COMMUNING WITH THE SAINTS

Essay written in 1993

Who are the saints?

1. Anyone in the state of grace is a saint, in the way that St. Paul uses the word. That includes most practicing Christians and a whole lot of other people too. Nevertheless, we shy away from calling ourselves or others "saints" because holiness is a process that never ends until death. Besides, though we participate in God's perfection and holiness, we never do so perfectly.

2. Grace gives way to glory, and saints in the full sense of the word are those who have the vision of God in the next life. A canonizable saint is one whose life of grace was well developed and has practiced "heroic virtue". This is a matter of degree, and there are vast numbers of non-canonized saints in heaven, celebrated all together in the feast of All Saints. These include many people we knew, whose love of God far outweighed their faults. We all should be devoted to the perfect Mary, our mother, and some other great saints. Yet, since charity begins at home, it is most natural for us to be particularly close to those saints whom we knew when they were on earth: maybe a parent, relative or close friend.

What is "the communion of the saints"?

1. Communion means first of all communication, that is, making one's mind known to another and, normally, receiving some response.

2. Communion also means love and concern for one another. Love of God and neighbor is one universal love. Devotion to a particular person or a saint never competes with love of God or other saints because we are all united in the one body of Christ. To revere any part of his body is to revere Christ himself.

3. Communion finally means action on behalf of another; this may mean intercession or direct service, as may be applicable to the parties involved.

A variety of relationships

Communion among the saints on earth is easy to understand. We can talk to one another in human language. We can love, serve and pray for one another.

Communion among the saints of heaven is a little harder to understand. Their vision of God, in a perpetual Mount Tabor ecstatic experience, dominates their whole way of knowing and communicating. They know one another and everything in God and can communicate without words, simply by willing to do so. They love each other intensely with the same love that binds them to God. All their desires are completely filled; so there is no need for serving or interceding for one another.

Communion between the saints of heaven and those of earth is the one that most needs explanation. We are aware that death cannot separate us from the love of God or one another. The bond of love remains the firm basis of communion between us and the saints who have gone before us.

It is also clear that the saints in heaven enjoy complete happiness and have no need of our help or intercession. Our intercession comes in only in the case of those who are stalled on their journey for purification before they are admitted to the vision of God. But the saints can certainly intercede for us, just as we on earth intercede for one another. They have the advantage of being able to intercede constantly with all their strength, unlike us who flag and get interrupted.

Talking with the saints in heaven

Communicating between the saints in heaven and ourselves is another matter where we need to clarify some points:

1. First, they can understand our language. They do not have bodily ears to hear the sounds we make, but neither does God who knows all things. Whatever we tell them out loud or silently, they know it, because their attention is forever on God in whom all our speech is echoed.

2. They can speak to us by God's favor and permission. When they do so, it is always a grace, never something we can command or extract from them. Sometimes they speak when we are recollected at prayer and listening, but very often, and maybe more often, they barge in when we are in the middle of activity and distraction, just to show that this communication is not from our manipulation.

3. They can speak to us in our language, although they do not normally do so. When they do, it is usually by making us hear their words interiorly in our mind; others do not hear what we are hearing. That has been the case in the recognized cases when Mary has appeared and in the many other cases that people report.

4. Normally, they speak to us in their own heavenly language which we can learn to understand in this life, but never perfectly. What is that language? It is the language they use with God, a silent opening wide of their soul to him as they are overwhelmed by his sight. Speaking to us, the saints will first of all try to put us into a state of calm and peace and awareness of God. They do not call attention to themselves, but their presence only manifests and fuses with the presence of God, and their voice becomes his voice. Yet we have an awareness that they also are there. Sometimes they may have a message for us. We will hear it not in the form of words (although that can happen), but as an inspired idea.

5. A saint may speak to us in the form of action. That is obvious when we ask him or her to pray for a particular intention and God answers us, sometimes in a spectacular way, going beyond what we expected.

6. Although we can address the saints in our language, gradually they lead us also to talk their own language. Sometimes we feel struck dumb in their presence, since words are inadequate to what the Spirit moves us to say. We stand in silence before them and it all pours out. We address them with the realization that they are distinct from God; yet we find our voice sounding beyond them to God in one non-stop transmission.

7. Sometimes heavenly language can be activated in our communion with saints on earth. This happens especially when we are made aware of a distant friend in need and are drawn to pray for him or her.

8. How do we know we are communing with the saints and not falling prey to our imagination or the devil? The more our experience is on the level of heavenly language, that is, an absorption in the presence of God, the surer our ground is. If we get particular messages or words, they can be tested by their conformity with the teaching of the Church and by their outcome. We can't go wrong if the message is to be kind to someone or pray for someone in need. If the message is to do something unusual, we need to consult a confessor.

Conclusion

St. Joan of Arc could not understand why her accusers had such difficulty about her voices - the saints who spoke to her. For her they were as obvious as the rustling of the wind or the song of the birds. We just have to listen.

We can experience the presence of God in our hearts and listen to his voice. If we attune ourselves to him closely, we find that he is not alone, but surrounded by a diaphanous multitude of saints, very human, some of them quite familiar to us, who are ready to talk with us any time we want.