The Communion of Saints:
Celebrating unity with God

		Living the Scriptures  with St. Paul University  Catholic Center  Susan Casper

Small wonder we yearn to be reunited with God. We recognize God's presence around us: in mountains and waterfalls and maple trees, in the wrinkled face of a grandmother, in beautiful music, in dandelions held in a chubby fist, in the moon, luminous in the night sky. We feel God's presence in acts of kindness and charity.

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Nov. 7, 2004) 2 Macc 7:1-2, 9-14 Ps 17:1, 5-6, 8, 15 2 Thess 2:16--3:5 Lk 20:27-38     or 20:27, 34-38

When we glimpse God in great art or in the faces of children, that old familiar longing returns. We have within us, unconscious memories of heaven and our life with God. And we want to return to him and our first home.

As I anticipate the arrival of a first grandchild, I think of my descendants and picture them feeling this same longing, as did all of us who came before. Ancestors and descendants and all here right now, this "communion of saints," united with God - our complete family.

Technology tells us this child is a girl; she is already named Caroline and nicknamed "Carly." When she reaches the age I am now, midway into the century, I most certainly will be gone. I hope her mother and her father, my son, are there to celebrate and reminisce.

They will no doubt speak with longing about my husband and me. They will recall life in the early part of the century, when Carly was born. She will carry the genes of both ancestors and descendants and will connect our family in ways that never can be severed.

No doubt, like me, my granddaughter will contemplate the generations to follow. Her world will meld with the one I live right now, the one my parents lived, and their parents lived . . . back through the generations to the beginning of time.

They will long, as I often do, to be re-united with those they've loved in the past. It is this yearning to be with God and with loved ones that makes the promise of eternal life so compelling.

	Reflection questions • What if, like the Sadducees in today's Gospel, you didn't believe in the resurrection. How would your life and faith be changed? • Do you sometimes forget that life is eternal? Do you cling too tightly to the things of earth?

In each of this week's Scripture readings, we are reassured that God is waiting for us to return to our home in heaven. Death is a brief separation from those we love until we all arrive back home.

This promise, that we will rise together in God, makes the lonely ache we have for the God we left in heaven, and the ache we feel as we miss those who are already gone, not just endurable, but cause for celebration. From grief and loss springs joy and reunion. That reunion of God and family will be forever.

Susan Casper, a retired university teacher, is a friend of St. Paul University Catholic Center and an occasional contributor to this column.

St. Paul's Web site is www.stpaulscc.org

Faith Alive!

In a Nutshell Older people are a valuable resource for parishes and many others. The U.S. bishops said in 1997 that "older people are providers, not just recipients, of pastoral care." In biblical times life was often short and filled with sickness. Old age was viewed above all as God's blessing, but it required the community to honor the aged, as well as to care for them. Catholic News Service 3211 Fourth St NE Washington DC 20017 202.541.3250 cns@catholicnews.com	Food for Thought   It is clearly a sign of the times that as people approach retirement age, friends and relatives grow anxious -- concerned not that these people are getting older but that in retirement they won't have enough to do! We don't quite know what to make of the process of getting older anymore. People can't even agree upon when middle age ends -- and the Social Security Administration keeps raising the age. It might help if we knew the right questions to ask about growing older. But this process is somewhat of a mystery today as life spans lengthen. We can't assume that we know what older people want (or want to do). We have to ask them. "Honoring older people involves a threefold duty: welcoming them, helping them and making good use of their qualities," Pope John Paul II said in a 1999 letter to the elderly. full story   More Than "Bus and Bingo" By Daniel S. Mulhall Catholic News Service Older adults need more than "bus and bingo" (trips and social events) from their church. They need opportunities to continue learning and growing in faith. They are full members of their faith communities and deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, and afforded a chance to serve. Here are just a few ways that older adults I know in parishes are serving their communities: full story  Taking Care of My Dad By John B. Reynolds Catholic News Service When I got the news at work several years ago that my mother had died from a sudden heart attack, I had one immediate thought that I'm not especially proud of: "Why couldn't it have been my dad?" He long had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and Mom -- at least on the surface -- was health's picture. She was his caregiver. What sense did it make that she be taken before him? But some say that God works in mysterious ways. full story  The Bible's Point of View on Aging By Father Lawrence Boadt, CSP Catholic News Service The Old Testament discusses old age and its benefits and problems much more frequently than does the New. In Israel, a long life was considered a major blessing. The legendary ancestors before the flood are praised because they lived into the hundreds of years. Genesis 25 says that Abraham died at 175 years, at a ripe old age after a full life, while Deuteronomy 34 tells us that Moses, always physically vital, died at 120. full story
	Faith in the Marketplace   This Week's Discussion Point: How are people in their 70s or older serving in your parish or diocese?     Selected Response From Readers:
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