Cabasilas & Schmemann: Talking about Communion

In the introduction to The Life in Christ, Boris Bobrinskoy repeatedly claims that Cabasilas sees the Eucharistic communion as the layman’s communion in Christ. I had an immediate and negative reaction to such statements due to my aversion to the false dichotomy between “lay” and monastic spirituality, but especially in the current climate of quarantine at home and isolation from the parish and Eucharistic communion, a time of sharpened attention to communion and what that means when we do not have the Eucharistic communion.

I will admit that I attempted to prove Bobrinskoy wrong and to find references from Cabasilas that would also support communion with Christ in other ways outside of the Eucharist. Certainly, Cabasilas speaks of union with Christ in our heart, but I will have to concede that the Eucharist is his focal point:

“So perfect is this Mystery [the Eucharist], so far does it excel every other sacred rite that it leads to the very summit of good things. Here also is the final goal of every human endeavour. For in it we obtain God Himself, and God is united with us in the most perfect union, for what attachment can be more complete than to become one spirit with God? Wherefore the Eucharist, alone of sacred rites, supplies perfection to the other Mysteries.”

Cabasilas would say, however, that we must take care to not treat the moment of the Eucharist entering our mouths as communion with Christ, but rather a whole life of living in that communion and preparation for the next reception of the Gifts. “It is reasonable to conclude that the [Eucharist] is more perfect, since it is not obtained save by many and noble efforts.”

That is the life in Christ.

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