The Spirit and the Church.

In Byzantine liturgical language, the term koinonia (“communion”) is the specific expression designating the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Eucharistic community and one of the key notions in Basil’s treatise on the Holy Spirit.²⁰ This observation is important inasmuch as it emphasizes that the “communion” of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit as divine Trinity the “communion of the Holy Spirit” which introduces man into divine life, and the “communion,” or “community,” which is then created between men in Christ are not only designated with the same term but ultimately represent the same spiritual experience and reality. The Church is not simply a society of human beings associated with each other by common beliefs and goals; it is a koinonia in God and with God. And if God Himself was not a Trinitarian koinonia, if He was not three Persons, the Church could never be an association of persons irreducible to each other in their personal identity. Participation in divine life would be nothing more than a Neo-Platonic or Buddhist integration into an impersonal “One.”

The very specific “oneness” realized in the Eucharistic koinonia, is, par excellence, a gift of the Spirit.

One of the recurring themes in the Byzantine hymnography of Pentecost is a parallel drawn between the “confusion” of Babel and the “union” and “symphony” effected by the descent of the Spirit in tongues of fire: “When the Most High came down and confused the tongues, He divided the nations; but when He distributed the tongues of fire, He called all to unity. Therefore, with one voice, we glorify the all-holy Spirit.”²¹ The Spirit does not suppress the pluralism and variety of creation; nor, more particularly, does He exclude the truly personal experience of God, accessible to each man; He overcomes division, contradiction, and corruption. He Himself is the “symphony” of creation which can be fully realized in the eschatological fulfilment. The Church’s function is to render this fulfilment accessible by anticipation through its role of “sanctification” effected by the Spirit.

“Creation is sanctified,” Basil writes, “and the Spirit is the Sanctifier. In the same manner, the angels, the archangels and all the super celestial powers receive their sanctity from the Spirit. But the Spirit Himself possesses sanctity by nature. He does not receive it by grace but essentially; hence, He is distinctively called Holy. Thus, He is holy by nature as the Father and the Son are holy by nature.”²² The mysterious but overwhelming role of the Spirit in the “economy” of salvation cannot be expressed fully other than by this suggestive tautology: the Holy Spirit “sanctifies,” i.e., He creates a koinonia of man with God, and, hence, of men between themselves as a “community of saints.” It is best expressed in the “anaphora of St. Basil” — celebrated ten times each year in the Byzantine Church — at the most solemn moment of the epiclesis:

We pray Thee and call upon Thee, Ο Holy of Holies, that, by the favour of Thy goodness, Thy Holy Spirit may come upon us and upon the gifts now offered, to bless, to hallow, and to show this bread to be the precious Body of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, and this cup to be the precious Blood of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, shed for the life of the world, and [that the Spirit may] unite all of us to one another who become partakers of the one Bread and Cup in the communion [koinonia] of the Holy Spirit.

Each one individually having been baptized “in the death of Christ” and having received the “seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit” in the sacrament of chrismation faithfully participates with otheres together in the mystery of the Eucharist. The existence of their koinonia is both a condition of the Eucharistic miracle — the Spirit is being invoked not only on the “gifts” but “upon us and upon the gifts” — and its consequence: the Spirit sanctifies the gifts so that the koinonia may become an always-renewed reality.

The role of the Spirit in transforming a community of sinners into the “Church of God” is distinct but not essentially different from His role in creation; for the “new Adam,” being a “new creation” is also an anticipation of the universal transfiguration of the world, which is the ultimate intent and goal of God’s creative activity. Byzantine liturgy and theology are always aware of the fact that “by the Holy Spirit every living thing receives life,”²³ and that therefore as the new temple of the Spirit the Church is invested with a divine mission to the world. It does not receive the Spirit for its own sake but in order to accomplish God’s purpose in human history and in the whole cosmos. The parallelism as well as the difference between the “first” and the “new” creation is well expressed by Nicholas Cabasilas: “[God] does not create anew out of the same matter which He has created in the beginning. Then, He made use of the dust of the earth; today He calls upon His own body. He restores life to us not by forming anew a vital principle which He formerly maintained in the natural order but by shedding His blood in the hearts of communicants so that He may cause His own life to spring in them. Of old He breathed a breath of life; now He imparts to us His own Spirit.”²⁴

“New creation” implies mission to the world; hence the Church is always “apostolic,” i.e., not only founded on the faith of those who saw the risen Lord, but assuming their function of “being sent” to announce and establish the Kingdom of God. And this mission receives its authenticity from the Spirit. The Byzantine hymns for Pentecost glorify Christ “who has made the fishermen most wise by sending down upon them the Holy Spirit and through them has drawn the world into His net.”²⁵

The Spirit has bestowed upon the Church its “apostolicity” since the day of Pentecost; and only through the Spirit can the Church preserve consistency and continuity with the original Christian Gospel. The various ministries, created by the Spirit in the Christian koinonia even more particularly that of the episcopate, are meant to maintain and structure this continuity thus assuring the purity and effectiveness of the Church’s mission in the world.

Date: 2016-01-14; view: 502