Page 39 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

C H R I S M AT I O N A N D T H E G I F T O F T H E H O LY S P I R I T
charist does not consist simply in administering them succes-
sively to the individual, but in introducing the newly baptized
into the assembly of the faithful.
For the early Church, the Eucharist was not merely the
food of immortality given to each individual, but the synaxis
of the people of God, the ἐκκλησία τοῦ Θεοῦ. Through Chris-
mation, each baptized person becomes a member of this roy-
al people, a λαϊκός. It is therefore natural that he immediately
enters the eucharistic assembly, taking his proper τάξις within
the community that has been called and gathered by God.
In this way, Confirmation reveals its true meaning: not as
a completion of something lacking, nor as an individual act,
but as the gift of the Spirit that incorporates the baptized into
the royal people of God and leads him into the communion
of the Eucharist, where the Church becomes what she is.
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