All church holidays would be meaningless if Pascha did not exist. For if Christ had not risen, all other Gospel events could be viewed only in a historical context and would have no value other than moral and cultural. We say that every Christian holiday belongs to eternity because Easter spiritually imbues it. Eternity is present in our time, and we become true participants in this celebration.
The same can be said of the Liturgy, which rises above all other services. If the Liturgy did not exist, there would be no point in celebrating any services at all, because without the Liturgy, the Church as such would not exist.
Therefore, the story about the Eucharist (from the Greek word “ευχαριστία” – thanksgiving) will go in parallel with the story about the Church, about what it represents and how the Church and the Eucharist are connected to each other.
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When we approach Holy Baptism, whether as adults or infants, the priest asks us or our godparents, "Do you believe in God? Have you been united with Christ?" And we answer that we have been united with Christ and believe in Him as King and God. Thus we swear to serve the Lord.
Immediately following our answer , the Creed is read , listing what we believe in. Specifically, the Creed includes the following words: "I believe in one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church ." This must be understood: along with faith in God, we also profess our faith in the Church. No other religious system besides Christianity has such a concept as "faith in the Church." According to the Catechism of Saint Philaret Drozdov (1782/1783 – 1867), the Church is a society of people united by a common faith and common rituals. However, the same can be said of any religious association, for example, Muslim or Jewish. One can belong to such a society and engage in the performance of rituals based on the tenets of faith, but one cannot believe in this society itself. Neither of these is what the Church becomes for Christians.
So what does it mean to believe in the Church? We don't profess an obligation to attend church on Sundays and holidays, nor do we promise God to fast, confess, and receive Holy Communion. For Christians, the Church is more than just a place where they commune with God, because they can commune with Him at home, on the subway, in the forest—anywhere and at any time. Believing in the Church means confessing that it is the Body of Christ, of which we are a part.
Apostle Paul writes about this: “For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” ( 1 Cor. 12:12-13 ) and adds: “And you are the body of Christ, and members individually” ( 1 Cor. 12:27 ).
A severed body part cannot survive independently. When speaking of a living organism, we mean a single, indivisible body in which the human and the divine are united. The Church is a mysterious gathering of people where the union of God and man occurs, where a single divine-human organism is born.
We come to the Church to become part of it, to become its essence, its very being. The Church makes us consubstantial with Christ, because we are its body, and He is its Head. At the same time, as the newly glorified Serbian saint and great theologian Justin Popović (1894–1978) said, the Church itself is the God-Man Jesus Christ . It is we with Christ.
In this case, it becomes clear that simply being present in the Church, simply following certain external rules, or simply knowing certain dogmas is clearly insufficient. What's at stake is a life journey that Orthodox Christians call faith.
Christ teaches: "I am the way, the truth, and the life" ( John 14:6 ). The same can be said of the Church: the Church is the way, the Church is the truth, the Church is the life of man in faith, and this is the meaning of Christianity.
Finally, we confess not simply the existence of God; we believe not only that God is a Person who created the world, that there is a certain relationship between Him and man, that there are certain rules that must be followed in anticipation of rewards after death. All of this is characteristic of any religious view, even the most primitive, and is not the true meaning of the Christian faith. Our hope lies in the salvation of man in eternal life, united with God. Eternal life is abiding in God, union with Him, and the deification of man, when he himself becomes a god. This is the true meaning of the Christian faith, without resorting to complex theological definitions.
The Church makes us co-natural with God. Apostle Peter wrote about this: "His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature" ( 2 Pet. 1:3-4 ). These words often go unnoticed by us, but they constitute the essence of all the apostolic epistles: we must become partakers of the Divine Nature. Saint Seraphim of Sarov also spoke of the same thing, albeit somewhat differently : "We must acquire the Holy Spirit."
The meaning of the Christian life is to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to become one with the Lord, to unite with Him. When this happens, our time on earth becomes meaningful, and life becomes truly spiritual.
The significance of the Church lies in the fact that man is incapable of attaining God in any other way. This is why Christ founded His Church on earth, through which man receives grace, knowledge of God, and communion with God. However, it must be stated that full knowledge of God will always remain impossible for man, because the Lord is absolute, infinite, and eternal, while man is by nature created. Our communion with God does not concern His divine essence, which man can never partake of. Rather, it concerns communion with divine energies of God. God became man in all His fullness, and man becomes the Son of God by grace. It is grace that makes him a God-man.
Only in the Church does man become a God-man, because the Lord grants us the opportunity to partake of His Flesh and His Blood. This is given to us through the great sacrament of the Church, through our life in it, for Christ Himself said, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink" ( John 7:37 ).