Page 397 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

T O WA R D A L I V I N G C AT E C H E S I S : C O N C LU S I O N
the Fathers.
There exists a language that expresses the deepest and most
enduring existential longings of the human being—a language
that theology can and must use if it desires that the word of
the Church become understandable, accepted, and above all
fruitful. This is the language of love, of cruciform self-empty-
ing, of understanding—a language for which the human being
has such great need amid the tragic dead ends of life.
Those who shoot arrows from a height only widen the gap
between the Church and the world. To the Lord’s question,
“Who do people say that I asm?”, the modern human being—
due to a theological language that we have uncritically ad-
opted from elsewhere—responds either by saying that Christ
is uninteresting, because He offers nothing in the face of their
dead ends, or that He imposes an unbearable yoke and burden
which they cannot carry.
Very few today would recognize Christ as “meek and low-
ly in heart,” as the Good Samaritan who “pours oil and wine”
upon the wounds of humanity. In other words, the language
of theology must once again recover its existential meaning
and significance, and cease to remain foreign to the anguished
questions of the modern human being.
Thus, the Church remains a caring companion to the deep-
est existential needs of the human being—offering not an-
swers imposed from without, but life itself: communion, free-
dom, and resurrection.
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