How can communion be practiced amongst the faithful?

In the Book of Acts we see how the spirit of communion in worship and in possessions dominated the Church in the Apostolic Era. It was founded on the unity of its members together in one body, with each member caring for the others. By the end of the second century, agape love-meals began to be conducted after the celebration of the eucharistic liturgy in Rome, Alexandria, Carthage, and in the East. These were supplied from the stores of the church or by a wealthy believer. Also, since there were no such things as hospitals in this period, it fell to the Church to care for the sick.¹⁰⁰⁴ Charity was not restricted only to the rich helping the poor, but the poor themselves also provided for their needy brothers and sisters. And if there was a poor person amongst them with nothing to offer as alms, he would fast for two or three days to provide the necessary food for his needy brother or sister.¹⁰⁰⁵

In briefly describing the ideal bishop, St. Ignatius counts as the first requirement that he provides for needs of the poor, especially the widows, of whom he is their protector, after the Lord.¹⁰⁰⁶

Social cohesion is also to be found in the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church, and in all hre worship. Therefore, we should not marvel that an entire church would gather

1004 See St. Polycarp of Smyrna, “Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians” in Staniforth, Maxwell, and Andrew Louth, eds. Early Christian Writings (Penguin Classics, 1987) 6: p. 121 where visiting the sick is listed among the duties of the clergy.

1005 Aristides, The Apology of Aristides the Philosopher 15 (ANF 9:277).

1006 St. Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to Polycarp 4 (ANF 1:94–95); Tertullian, Against Marcion 4.16 (ANF 3:371).

together for an all-night vigil to celebrate a victorious martyr, to pray for the departed, or for every member to pray on behalf of the entire community.

Before his martyrdom, St. Polycarp felt the need to pray on behalf of everyone: “small and great, known and unknown — as well as the entire world-wide Catholic Church.”¹⁰⁰⁷ That is why he says, “This is surely the sign of a true and steadfast love, when a man is not bent on saving himself alone, but his brethren as well.”¹⁰⁰⁸

Therefore, we do not think of searching for a lost sheep as a good deed we perform for the sake of another, but as something we do for ourselves; for until that soul is restored to the Church, we ourselves are incomplete. When the lost soul returns, peace returns to the Church once more and we are made complete once again. In his discourse about the priest Valens and his wife who left the faith because of greed, St. Polycarp says, “I feel the deepest sorrow for that man and his wife; may the Lord grant them real repentance. You too, for your part, must not be over severe with them, for people of that kind are not to be looked on as enemies; you have to restore them, like parts of your own person that are ailing and going wrong, so that the whole body can be maintained in health. Do this, and you will be promoting your own spiritual welfare at the same time.”¹⁰⁰⁹

When he envisions the character of the ideal priest, he focuses on the importance of social service towards the needy, but with a spiritual mindset, as he writes in his epistle: “As for the clergy, they should be men of generous sympathies, with a wide compassion for humanity. It is their business to reclaim the wanderers, keep an eye on all who are infirm, and never neglect the widow, the orphan, or the needy. Their care at all times should be for what is honourable in the sight of God and men [cf. Rom. 12:17; 2 Cor. 8:21]. Any show of illtemper, partiality, or prejudice is to be scrupulously avoided; and eagerness for money should be a thing utterly alien to them. They must not be over ready to believe ill of anyone, nor too hasty with their censure; being well aware that we all of us owe the debt of sin.”¹⁰¹⁰

The martyr Cyprian says, “Before all things, the Teacher of peace and the Master of unity [the Lord Christ] would not have prayer to be made singly and individually, as for one who prays to pray for himself alone. For we say not ‘My Father, who art in heaven,’ nor ‘Give me this day my daily bread,’ … Our prayer is public and common; and when we pray, we pray not for one, but for the whole people, because we the whole people are one. The God

1007 “The Martyrdom of Polycarp” in Staniforth, Maxwell, and Andrew Louth, eds. Early Christian Writings (Penguin Classics, 1987) 8: p. 127.

1008 “The Martyrdom of Polycarp” in Staniforth, Maxwell, and Andrew Louth, eds. Early Christian Writings (Penguin Classics, 1987) 1: p. 125.

1009 Polycarp of Smyrna, “Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians” in Staniforth, Maxwell, and Andrew Louth, eds. Early Christian Writings (Penguin Classics, 1987) 11: p. 123.

1010 Polycarp of Smyrna, “Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians” in Staniforth, Maxwell, and Andrew Louth, eds. Early Christian Writings (Penguin Classics, 1987) 6: p. 121.

of peace and the Teacher of concord, who taught unity, willed that one should thus pray for all even as He Himself bore us all in one.”¹⁰¹¹

In the Letter to Diognetus we read, “Any Christian is free to share his neighbour’s table, but never his marriage-bed.”¹⁰¹² Minucius also says that Christians “love one another almost before they know one another.”¹⁰¹³

Aristides says, “From widows Christians do not turn away their esteem; and they deliver the orphan from him who treats him harshly. And he, who has, gives to him who has not, without boasting. And when they see a stranger, they take him in to their homes and rejoice over him as a very brother … And whenever one of their poor passes from the world, each one of them according to his ability gives heed to him and carefully sees to his burial. And if they hear that one of their number is imprisoned or afflicted on account of the name of their Messiah, all of them anxiously minister to his necessity, and if it is possible to redeem him they set him free.”¹⁰¹⁴

And St. Clement of Rome says, “It is comely and useful, that a man ‘visit orphans and widows’ (James 1:27), and especially those poor persons who have many children.”¹⁰¹⁵

1011 St. Cyprian of Carthage, Treatise 4: On the Lord’s Prayer 8 (ANF 5:449) amended.

1012 “Epistle to Diognetus,” in Staniforth, Maxwell, and Andrew Louth, eds. Early Christian Writings (Penguin Classics, 1987) 5: p. 145.

1013 Minucius Felix, The Octavius 9 (ANF 4:177).

1014 Aristides, The Apology of Aristides the Philosopher 15 (ANF 9:276–277).

1015 St. Clement of Rome, Two Epistles Concerning Virginity 1.12 (ANF 8:159).