By Brenda Hopf
Connecting Creed and Life
Editor’s note: For 2025, the weekly Connecting Faith and Life column will be renamed Connecting Creed and Life. To celebrate the 2025 Jubilee Year and the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, the columns will consist of reflections on the Nicene Creed, corresponding with related paragraphs in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC).
“I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church” (cf. CCC 946-962).
Losing someone we love is one of the hardest things we will ever experience as human beings. Whether it’s a child, a spouse, a parent, a grandparent or a dear friend, their physical absence can leave a void that feels impossible to fill. We miss their hugs, the sound of their voice, text message greetings, sharing meals, a game of cards and so much more. Even with the deepest of faith, our hearts still ache.
But even in the midst of heartache, there is hope. As members of the Body of Christ, we believe in something profoundly comforting — the Communion of Saints. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the Communion of Saints is a joining together of the members of the Church as one body — those on earth, in purgatory, and in heaven (cf. CCC 962). This communion expresses itself in four key ways: through the same faith passed down from the apostles; through participation in the same sacraments, especially the Eucharist; through the use of charisms, our supernatural spiritual gifts used to build up the Church; through the living out of love, which is the greatest bond of all (cf. CCC 950-953). Even in death, these connections don’t disappear; in fact, they deepen. Our loved ones are not far away. It’s like we’re all still part of one big family, living in different places.
This belief will likely not completely take away our grief, as mourning the death of a loved one is a normal and necessary process. This tenet of our faith does, however, give us hope for the present and for the future. We believe that our loved ones who died in Christ are not lost to us forever. They are still connected to us through their prayers for us, and this includes those who may still be in purgatory. This is not wishful thinking. This is a powerful reminder that this truth is rooted in who we are as the Body of Christ.
At the celebration of every Mass, we get a glimpse of this connection in a very profound way when we sing “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts.”We are not just singing with the people around us — we are joining in song with the angels and saints, which includes those loved ones who are now with Jesus. Every time we pray the Mass, heaven and earth join together in praise and worship. Through the Eucharistic celebration, we are reminded that our loved ones who have gone before us are spiritually united with us in the deepest way. This gives credence to the idea that we are never alone. We are sustained not only by the community we can see, but also by this invisible, eternal fellowship we cannot see.
In this Jubilee Year of Hope, the Communion of Saints is a powerful reminder that death does not have the final word. Hope doesn’t mean pretending that we are not grieving the loss of our loved ones. Hope means trusting that love endures beyond the grave. It means knowing that the bonds formed in Christ are unbreakable, even by death. St. Paul conveys this so well in Romans 11:1 — “To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for; to be certain of the things we cannot see.”
So, when the grief might begin to seem overwhelming, when the silence is deafening, and when it all seems to be more than we can handle, let’s remind ourselves that the Communion of Saints is not just a doctrine to believe — it is a relationship to live.
As family members of the Body of Christ, let’s lift our voices in the “Holy, Holy, Holy,”singing in communion with those who have gone before us, “Hosanna in the highest.” May this be one of many ways the Communion of Saints will draw us ever closer to those we miss and to the God who holds us in his loving embrace.
Brenda Hopf is a member of Divine Mercy Parish.