Page 141 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

C O N C LU S I O N S
communion of those who repent. It is not the presence of sin
that estranges us, but the refusal of repentance.
Third, although this experience is given primarily in the
sacraments, it does not remain confined to them. It extends
into the whole of life—into our relationships, our decisions,
and even our engagement with the material world. The sacra-
ments offer us an image of the Kingdom, and this image be-
comes the measure of all things. Every act is silently weighed
against what has been revealed to us as the true life.
In this light, humility becomes the natural atmosphere of
ecclesial life. Recognizing our own fragmentation, we cease to
judge others. Instead, we learn to love—quietly, patiently,
without self-justification. These are not merely ethical de-
mands imposed from without, but the organic fruits of the
sacramental life itself. The sacraments reveal the eschatologi-
cal fullness, and by that very revelation they become the cri-
terion by which all things are discerned.
Thus, the Church is experienced as a continual liberation—
from illusion, from self-deception, from egocentrism and iso-
lation, and ultimately from corruption and death. Yet this
liberation is not automatic. It calls for vigilance, for struggle,
for a steady attentiveness of the heart.
These brief observations can only gesture toward the depth
of the Church’s mystery. Like all such realities, it cannot be
grasped by thought alone, but must be lived. And the experi-
ence upon which all authentic understanding rests is, above
all, the sacramental experience—the one shared, in differing
measure, by all the faithful.
For, as Nicholas Cabasilas reminds us with luminous sim-
plicity: “The Church is made known in the mysteries.” And it
is through these mysteries that the Church becomes not mere-
ly something we speak about, but something we live—both
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