Eucharistic and Eschatological Aspects in the Understanding of the Personality in the Theology of St. Sophronius of Athos

Authors:

Pages: 19-28
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/PQPP3089

Abstract:

In the theology of St. Sophronius of Athos, the doctrine of the Church and its eschatological perspectives are of great importance for Christian personology. It can certainly be stated that the ascetic's ecclesiology is the connecting link of all segments of his ascetic-experiential understanding of the reality of the personality. In the liturgy, he most clearly sees the all-encompassing nature of the personality, since in it a person learns to master, i.e. to hypostasize within himself the entire world. The liturgy is not simply a historical reminder of the incarnation and the presence of Christ on earth, but an eternal divine-human act that encompasses time and space, and the human personality actually lives its descent and ascension, which actualizes and realizes it in the image of the Person of Christ. For St. Sophrony, the sacrament of the Eucharist is the most concrete expression of the actualization and realization of the human created person. By receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, a person has the opportunity to synergistically participate in the uncreated energies of God, while at the same time becoming a real member of the Church, as a co-corporal and co-blooded person of Christ Himself and His deified human nature and its inherent human actions. Eucharistic communion with the Body and Blood of Christ, however, realizes man-humanity, as every member of the Church is in real communion with every other created person, regardless of time and space. In this way, the three aspects of being are eucharistically realized in the Church, as the understanding of the person goes beyond the boundaries of man's earthly existence and opens the horizons for an eschatological understanding. St. Sophrony discovers the final dimensions of theological personology in the eschatological perspective of ecclesiology. The eschatological horizon allows the human person to be seen as a dynamic being, which in its earthly existence is in constant motion, actualizing the becoming of the person until its full realization in the eschaton. Hence, the person is understood as a being in eternity, which is called to master or personify its fragmented nature, through the unification or synergy with God. Thus, a person already here and now foreshadows the eternal being for which it is destined. The person gains experience, both from temporary existence and from the eternal Kingdom of the Holy Trinity. The possibility for a person to actually experience his personal being, without, however, being able to fully comprehend and articulate it, is an opportunity to actively reveal himself to another person. This testimony before the face of the other gives the person the opportunity to comprehend himself as a category of eternal ontology witnessed by the Eternal Other – Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the eschatological and unshakable Heavenly Kingdom.

Keywords:

Saint Sophronius of Athos, personality, eucharist, eschatology, grace.

Download

NA