Page 389 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

T H E D U T Y A N D P O S S I B I L I T I E S O F O R T H O D O X Y I N T H E FA C E O F T H E M O D E R N WO R L D
not opposed to man but embraced and offered. Bread, wine,
matter, and the senses participate in a unified reality. The
world is not an object to be dominated, but a gift to be received
and transfigured. In this lies a profound response to both tech-
nological domination and ecological crisis. The Eucharist
manifests a relationship with creation marked by reverence,
communion, and sanctification.
Finally, Orthodoxy offers the ascetic ethos as a necessary
corrective to modern culture. The contemporary human be-
ing, enslaved by consumerism and the pursuit of pleasure, has
forgotten that he is not the master of creation but its steward
and priest. The ascetic tradition—expressed in fasting, re-
straint, and offering—reminds us that life is not possession
but communion. It teaches that true freedom is found not in
domination, but in self-limitation and love.
In all this, Orthodoxy brings to the modern world not a
system of ideas, but a way of existence: a vision of communion
rooted in the Holy Trinity, embodied in the Eucharist, ex-
tended to creation, and sustained through ascetic life. In this
vision lies its decisive contribution to a world standing at the
edge of its own limits.
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