Page 64 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

O r t h o d o x y
This new life is given through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit
brings the eschaton into history. He is the gift of the last days,
the One who reveals and actualizes the Kingdom of God in
the life of the Church. At the same time, He is communion—
the One who gathers persons into a single Body, creating the
Church as the place where divine life is shared.
Thus, the baptism in the Holy Spirit is not an addition to
repentance, but its fulfillment. It is the entrance into the life of
the Church, the participation in the communion of the Spirit,
and ultimately, the sharing in the Kingdom of God.
This participation is realized above all in the Eucharist.
The Eucharist is the Supper of the Kingdom, the place
where those who have passed through the gate of repentance
taste already the joy and life of the age to come. It is for this
reason that the Eucharist is always celebrated as an event of
joy, inseparably linked to the Resurrection, a continual “Sun-
day” in the life of the Church.
Here, the meaning of the Church becomes clear. She is not
an institution among others—not a moral society, a cultural
identity, or a social service. She is the Eucharistic community,
the place where the Holy Spirit gathers us into communion
and gives us a foretaste of the Kingdom.
For this reason, repentance alone—even in its most radical
forms—does not suffice. One may attain great ascetic heights,
even outside the Church, but without participation in the life
of the Body, without communion in the Eucharist, one does
not yet enter into the fullness of life. Salvation is not an indi-
vidual achievement, but participation in communion.
Thus, the Church stands as the necessary horizon of salva-
tion—not as an external authority, but as the very space in
which the Kingdom is made present.
We are therefore called to recover this awareness: to redis-
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