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but not simply in the form of the epiclesis in the Liturgy, but the Holy Spirit
reveals and ful?ls the eschatological nature of the whole sacrament. Indeed, the
Orthodox understanding of Holy Spirit in the Eucharist is highly signi?cant. It
is the Holy Spirit who manifests the bread as the body and the wine as the
blood of Christ. However, in the Orthodox, it is clear that this has less to do
with having a preference for one consecratory formula over another, say, the
words of institution, but more to do with having a well-developed theology of
the Holy Spirit and its connection to the whole of the Eucharist. Indeed, the
neglect of the Spirit is often commented on as characteristic of the West, as
Catholic theologian, Thomas Rausch observes.34 Unfortunately, this neglect
brings consequences, and a narrow and diminished theology of the kingdom
and Eucharist is one of them. This neglect also becomes intensi?ed if we con-
sider that ‘the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is central for understanding not only
the nature and unity of the church, local and universal, but also the totality of
God’s saving action in history and in creation’.35 As regards how the Spirit and
the kingdom are related, it is worth quoting Schmemann in full on this point:

‘His coming, His action, means always the ful?llment of the escha-
ton, the coming of the new aeon, the last Day. And in the Eucha-
rist, which is the Sacrament of the Church, the epiclesis means
that the ultimate transformation has become possible only be-
cause of our entrance into heaven, our being in the eschaton, in the
day of Pentecost which is the day after and beyond the seventh
day, the day which is beyond time, the day of the Spirit.’36

Certainly, Schmemann emphasises the fullness and sense of completion
in the Church having ascended into heaven, to have entered the eschaton, and is
thus manifest as the Kingdom of God through the Spirit. This is even more the
case when we consider that ‘where the Church is, there the Holy Spirit is, and
where the Holy Spirit, there the Kingdom of God is’.37 There is a strong sense
of the Church having already ‘fully arrived’ in the Orthodox. Here the ‘realized’
eschatology of the Eucharist is most visible, for the Church reveals the ‘original
world of God’s creation which has already been saved by Christ.’38 Indeed, the
way the Liturgy, and so in the Orthodox sense, the Church, is understood, it

34 Rausch, Eschatology, Liturgy, and Christology, p. 71.
35 Ion Bria, The Liturgy after the Liturgy (Geneva: WCC Publications, 1996), p. 76.
36 Schmemann, Liturgy and Tradition, p. 113.
37 Schmemann, The Eucharist, p. 36.
38 Schmemann, The Eucharist, p. 35.

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