2 Maccabees 15:12-16: in context

Before a decisive battle, Judas encourages his men by telling them a dream God had given him. In it, he saw Onias, the former high priest, a good and honorable man, standing with outstretched hands, praying for the whole community of the Jews. Then another appeared, of great age and dignity; and Onias explained: this is the lover of his people, who prays much for them and for the holy city, Jeremiah the prophet of God. And Jeremiah, in the dream, gave Judas a golden sword, a gift from God for the battle ahead.

Whatever we make of the dream itself, its picture is a striking one: the honored dead, Onias and Jeremiah, standing before God with hands outstretched, praying for the living people of God. Onias, long dead, prays for the community; Jeremiah, the prophet, is described as the lover of his people who prays much for them and for the holy city. The dead, in this vision, are not indifferent to the living; they are pictured as caring for God's people and interceding for them before God. This passage is one the tradition has long drawn on for the truth of the communion of saints, the conviction that those who have gone before us in faith are not cut off from us, but remain part of the one people of God, and that their love and prayer continue. There is comfort and encouragement in this. We can feel alone in our struggles, as though the whole weight of the battle rested on us and the faithful who have died were simply gone, indifferent, absent. This vision suggests otherwise: that we are surrounded, as another passage says, by a great cloud of witnesses, that the faithful who have gone before remain bound to us in the one body of Christ, caring for us, and that their prayers, like Onias's and Jeremiah's for their people, are part of the support that upholds us. We do not fight alone; the communion of the faithful, living and departed, is larger than we see, and its love and intercession surround us. Judas took courage from the knowledge that holy ones who had died were praying for his people; and there is courage for us, too, in the truth that we are held within a great fellowship of faith, upheld by the prayers of the saints, and never as alone as we feel.

When I feel alone in my struggles, as though the faithful who have died were simply gone and the whole weight rested on me, can I take encouragement from this vision of Onias and Jeremiah praying for their people, that I am held within a great communion of the faithful, living and departed, whose love and intercession surround me, so that I never fight as alone as I feel?