still on the way. The Apocalypse shows the elect presenting before God “golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” Revelation 5:8 The Old Testament already foreshadowed it: Jeremiah, long dead, appears there as “the one who prays much for the people and for the holy city.” 2 Maccabees 15:14 And heaven rejoices over what happens on earth: “There is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Luke 15:10 The saints take part in our journey: they intercede.

We pray for the dead

The communion also works in the other direction. Those who have left this world without being fully purified complete their purification before seeing God, in the state the Church calls purgatory; they can no longer merit for themselves, but the Church, united to them in Christ, relieves them by its prayers, its almsgiving, and above all by the sacrifice of the Mass. Scripture already shows this gesture, when a sacrifice is offered for the soldiers fallen in battle: “It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins.” 2 Maccabees 12:46 To pray for the dead is to extend beyond death the charity that unites the members of one same body.

A grace to receive

From this communion the prayer to the saints arises. To ask them to intercede is to do with them what Christians do among themselves on earth, entrusting one another in prayer: “The fervent prayer of the just man has great power.” James 5:16 And no one is more just than the saints established in God. This trust in the intercession of the saints has at times been contested, and it holds up under examination. To pray to them is to enter into their friendship, to take as companions on the road those who have already reached the goal, and to taste even now the communion that unites the whole Church.