In the Company of the Saints

As newcomers are baptized into Jesus Christ and His Church on Holy Saturday evening, our choir typically sings the Litany of the Saints:  All you holy ones, pray for us!  Athanatius and Polycarp, Pray for us!  Catherine, Teresa, and Hildegaard, Pray for us!  Francis and Therese, Pray for us!  

Because of the corona virus, I am going to miss the Holy Saturday liturgy this year, and I think the Litany of the Saints is one thing I'm going to miss the most, since this is the one time all year we sing it.  As we welcome new saints into the church, I love the reminder of being surrounded by all of our brothers and sisters who have so loved God that we recognize their holiness.

Hebrews 12 says, You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words, so that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded....The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, "I am trembling with fear."

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.  You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.  You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel....Keep on loving each other as brothers.

It is true that "spirit speaks to spirit," and when we meet those who love God, our hearts leap with joy in their presence.  In the spiritual life, the physical barriers of race, religion, culture, and preferences melt away.  C.S. Lewis says that friendship is two people who look together at a 3rd thing that they both love, and each one's love is enhanced by the perspective and love of the friend for the 3rd thing.  When the friend dies, one loses not only the friend himself, but we lose also the friend's love of the third thing.

We can imagine God at the center of a series of concentric circles.  Somewhere on the outer edges of those ever-widening circles, there we are -- widely separated from other people by a whole host of reasons and barriers: ethnicity, customs, preferences, politics, etc.  But as we each move closer to the Most Holy Trinity in Jesus Christ, the barriers melt away, and we automatically move closer to one another by our mutual love of God.

The saints embody in their very flesh the gifts and charisms of Jesus Christ in His love for the Father.  Padre Pio and Francis of Assisi were very different in time and space, but both bore the wounds of Jesus Christ, and both were completely consumed by the love of Jesus for His Father and for the world itself.  And from the reports of those who knew and loved these saints, you could not help but be consumed with joy in their presence!  St. Dominic Savio once said, "Joy is the unmistakable sign of the presence of God."

So to be in the presence of the saints is to be filled with joy at their love of God and their love of other people.  These are our brothers and sisters in the faith!  And from the joy I have in the presence of my biological brothers and sisters, I have a glimpse of the joy we experience in the company of the saints --- no barriers of time or space!

St. Dominic and St. Patrick, pray for us!  Francis and Elizabeth, Pray for us!  Anthony and John Paul II, Pray for us!