THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS

The Synoptic Gospels are unanimous in declaring that a delegation of Sadducees approached Jesus with a question about a woman who had been married and widowed seven times.(1) Their question was ‘ridiculous’ in the sense that it was intended to ‘ridicule’ belief in the resurrection held by the rival Pharisees. He was asked whose wife this woman would be following the resurrection. Seven men were married to her in the course of her life and the Sadducees wanted to know to whom she would belong in the life to come. The answer given by Jesus speaks of Heaven, and because the spiritual reality of Heaven is considered our ultimate reality, it is what is most true and real about us. But what can we know of Heaven, and how should we speak of it? What does the Christian faith teach?

We who tend to view the world as an arrangement of separate objects, and picture things in images, imagine Heaven simply as an elaboration of life as we know it now, and so we see it as a defined space located somewhere; a future place of material blessing. The response of Jesus to the Sadducees is to say that resurrection is real but not in the way that they imagine. He says that in resurrection we are as the angels, “neither marrying nor being given in marriage,” and are united in a spiritual communion and fellowship which is the deepest marriage of all. Jesus speaks of Heaven as a Kingdom of Spirit in which the widow-woman in question does not ‘belong’ to anybody because as a spiritual being she is not an object to be possessed. In speaking of Heaven as a spiritual kingdom Jesus presents an understanding similar to that of St. Paul who taught that as we have a natural body in this life, we shall also have a spiritual body appropriate to our resurrection. (2) He says that the former is to the latter as a seed is to a tree. What is essential and intrinsic is not lost in resurrection but is transformed in perfection and completeness.

St. Paul writes of what he calls “the fruit of the Spirit.” (3) He mentions ‘love,’ ‘joy,’ ‘peace,’ ‘endurance,’ ‘kindness,’ ‘goodness,’ ‘faithfulness,’ ‘meekness,’ and ‘temperance.’ In order to understand the nature of our ‘spiritual body’ and what Christians mean by resurrection we should consider the qualities of Spirit.

 “God is love,” proclaims St. John, “and whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”(4) The Torah declares that God created human beings in his “own image and likeness” and then brought us to life by breathing his own Spirit into us and thus animating us. (5)  Moreover, the Catholic Creeds speak of eternal life as a ‘communion of saints’ (sanctorum communionem), an eternal fellowship transcending friendship and family while losing nothing that is good and true about them. This is the unity of Spirit in which there is union and communion, fusion without confusion, relation without separation, and distinction without division.

Given the materialist mindset of our time it is not surprising that we speak of love in terms of ‘relationships.’ The language of relationships is the language of physics in which objects in space are seen in relation to each another. Neither is it surprising in such a society where our differences are emphasized and our divisions magnified for political purposes that there should be epidemic levels of violence, bullying, and callous behavior. While our attempts to redress these failings correctly stress human rights and individual dignity, it seems to me we need to begin with the even more fundamental realization of our spiritual union and oneness. Without this understanding you simply cannot know what it means to love your neighbor ‘as’ yourself. This unity consciousness is not just wishful thinking. It isn’t some special insight to be arrived at eventually over time; it is the vision which begins our journey. Our end is in our beginning. “Home is where one starts from.”(6)

‘Joy’ is love knowing itself. It properly belongs to us as spiritual creatures. It isn’t a thing we earn; it is what we are. It isn’t derived from anything or anyone but is what we bring to people and events. ‘Peace’ is eternal. We’ve forgotten that. We’ve forgotten a lot. Peace isn’t merely the absence of conflict; it is perfect stillness - rest and motion reconciled by love. It is the perfection of completeness. It is not something static; it is forever young and always new.   

Finally, when we see ourselves merely as separate, individual bodies we tend to operate out of a sense of lack, but to realize our spiritual nature is to be moved by abundance. Anyone who loves knows that the joy of love is in giving. Having someone love us isn’t as thrilling if it isn’t reciprocated by us in the same way. Instead, we know that the real joy of love is found in offering it; in giving. Love is always for giving; it is boundless, profuse, ample, and overflowing. It is the eternal life of Spirit.

 1: Matthew 22:23-33, Mark 12:18-27, and Luke 20:27-40

2:  I Corinthians 15

3: Galatians 5

4:  1 John 4:16

5:  Genesis 1:26-27; 2:7

6:  T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets, (East Coker)