Page 247 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

M O N A S T I C I S M I N T H E L I F E O F T H E C H U R C H
Monasticism in the Life of the Church
From this renewed attention to holiness as an ecclesial and
eucharistic reality, Orthodox theology is led naturally to
reconsider the place of monasticism, as the ascetical and es-
chatological witness within the life of the Church.
A Church without monasticism is unthinkable. Yet monas-
ticism outside the Church becomes a distortion, even a de-
monic construction. Monasticism can be understood rightly
only when it is seen in relation to the very nature of the
Church, for both share one decisive characteristic: both are
icons of the eschaton, signs of the Kingdom to come.
If this common characteristic weakens or is lost, then the
relationship between monasticism and the Church is dis-
turbed, and deviation toward secularism or heresy becomes
unavoidable. The Church that loses her eschatological orienta-
tion loses her identity, and the same is true of monasticism.
The Church is in the world but not of the world. Her true
homeland is not history, but the Kingdom of God, what she
shall be in the end: “For here we have no continuing city, but
we seek the one to come” (Heb. 13:14), and “our citizenship is
in heaven” (Phil. 3:20).
This eschatological reality is experienced above all in the
Divine Eucharist. In the Eucharist the Church lives the Resur-
rection and anticipates the end times. From the Acts of the
Apostles to the earliest liturgical texts, the Eucharist is marked
by joy and exultation. Hence the brightness of liturgical vest-
ments and the light-filled churches of Orthodox worship are
not accidental. Even on Mount Athos, the ascetic center par
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