The Communion of Saints

FEW other tenets of Catholic belief and practice have been combated by the religious revolutionists of the sixteenth century with such persistent violence as that of "The Communion of the Saints"; yet few other tenets of Catholic belief and practice are so solidly grounded in Scripture and Tradition, or afford to the Christian soul so much sweetness of thought, so much hope fulness 0 f life and action. For ages the Apostles' Creed reechoed through Christendom -" I believe in the Communion of the Saints"; and to this article of the Creed solemn significance was given in universal ritualistic observance. Suddenly all was changed. "Justification by faith alone," the vital, though most erroneous principle of the new religion, was the argument for the exclusion of all secondary or mediate intercession. The Saints, those on earth or those in Heaven, it was said, must be silenced. Intervention on their part is needless. It is injurious to the Saviour of Calvary. It indicates either in the Saviour insufficiency of power and merit, or in the believer insufficiency of personal appropriation of the fullness of salvation proffered by Him to mankind. Henceforward, the article in the Creed" I believe in the Communion of the Saints"was to be a mere verbal expression, void of substantial meaning or living reality. Much more - that the Saints be once forever ejected from prerogatives and privileges heretofore accorded to them, war was waged against their names and memories, against things whatsoever that might recall them to the Christian mind, or suggest recognition of their deeds of holiness. The doctrine of " The Communion of the Saints," as interpreted and reduced to practice by the Catholic Church, before and after the so-called "Reformation," was distorted and calumniated to the end that seen only under a vile and blackened image, it be abominated the more cordially, and buried the more deeply in abiding oblivion. The recognition of the Saints, as known in the Catholic Church, it was said, is rank superstition, degraded idolatry: to invoke their intercession, to venerate their virtues, to picture them in stone or on canvas, is the revival of olden paganism. Thus inaugurated, opposition to the Saints travelled down the centuries, though here and there somewhat shorn of its asperity as justice and common sense were allowed a hearing. The opposition lives to-day. Even to-day the Saints need to be defended. misrepresentation must be denied, and truth set forth in its full armor of defense. What is "The Communion of the Saints"? It is the fellowship of mutual love and help among the sons of Christ, members of His mystic body, the Church, whether still battling for salvation on earth, or reigning in bliss in Heaven, or enduring for a time the cleansing fires of Purgatory. Originally published in 1912.