Page 244 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

O r t h o d o x y
not seek personal glory in any way. When one seeks personal
glory, one loses holiness, because in the end no one is holy
except God. Holiness means participation in and communion
with the holiness of God; that is what theosis means. Any
sanctity that hinges on our virtues, morality, qualifications, or
ascetic labors is demonic and has nothing to do with the holi-
ness of the Church.
From this it becomes evident that the par excellence source
of holiness is the Divine Eucharist. There is no holiness other
than that of God, and the saints do not possess any holiness of
their own, but partake of God’s holiness. Thus in the Church
we do not have saints except in the sense of those who have
been sanctified.
When, in the fourth century, the divinity of the Holy Spir-
it was being discussed, Saint Athanasius argued that the Holy
Spirit is God and not a creature because the Holy Spirit does
not receive sanctification but sanctifies. Creatures, including
human beings, do not sanctify; they are sanctified. The same
truth appears in the words of Christ in John’s Gospel: “For
their sake I sanctify Myself, so that they too may be sanctified
in truth.” Spoken in the context of the Passion and read in light
of the Last Supper, these words take on a Eucharistic meaning:
Christ sanctifies Himself in His sacrifice so that we may be
sanctified through communion in His Body and Blood. By
participating in the Divine Eucharist we are sanctified; that is,
we become saints by partaking of the one and only Holy One,
Christ.
Perhaps nowhere in the Christian life is this more clearly
revealed than at the moment before Holy Communion, when
the priest elevates the Precious Body and says: “The holy
things for the holy.” The response of the people sums up the
whole theology of holiness: “One is Holy, One is Lord, Jesus
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