The Communion of Saints
Whenever we say the Apostles’ Creed we profess our faith in the communion of saints,
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.
It’s easy to dismiss this great cloud of witnesses, or to remember that we, by virtue of our baptism, are counted among them. Saints aren’t persons with whom we readily identify. They lived long ago, often far away and seem too holy for us to feel as if we could have anything in common. The way they have been portrayed hasn’t helped. They’re often put on a pedestal high above us with faces that seem to radiate a holy glow.
A visit to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles helped me to see this holy body of believers with new eyes. More than 100 saints are depicted in tapestries that line the walls of the sanctuary. The saints represent all races, occupations and vocations the world over. Saints from the Renaissance are intermingled with people from the 1st century and the 20th century. Among the named saints are untitled characters that include children of all ages. They stand for the anonymous saints in our midst. What struck me the most about these fresco-like tapestries was not merely their beauty, but the fact that the saints looked like me. The artist, John Nava, wanted the figures to look like people we know, so he used local models to illustrate them. Nava’s hope was that the real-life images would help people to identify with the human nature of the saints.
The saints were human after all. Like us, they lived and worked and had their share of happiness and hardships. What sets them apart is that they remained faithful to participating in God’s grace no matter the cost, and as a result, they were able to do extraordinary things.
This Sunday, Pope Francis will canonize seven persons, including Pope Paul VI and Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador. Both of these men witnessed to the faith during turbulent times. Archbishop Romero’s tenure was marked by civil strife and violence that killed many innocent people, including those who worked on behalf of the Church. Romero spoke out against such oppression and was fatally shot as he was delivering a homily during Mass.
Succeeding Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI continued the Second Vatican Council and led the church through the challenge of implementing the many reforms called for by the Council.
One of the Council documents, Lumen Gentium, or The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church,
tells us that all the baptized are called to holiness:
“Therefore in the Church, everyone whether belonging to the hierarchy, or being cared for by it, is called to holiness . . . it is expressed in many ways in individuals, who in their walk of life, tend toward the perfection of charity.” Lumen Gentium, #39
This universal call to holiness was something Pope Paul VI said was “The most characteristic and ultimate purpose of the teachings of the Council.”
May we, like those being canonized this day, witness God’s extraordinary grace by the way we live our everyday lives.