the celebrants of life - Schmemann

Fr. Alexander Schmemann

A profound meditation on eucharist as the lens through which we understand all of human life, written by the great (late) Alexander Schmemann, orthodox Dean of St. Vladimir's Seminary:

We already know that food is life, that it is the very principle of life and that the whole world has been created as food for [humanity]. We also know that to offer this food, this world, this life to God is the initial "eucharistic" function of [humanity], [our] very fulfillment as [humans]. We know that we were created as celebrants of the sacrament of life, of its transformation into life in God, communion with God. We know that real life is "eucharist", a movement of love and adoration toward God, the movement in which alone the meaning and value of all that exists can be revealed and fulfilled. We know that we have lost this eucharistic life and, finally, we know that in Christ, the new Adam, the perfect [human], this eucharistic life was restored to [humanity]. For he himself was the perfect Eucharist; he offered himself in total obedience, love and thanksgiving to God. God was his very life. And he gave this perfect and eucharistic life to us. In him, God became our life.