Dare I say that “actualized humans” see Christ as the all in all with no separation between self, God, other, and world. This is a truly cosmic ecclesiology in which our entire life is both liturgical and sacramental - an endless flow of thanksgiving in receiving and bestowing everything as gift and the means by which God’s very life and presence is made manifest and known.
Yes! I do quite enjoy the way you’ve put it. And I would add: the Church in this age is the living image of the fully and eschatologically actualized cosmos.
As image, it could also be said that the Church is itself a sacrament revealing the inherent nature of the world. It isn’t that all are called to simply become Orthodox Christians, but to be truly orthodox, manifesting the love of God which is the very actualization of their inherent nature. This is specifically what the Church as sacramental image points to and reveals.
Each person is called to be the potential Christ that they are. The world is called to be the potential Church that it is. The world is the yet to be actualized Body of Christ that it inherently is, which requires the yet to be actualized Christs that we all inherently are.
What you said here made me think about what names really are, or are supposed to be: symbolic (in the thick sense) modes of revelation. That names can be misused in this age is a temporary confusion, but in the age to come, when all is revealed in and by the Divine Light, this will no longer be possible.
Indeed names can be misused. I think it goes much further and the problem is more serious, as well. That is, instead of names being a mode and means of symbolic revelation, they can be seen as an end in and of themself. This makes an idol out of that which is named - a most grievous error and sin in fact! It is to turn Church into an idolized institution, instead of the symbolic means by which the nature of the world is revealed. It is to turn Christ into an idol, instead of the symbolic means by which the nature of man is revealed. This is a deathly, pharisaical trap the Church and Christians can easily fall into. It’s this misuse of name which leads many Christians to see only their church as the Church and only Christ as God enfleshed, when the truth is that everyone is Christ in potential and the entire world is the Church in potential.
We must be extremely careful not to make idols out of that which is named, but to see names as truly what they are - modes and means of symbolic revelation. When this is seen clearly, the entire world is experienced as sacramental. And the fact is, it never wasn’t. We’ve just lost sight of what has always been the case, no longer seeing ourselves and the world as it truly is.
Additionally, if names are seen as merely symbols of a reality which is entirely transcendental and reserved for “the age to come,” then we also fall short of the actualization of the reality of the immanent presence of that which the symbol points to. Man is not merely an image of Christ to be actualized after death. The Church is not merely an image of the Kingdom of God as the Body of Christ to be actualized in the age to come. The transcendental reality which symbolic names point to is immanently present as potential to be actualized and revealed here and now by our synergistic, co-creative cooperation with God through the grace of the Holy Spirit. This is the whole point of our life and the life of the world. This is the whole point of theosis. This is in fact what salvation is.
Good thoughts! Indeed, the age to come is not one far off in an alien future, but simply the promise of God’s Providence as the archetypal Divine Gardener (which most have, relative to temporal experience, not yet fulfilled in themselves) and a reality into which we can, by the power of the Spirit, be born now consciously.
Your comments about names and idolatry are also very important. Thank you.
Amen! An incredibly beautiful article.
Dare I say that “actualized humans” see Christ as the all in all with no separation between self, God, other, and world. This is a truly cosmic ecclesiology in which our entire life is both liturgical and sacramental - an endless flow of thanksgiving in receiving and bestowing everything as gift and the means by which God’s very life and presence is made manifest and known.
Yes! I do quite enjoy the way you’ve put it. And I would add: the Church in this age is the living image of the fully and eschatologically actualized cosmos.
As image, it could also be said that the Church is itself a sacrament revealing the inherent nature of the world. It isn’t that all are called to simply become Orthodox Christians, but to be truly orthodox, manifesting the love of God which is the very actualization of their inherent nature. This is specifically what the Church as sacramental image points to and reveals.
Each person is called to be the potential Christ that they are. The world is called to be the potential Church that it is. The world is the yet to be actualized Body of Christ that it inherently is, which requires the yet to be actualized Christs that we all inherently are.
What you said here made me think about what names really are, or are supposed to be: symbolic (in the thick sense) modes of revelation. That names can be misused in this age is a temporary confusion, but in the age to come, when all is revealed in and by the Divine Light, this will no longer be possible.
Indeed names can be misused. I think it goes much further and the problem is more serious, as well. That is, instead of names being a mode and means of symbolic revelation, they can be seen as an end in and of themself. This makes an idol out of that which is named - a most grievous error and sin in fact! It is to turn Church into an idolized institution, instead of the symbolic means by which the nature of the world is revealed. It is to turn Christ into an idol, instead of the symbolic means by which the nature of man is revealed. This is a deathly, pharisaical trap the Church and Christians can easily fall into. It’s this misuse of name which leads many Christians to see only their church as the Church and only Christ as God enfleshed, when the truth is that everyone is Christ in potential and the entire world is the Church in potential.
We must be extremely careful not to make idols out of that which is named, but to see names as truly what they are - modes and means of symbolic revelation. When this is seen clearly, the entire world is experienced as sacramental. And the fact is, it never wasn’t. We’ve just lost sight of what has always been the case, no longer seeing ourselves and the world as it truly is.
Additionally, if names are seen as merely symbols of a reality which is entirely transcendental and reserved for “the age to come,” then we also fall short of the actualization of the reality of the immanent presence of that which the symbol points to. Man is not merely an image of Christ to be actualized after death. The Church is not merely an image of the Kingdom of God as the Body of Christ to be actualized in the age to come. The transcendental reality which symbolic names point to is immanently present as potential to be actualized and revealed here and now by our synergistic, co-creative cooperation with God through the grace of the Holy Spirit. This is the whole point of our life and the life of the world. This is the whole point of theosis. This is in fact what salvation is.
Good thoughts! Indeed, the age to come is not one far off in an alien future, but simply the promise of God’s Providence as the archetypal Divine Gardener (which most have, relative to temporal experience, not yet fulfilled in themselves) and a reality into which we can, by the power of the Spirit, be born now consciously.
Your comments about names and idolatry are also very important. Thank you.