Although not all the faithful make the final cut for canonization, the communion of saints continues to flourish. Authors Sister Elizabeth Johnson, C.S.J. and Kathy Coffey discuss this ever-widening circle of holy membership.

 •A group of Christians gather at the Ne­vada test site to witness against the folly of nuclear weapons. In their prayer, before some of them are arrested, they honor the memory of Franz Jagerstatter, the young Austrian killed by the Nazis because, as a follower of Christ, he would not serve in their war ma­chine.

•During a preparation session for Bap­tism, a parish team explains the Litany of the Saints that will be said at the ceremony: "We are remembering all the men and women of the parish and of our families who have gone before us, who stand with us as we baptize these children." People may add to the litany the names of holy persons special to their families.

•Circles of women supporting each other in the struggle for their dignity in church and society include in their prayer a remembrance of women whose witness encourages them: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, Phoebe, Catherine of Siena, Mary Ward, Marjorie Tuite.

•In San Salvador, steady streams of poor people keep vigil at the tomb of Archbishop Oscar Romero; they find strength and conso­ lation in the living memory of his love for them and are encouraged to continue the struggle for justice.

What is going on in these simple moments­ which in their endless repetitions around the world reveal something of the essence of Catholic Christianity? In these moments we see the living practice of the communion of saints. Belief in the communion of saints is confessed in the Apostles' Creed in connec­tion with other beliefs that support it: "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the for­giveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen."

What does this aspect of our faith mean? How does understanding and practicing it lead to a richer Christian life today? A superb clue is found when we trace how this belief began.

One people of God

The early Christians thought of themselves as a community of disciples of Jesus Christ, filled with his spirit, gathered around his table, following his way. Because of this, they were all called saints,a word taken from the root word for holy. They were all touched by the holiness of God.

Saint Paul begins almost all of his letters this way: "To the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia" (2 Cor. 1:1); "To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi" (Phil. 1:1); and "To all God's beloved in Rome who are called to be saints" (Rom. 1:7). The communion of saints was a reality then. It was the vital community of people who, de­spite their troubles and their sinfulness, were redeemed by Christ and sealed with the one Spirit. They were the branches with the vine, one people of God.

A new question arose when members of the community began to die, some of them at the hands of persecutors. The logic of faith led the early Christians to see that even death was not strong enough to break their bond with Christ. Paul is eloquent on this: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?... I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord" (Rom. 8:35-39).

Since those who died were still joined with Christ, they still belonged to the community of saints. The community began to expand to include both those living on earth and, as the Eucharistic Prayer tells us, "those who have died and have gone before us marked with the sign of faith."

This development received a major boost when persecution against the church broke out in earnest. From the second to the fourth centuries, many martyrs gave up their lives rather than renounce their faith. Condemned, bloodied, and executed, they were perceived by other Christians as icons of Jesus Christ, entering into his dying in a graphic way and so, also, into his rising to new life. Their example encouraged the community to deep living of discipleship.

Christians loved these martyrs, cherished their memory, and found ways to express respect and esteem. When possible, the bod­ies of martyrs were retrieved and carefully buried. Their graves became places of prayer and pilgrimage. On the yearly anniversaries of their deaths, nightlong vigils would be held at their graves, culminating in a Eucha­ rist at dawn. In time, the stories of particular martyrs spread beyond their own locales, and they were venerated by the church in other places.

It seems that some critics accused Chris­tians of abandoning Christ and replacing him in their affections with the martyrs. But the true meaning of the martyrs in the life of the community was explained by an anony­mous member of the church at Smyrna after their bishop, Polycarp, was burned to death by Roman authorities in 167 A.D.:

We neither forsake the Christ who suffered to save those who are saved in the whole world, nor worship anyone else. For we worship him since he is the Son of God. But the martyrs we love as disciples and imita­tors of the Lord, and worthily because of their matchless affection for their own king and teacher. May we too become their comrades and fellow disciples.

Note the relationship between those still struggling on earth and those who had been sealed with the victory of Christ. They are bonded together, enfolded into a mutual love, with one group inspiring the other. This lively sense of the communion between saints on earth and in heaven is beautifully expressed in one of Augustine's sermons on the feast of the young women martyrs Perpetua and Fe­licity:

Let it not seem a small thing to us that we are members of the same body as these....We marvel at them, they have com­passion on us. We rejoice for them, they pray for us....Yet do we all serve one lord, follow one master, attend one king? We are joined to one head, journey to one Jerusalem, follow after one love, em­brace one unity.

Augustine preaches that all the followers of Jesus Christ form a genuine, grace filled community. We are all at different stages of life's journey and respond to each other accordingly, but the relations are mutual and flow back and forth. The more we connect with one another, the deeper becomes our belonging to Christ.

This, then, is the historical context for the beginnings of the belief in the communion of saints: a tense and dangerous time for the budding church; a time when the martyrs were loved for their witness under extreme pressure; a time when the church began to honor their memories liturgically in annual feast days. In later centuries when martyrdom was no longer an ever-present possibility, other holy women and men, whose lives gave bright patterns of holiness to the church, continued to be honored by name after their deaths. Unlike New Testament usage, the word saint began to be used mostly of those good persons who were now with God on the other side of death.