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seems that everything is achieved, having already become eternal in some sense.
Its orientation seems concerned with complete presence, which is perhaps in-
evitable when we consider that the Church, as the new creation, is also the end
of the former and corrupt world. However, it is also clear that more is yet to
come, and the attempt to interpret the Liturgy and its ecclesiology through the
lens of ‘already and not yet’ has its limitations in what seems like a realised es-
chatology. But, in fact, to characterise it as such would be to ignore the much
bigger picture in which it operates, and so misunderstand it completely. The
ecclesiology and theology of the Liturgy needs to be held together with the
liturgical experience and life of prayer, where the original world of God is never
severed from the end for which it was created.39

The Holy Spirit is also described as the ‘pledge of future inheritance’,
and ‘the ?rst fruits of eternal blessing’.40 Schmemann also speaks of the king-
dom as already here and now for those who believe, where the kingdom is
more ‘real’ than anything else around us. Here, he also points to Christ’s second
coming, when all people will recognise the true king of the world.41 It seems
that a more instructive approach to the relation of eschatology to the Eucha-
rist is to consider the Eucharist in the ways it is the ‘?rst fruits’ of the ?nal
Kingdom. Wainwright also does this in this study.42 This approach also accords
well with the overall eschatological perspective of the New Testament. In
thinking of the Eucharist in connection to ‘?rst-fruits’, we can see how the
Church, manifest as the new creation, is a ?rst-fruit of God’s ultimate salvation
for the whole world, and thus its missionary purpose and call is clear in this
respect. John of Damascus also writes on how the bread is the ?rst-fruits of the
bread to come, which is the supersubstantial bread.43 His acknowledgement of
the role and action of the Holy Spirit is also signi?cant here: ‘since the ?esh of
the Lord was conceived of the life-giving Spirit, it is itself life-giving spirit (…)
and has a life-giving and divine character’.44 He adds ‘it is also called communion,
and truly is so, because of our having communion through it with Christ and
partaking both of his ?esh and his divinity’.45 Thus, not only does the risen Je-

39 Schmemann, The Eucharist, p. 35.
40 Schmemann, The Eucharist, p. 36.
41 Schmemann, The Eucharist, p. 41.
42 See third chapter on the Eucharist as ?rst-fruits of the Kingdom in Wainwright’s book, Eucharist
and Eschatology.
43 Saint John of Damascus, Orthodox Faith: Book Four, from Writings, p. 360.
44 Saint John of Damascus, Orthodox Faith: Book Four, from Writings, p. 360.
45 Saint John of Damascus, Orthodox Faith: Book Four, from Writings, p. 361.

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