Page 344 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

O r t h o d o x y
in His own person and led it through the Cross—the death of
self-sufficiency—into Resurrection and everlasting life. In
Christ, creation finds again its priest and mediator.
Creation therefore needs a priest who refers it back to the
Creator and opens it to eternal life. Christ fulfills this perfectly,
and humanity participates in this priesthood whenever the
Church celebrates the Eucharist. In the Eucharist the material
world is taken up, offered, blessed, and returned as communion.
Here the true ecological ethos is born: not merely preserving
nature, but opening it to its eschatological destiny.
Outside this eschatological perspective, ecology loses its
deepest meaning. If ecology is reduced to mere survival,
conservation, or technical management, it cannot answer the
deepest question of creation: not only how the world is
preserved, but for what end it exists. Creation longs not simply
for sustainability, but for transfiguration. Only when humanity
rediscovers its priestly role in Christ can ecology become
more than management of resources—becoming instead
participation in the eternal destiny of creation itself.
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