Monday, April 27, 2020

In the sacrament Christ the Word becomes our life (Alexander Schmemann)


  [I]n the liturgical and spiritual tradition of the Church, the Church’s essence as the incarnation of the Word, as the fulfillment in time and space of the divine incarnation, is realized precisely in the unbreakable link between the word and the sacrament.  Thus the book of Acts can say of the Church:  the word… grew and multiplied (Acts 12:24). In the sacrament we partake of Him who comes and abides with us in the word, and the mission of the Church consists precisely in announcing this good news.  The word presupposes the sacrament as its fulfillment, for in the sacrament Christ the Word becomes our life.

--Alexander Schmemann, The Eucharist:  Sacrament of the Kingdom

Image source:  Maximino Cerezo Barredo (1932-), Emmaus (2002).  For this and many other striking contemporary images of the supper at Emmaus, visit the following site:  https://artandtheology.org/2017/04/28/the-unnamed-emmaus-disciple-mary-wife-of-cleopas/

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