Communion

“To make the Church the home and the school of communion: that is the great challenge facing us . . . if we wish to be faithful to God’s plan and respond to the world’s deepest yearnings.” 

- St. Pope John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte, 43

Whenever we Catholics think of “communion” in the religious sense, it is automatic to consider first the sacrament of the Eucharist, which we often call Communion (e.g. receiving First Communion). However, once we start to unpack what this word means, we can discover much more depth in the call that St. John Paul II makes above.

 

The word communion itself is fairly simple in construction. “Union” implies when two or more individuals are joined together into one, and “con” is a prefix for “with.” Communion = with union. If I am in communion with someone, then I become “one” in some sense with that person. All of those who work at the same place, who are attending the same concert, who have the same political beliefs, etc., can be said in some sense to be “in communion” with each other. We can also speak of communion in a much more intimate sense: for example, the communion that comes with deep friendship or marriage.

 

So why is the sacrament of the Eucharist also called Communion?  In the sacrament, we become united with Jesus Christ Himself, by receiving Him completely into our bodies and souls. This is much more than a simple ritual we repeat on Sundays but a relationship of love into which God calls us.

 

Yet communion goes even beyond relationship with God. We profess belief in the “communion of saints,” that, even here on earth, we are called to union with all of the saints in heaven and all of our brothers and sisters on earth. We are not our own; we are, by our personhood, called to relationship with God and everyone around us. From this communion comes the Church, the “assembly called out” that brings all of us together in God. 

 

To illustrate what communion means in our faith, I’d like to continue quoting what John Paul II says above. Today at Conception, we seminarians had a day of recollection with Bishop Michael Mulvey of Corpus Christi who gave this quotation to us, and it is packed with wisdom and insight. Take your time with it, and let us pledge to live out this “spirituality of communion” in our daily lives:

“But what does this mean in practice? Here too, our thoughts could run immediately to the action to be undertaken, but that would not be the right impulse to follow. Before making practical plans, we need to promote a spirituality of communion, making it the guiding principle of education. . . . A spirituality of communion indicates above all the heart's contemplation of the mystery of the Trinity dwelling in us, and whose light we must also be able to see shining on the face of the brothers and sisters around us. A spirituality of communion also means an ability to think of our brothers and sisters in faith within the profound unity of the Mystical Body, and therefore as ‘those who are a part of me’. This makes us able to share their joys and sufferings, to sense their desires and attend to their needs, to offer them deep and genuine friendship. A spirituality of communion implies also the ability to see what is positive in others, to welcome it and prize it as a gift from God: not only as a gift for the brother or sister who has received it directly, but also as a ‘gift for me’. A spirituality of communion means, finally, to know how to ‘make room’ for our brothers and sisters, bearing ‘each other's burdens’ (Gal 6:2) and resisting the selfish temptations which constantly beset us and provoke competition, careerism, distrust and jealousy. Let us have no illusions: unless we follow this spiritual path, external structures of communion will serve very little purpose. They would become mechanisms without a soul, ‘masks’ of communion rather than its means of expression and growth."