309. The extent of the power of the communion of saints
309. THE EXTENT OF THE POWER OF THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS
Can one person’s good works help another in this world and/or in Purgatory even if they never meet? If so, how?
Whether the suffrages (good works) of one person can profit others?
All the faithful united together by charity are members of the one body of the Church. Now one member (organ of a body) is assisted by another. Therefore one man can be assisted by the merits of the Church. . . .
Our actions may avail (for others) in two ways: first, by way of merit; secondly, by way of prayer—the difference being that merit relies on justice and prayer on mercy. . . .
Since . . . prayer depends on the liberality of God to Whom we pray, it may extend to whatever is rightly subject to the divine power. . . . On the other hand . . . the work of one may avail another not only by way of prayer but even by way of merit . . . on account of their communion in the root of the work, which root is charity in all meritorious works. Wherefore all who are united together by charity acquire some benefit from one another’ works. . . .
. . . [E]ven in heaven each one will rejoice in the goods of others. Hence it is that the communion of saints is laid down as an article of faith (in the Apostles’ Creed) . . . so that those works become somewhat the works of those for whom they are done, as though they were bestowed on them by the doer. . . (S71,1).
An analogy: In this world, lungs do not directly touch kidneys, yet each helps the other, in fact each is essential to the life of the other. We are united in the communion of saints in this kind of way in the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church, for it is not just a visible organization but a spiritual organism. Even if we do not touch, we do touch; even if we are strangers, we are not strangers.
The two spiritual bloodstreams that bring life from and to the different organs (individuals) in this Body are prayer and good works (“alms-deeds”). These appeal to mercy and justice respectively, for prayer asks for and receives mercy, and good works merit just rewards, both for the worker and for others as well if these good works are “extra” (“supererogatory”) works, since the works were done for something “extra” over and above justice, namely charity.
The whole idea of indulgences is based on this ontology of the communion of saints. The communion of saints is not an “extra”, not optional or disposable; it is one of the twelve basic articles of the Apostles’ Creed.
In the communion of saints, even though your soul or body cannot become mine, your works can! The mere philosopher puzzles at this mystery, but the lover rejoices at it.
Objection 4. It belongs to divine justice to repay good for good in the same way as evil for evil. But no man is punished for the evil doings of another. Indeed, according to Ezechial 18:4, The soul that sinneth, the same shall die. Therefore neither does one person profit by another’s good.
Reply to Objection 4. It is directly contrary to justice to take away from a person that which is his due, but to give a person what is not his due is not contrary to justice but surpasses the bounds of justice, for it is liberality. . . . Consequently it is not becoming that one should be punished for another’s sins, as it is (becoming) that one should acquire some advantage from deeds of another (S71,1).
Punishing one man for another’s sins is less than just, but rewarding one man for another’s good deeds is not. It is more than just. Who would protest this? Only the stingy or the envious.