The institutional hierarchical structure of the historical Body of the Church – This is the icon of the Kingdom of God. And the essence of the icon – the archetype – Hypostasis of Jesus Christ (Kingdom of God – Jesus Christ, revealed by the Holy Spirit and witnessed by the Father). In the icon there are many details, which in themselves lose sense, and which acquire significance, meaning only when they serve the main purpose of the existence of the icon – to point to the archetype, that is, to the Hypostasis. Therefore, everything that is in the Church (institutes, hierarchy, various services, canons, dogmas, etc.), as elements of the Icon (take their existence in
Eucharist – naturally flow from it) serve the revelation of the Kingdom of God, being its imprint in history…
I put three dots on this quote (for more on the hierarchy, administrative-institutional dimension of the Church, talk to Metropolitan Ioan, Father Alexander, Christos… or write to me by e-mail about what interests or tempts you, let’s try to shed light together on the questions that naturally arise, or on misunderstandings, etc.) and briefly summarize – what I wanted to say by all this, what we have discussed in this chapter. (And generally – when someone says something, he speaks with a certain purpose – he wants to convey some main idea; he may make various excursions, build various schemes, bring arguments, illustrations – but the essence is not in them themselves, but in what the author wanted to say with these techniques, or to what conclusions he led the listeners, what conclusions he wanted to make himself or to which conclusions the listeners were supposed to come. Therefore, to benefit from the conversation, you need to get to the essence of what was said, to the conclusions – and, if it is not clear from the conversation itself, ask the author what he meant by all this, what purpose he pursued by saying these words). What I wanted to say is this:
In the Eucharist (Church) we partake not in patriarchates, dioceses.., but in a specific community (parish) of a certain diocese, patriarchate. To be a member of the Church – is to be a parishioner of a specific local community. The parish – is a community of people, which unites them – the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ (in them the same God-man nature) and one Holy Spirit (one will – one life of the Most Holy Trinity). The parish – is a community of Christians who live with one mouth and one heart – one single Nature united in the Hypostasis of Jesus Christ and one Life, one will in the hypostatic diversity of the grace of the Holy Spirit. To touch the Body of the Church, to experience the Church can only be in a parish, a specific local (of a certain locality – village, city, etc.) community of Christians who have gathered for the Eucharist, the actualization of the Mystery of the Church, the Kingdom of God. We join the Church and actualize our membership in it only in the parish at the Eucharist, not in the office or chancellery of the patriarchate or diocese. Therefore, when we want to understand the essence of the Church, we must speak primarily about a specific parish, a community of Christians of a certain place, who live the Eucharistic life (and not about administrative-territorial formations, institutes, hierarchies, and various fleshly interactions – not about the form, which is a natural organic formation, an icon of the Eucharist, the Mystery of the Kingdom of God (which can be experienced (partaken) only in a parish, together with other parishioners)! If we understand the essence of the Church, its ‘DNA’, genotype, – this can be achieved only by living as a member (atom, molecule) of a specific cell-parish of the Body, the Eucharistic community, – only then can we realize (as a result of knowing-experience, not rational thoughts and intellectual conclusions) the entire complex structure of the Body with its institutions, hierarchies, orders, services, etc. Therefore, to talk about the Church – is primarily to talk about a parish, a specific Eucharistic community!
Therefore, where Christ is – there is the catholic Church. Christ at every local (parish) Eucharist (‘where two or three are gathered in His name’. – see above); each parish has the fullness of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. To be in the Church (in the Body of Christ) = to be in the parish (in the cell of the Body)! To be a Christian = to be a parishioner! That is, an organic member of a specific community and to actualize your membership in the gathering of the parish into the Church, that is, at the Eucharist (according to the spiritual rhythm of the parish life, but not less than once a week – on the Day of Resurrection (on Sunday); note that Mary of Egypt and similar to her hermits- monks (in whom the interval between communion of the Eucharist was measured not in weeks, but in years) – are exceptions, which confirm the rule (they are ‘failures’, who did ‘homework’ for a very long time, or so long assimilated, ‘digested’ the consumed Food- Eucharist – they are ‘abnormal’)).