Who Says this Ain't Communion?

When you hear the word "communion" what do you think of?

If you have environmentalist inclinations, you may think of communion with nature.

If you're a Protestant then you may think of drinking grape juice and eating bread at church several times a year - that's certainly what I used to think of when I was growing up.

Since joining the Catholic Church, however, I've come to appreciate another meaning which, oddly enough, I'd unthinkingly proclaimed as part of my articles of faith when growing up: communion of the saints.

The reason I'd been proclaiming it is that it's part of one of the oldest expressions of what it means to be a Christian: The Apostles' Creed. If you look it up at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostles'_Creed, you'll see that it has its roots in the early church and is widely accepted by the oldest and largest of Christian denominations. Every translation used by every denomination that recites The Apostle's Creed includes reference to belief in the "communion of the saints" (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communion_of_saints) which is undisputedly a reference to all Christians, including those who have passed on, being a single body of Christ.

That's why, when I asked my grandmother, who is Christian but not a Catholic, if she will pray for me when she's in heaven, she was comfortably able to say "yes".

However, like most Protestants, she is not at all comfortable with the idea of me continuing to ask her to pray for me when I can no longer speak to her face to face (or at least by phone).

Such great thinkers as Luther and Calvin have had serious discomfort with us asking for prayer from fellow Christians who were no longer bodily with us. So, it's important not to take such scruples lightly.

However, for me, it's not much of a real communion with those saints who have gone before if we aren't able to ask them for prayer to help us with our burdens like we can in communion with those saints who are still alive on Earth. Besides, unlike my fellow Christians here on Earth, who already have plenty of worries of their own in addition to the prayers I ask them to make for my burdens, those who are in heaven have literally no worries, and one would think they'd delight in this expression of their communion with the rest of the body of Christ.

For my Protestant brothers and sisters who still aren't comfortable with asking fellow Christians who have gone before to pray for them, may I suggest you make some time to meet with your elderly fellow Christians now while they're still alive and ask them to pray for you when they're in heaven, so you don't have to feel uncomfortable about the idea of asking them this when they're no longer physically with us.

After all, one thing's for sure: we all benefit from each other's prayers.

(Copyright (c) 2011, Reg Harbeck, all rights reserved)