The Communion of Saints, Part One

The Communion of Saints

Part One 

“Almighty God you have knit together your elect in the communion and fellowship of the mystical body of Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 245)  This prayer for All Saints Day sets the stage for reflection on those who have gone before us and are now in the “nearer presence of our Lord.”  This past week I have reflected on those people in my life, those know, as well as unknown to the larger world, who are saints to me.  As I read the scriptures for All Saints Sunday and sang and hummed some of the hymns I spent some time with these “Saints of God.” 

In Psalm 24 we hear the following proclamation.  “The Earth is the Lords and all that is in it, the world and all who dwell therein.  The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God and no torment can ever touch them.”   

I find comfort and assurance in these words that God cares about this life, this world, just as much as God cares about life in the “world to come,” that this life is vitally important to God and therefore vitally important to us as well.  Therefore, what we do in this life matters, not just as a means of getting into heaven, but as the fulfillment of our mission of bringing about the kingdom of God, “on Earth as it is in Heaven.” 

To put this Communion of Saints into perspective I share with you Verse four of the hymn, “For All the Saints,” (p. 287, Episcopal Church Hymnal): 

            O blest communion, Fellowship Divine, we feebly struggle, they in Glory Shine,

            Yet all are one in thee for all are thine, Alleluia, Alleluia. 

Again, this Earth is important to God, what happens here is important to God, and those of us who still live on this Earth are connected to those “whose lives have changed but not ended.” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 382). 

And one last scripture from the book of Revelation:            

            For the home of God is among mortals. God will dwell with them and they will

            be His people.  Death will be no more and mourning and crying and pain will

            be no more. . . .See, I am making all things new. (Rev. 21:1-6) 

Seeing the connection between “the saints above and the saints below,” I want to reflect on some of those Saints, both famous and not, who have changed my life.  There is King David who God chose to build the kingdom of Israel, even though he was a murderer and an adulterer.  And Rehab the prostitute who saved the lives of Joshua and the other spies as they were preparing to move into “the Promise Land.”  In the Gospel of John we see the woman at the well who recognized Jesus as the one whom God had sent, even though she had had six husbands and the one with whom she was living was not her husband.”  How interesting that many of God’s Saints seem to have a shady side to them. 

Moving closer to our own day we see Dietrich Bonheoffer, a German Pastor who gave up a comfortable university position in the United States to go back to Germany and plot to assassinate Adolph Hitler, even though he “knew” he would go to hell for the act.  As most know, Bonheoffer was executed in a German prison just before the end of the Second World War.  Mother Teresa cared for the least of God’s people in India, even though there were many times she completely lost her faith in the God she never ceased to serve.

As important as these examples are to all of us, I now move in part two to those Saints much closer to home.