BOOK REVIEW: ‘For the Life of the World’ by Alexander Schemann

I was quite surprised at how much I learnt from this very small book, and almost taken aback by the broad and real vision which Schemann brings to everything our Orthodox church does.

This book refreshes and admonishes our modern church through its holistic explanations of the sacraments. And at the end of it all, we find ourselves asking: How do we perceive the church as performing sacraments? Is it just an act the church does that has lent itself its identity? Do we perform these sacraments simply to uphold traditions?

What is it namely, that we are trying to do as the Orthodox church?

These are the questions which Schemann addresses, and the answer to it stems from how we fundamentally perceive the Action of Christ through his Death and Resurrection, and how this has effected the way we perceive time. We are used to the preaching that the fullness of time will come at the Second coming of Christ, but also contradict ourselves when we say that our Church is heaven on Earth, or when we say that God has defeated death and has made all alive in Christ(1 Cor. 15:20-22). In other words, why are we waiting? What is this so called Second coming that will be any different to the now of the moment, after all prophecies have been fulfilled? For the reality is, if we excuse all our actions for the sake of preparing for our eternal life, and if we live without doing anything, or committing our best against the forces of evil, we delude ourselves into thinking Heaven as some holiday resort. But we are supposed to reign with Christ (2 Tim. 2:12). Let us hear Schemann’s take:

“There is no time because Christianity, on the one hand, made it impossible for man to live in the old natural time, broke beyond repair the cycle of the eternal return. It has announced the fullness of time, revealed time as history and fulfillment, and has truly poisoned us once for all with the dream of a meaningful time. There is no time, on the other hand, because having announced all this, Christianity abandoned time, invited Christians simply to leave it and to think of eternity as of an eternal rest (if not yet “relaxation”).”

If the true life really starts after we die, then all time here on earth is absolutely meaningless, it is left un-sanctified. We then view time as merely a waiting period, but this is absolutely horrifying. Time is such a precious gift that has been bestowed on us, and to pass it on as merely a temporary struggle, like working towards retirement, is a deep misunderstanding. Christ did not go to ‘rest’ after his ascension, but actually continued to serve, by appearing before his disciples and spreading the Good News. For Love never rests, and is always fighting against Evil, fighting for itself because it is Truth and everything that is not born from Love is borne from darkness.

And so our Sunday Liturgy, on the day of the Sabbath, the day of rest, clearly does not mean that it is about rest, nor is it just a day dedicated to the Lord where we all leave work and sacrifice everything(why do we do this anyway?).

“Sunday therefore was not a “sacred” day to be ‘observed’ apart from all other days and opposed to them. It did not interrupt time with a ‘timeless’ mystical ecstasy. It was not a ‘break’ in an otherwise meaningless sequence of days and nights. By remaining one of the ordinary days, and yet by revealing itself through the Eucharist as the eighth and first day, it gave all days their true meaning. It made the time of this world a time of the end, and it made it also the time of the beginning.”

So when we perform the Sacraments, what are we aiming for? We are aiming for the Kingdom, we are entering into the joy of our Lord – forget about piety! The true meaning of performing these sacraments is not to fulfil some kind of mere service which the Church may offer, but they are truly our “…witness to Christ in the world.” We are so joyful in our performing these sacraments for they have not only sanctified us, but also given meaning to time itself.

As Schemann points out:

“The purpose of this book is a humble one. It is to remind its readers that in Christ, life—life in all its totality—was returned to man, given again as sacrament and communion, made Eucharist.”

If the sacraments are a testimony and a witness to Christ, whereby Christ “…inaugurated a new life, not a new religion”, then our performing them cannot be treated as a religion.