Page 41 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

T H E E U C H A R I S T I C E X P E R I E N C E O F T H E C H U R C H
incorporated by the Spirit.
For this reason, the Eucharist is life eternal—not simply
because it promises immortality, but because it gives us an
identity that cannot be destroyed by death. To belong to the
Eucharistic community is to receive an eternal mode of exis-
tence.
Here, spirituality takes on its true meaning. It is no longer
a matter of moral improvement or psychological experience,
but an ontological transformation. It is the overcoming of
death through communion, the participation in a life that is
not our own, but is given to us in Christ. As the Apostle says,
we receive “the Spirit of sonship,” by which we cry, “Abba!
Father!” (Romans 8:15). To be spiritual, therefore, is to share
in the very relationship that Christ has with the Father.
This Eucharistic life is inherently communal. One cannot
relate to God in isolation. The relationship with God passes
through the other, through the community. In the Divine Lit-
urgy, we do not gather as individuals engaged in private prayer,
but as members of one Body. Even when one stands in silence,
one stands within communion. The person next to us is not
an obstacle to prayer, but the very condition of it.
For this reason, any attempt to reduce the Eucharist to an
individual or inward experience distorts its nature. The Eu-
charist is communion—koinonia—and this communion
binds us inseparably to God and to one another.
At the same time, this communion does not abolish order,
but reveals it. The Eucharistic gathering is also hierarchical,
not in the sense of domination, but in the sense of ordered
relationships that manifest the Kingdom. As the Apostle Paul
teaches, the Church is one body with many members, each
with a distinct and irreplaceable role (cf. 1 Corinthians 12).
Ministries exist not for themselves, but as icons of the escha-
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