[19] Ibid., pp. 10, 33.

[20] Wensinck, hom. II, p. 8-9.

[21] Ibid.

[22] Homily 90, ed. Russian Athos Panteleiaopov Monastery, vyn. II, pp. 488-489.

[23] PG, t. 160, col. 1225-1227.

[24] Homily 57, 2, ed. Russian Athos Panteleimon Monastery, vyp. II, p. 37.

[25] Ibid.

[26] Ed. Theotoki, LXXXIV, p. 480-481; Wensinck, XXVII, P. 136.

[27] PG, t. 34, col. 544 D.

[28] Homily 27.

Chapter XII. CONCLUSION. THE FEAST OF THE KINGDOM

In the introduction to our book, we emphasized the inner and indissoluble connection between theology and mysticism, between dogmatic teaching and spiritual life. We can consider the spiritual life only in the light of dogmas, because dogmas are its outward expression, the only objective evidence of experience confirmed by the Church. By virtue of the catholicity of the Christian tradition, the experience of individuals and the general experience of the Church are identical. And Christian tradition is not only the totality of dogmas, sacred institutions and rites preserved by the Church, but, first of all, that which is expressed in these external forms; it is a living tradition, it is an unceasing revelation of the Holy Spirit in the Church, a life to which each of its members can partake in his own measure. To be in tradition means to participate experientially in the revealed mysteries of the Church. Dogmatic tradition is the landmarks established by the Church on the path and knowledge of God, while mystical tradition is the acquired experience of the mysteries of faith; they cannot be separated from each other or opposed to each other. We cannot understand dogma outside of experience, we cannot have the fullness of experience outside of true teaching. That is why we wanted to present in these pages the tradition of the Eastern Church as a mystical theology, as a teaching and experience that condition each other.

We have consistently examined the basic principles of Orthodox theology, never losing sight of the ultimate goal - our union with God. Directed towards this goal, always deliberately soteriological, this dogmatic tradition appeared to us completely homogeneous, despite the richness and diversity of its experience, despite the diversity of the epochs and cultures it embraced. It is a single spiritual family, in which we can easily recognize the kinship of its members, although they are separated from each other both in time and space. Bearing witness to one and the same spiritual vision, we could refer to Dionysius the Areopagite and St. Gregory Palamas, to St. Macarius of Egypt and St. Seraphim of Sarov, to St. Gregory of Nyssa and Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow, to St. Maximus the Confessor and contemporary Russian theologians, and passing from one epoch to another, we did not feel a change in the "spiritual climate." For the Church, in which human persons fulfill their calling, in which their union with God takes place, is always the same, despite the fact that her "oikonomia" in relation to the external world must change according to the different epochs and different environments in which the Church carries out her mission. The Fathers and Teachers of the Church, who at different historical moments had to defend and formulate different dogmas, nevertheless belong to one and the same Tradition, for they are witnesses to the same experience. This tradition remained common to the East and to the West as long as the Church bore clear witness to the truths pertaining to the Incarnation. But the dogmas that seem to be more hidden, as if more mysterious, those that relate to Pentecost, to the teaching about the Holy Spirit, about grace, about the Church, are no longer common to the Church of Rome and the Churches of the East. Here two separate traditions are opposed to each other. And even that which up to a certain moment was common in retrospect acquires a different bias, now appears in a different light, as the spiritual realities of different spiritual experiences. Now St. Basil the Great, for example, or Blessed Augustine are interpreted in different ways, depending on whether they are viewed in the light of Roman Catholic tradition or Orthodox tradition. This is inevitable, for we can recognize the authority of some ecclesiastical author only in the spirit of the tradition to which we ourselves belong. In our essay we have tried to emphasize aspects characteristic of the tradition of the Orthodox Church, based exclusively on the testimony of the Eastern Fathers, in order to avoid any possible confusion or misunderstanding.

In the course of our study of the mystical theology of the Eastern Church, we have repeatedly had to state the apophatic position inherent in this religious way of thinking. As we have seen, the negations that point to God's unknowability do not forbid knowledge; Apophaticism, far from being a limitation, forces us to transcend all concepts, every field of philosophical speculation. It is an aspiration to an ever-increasing fullness that transforms knowledge into ignorance, conceptual theology into contemplation, and dogmas into the experience of ineffable mysteries. It is also an existential theology, involving the whole man, placing him on the path of union with God, forcing him to change, to transform his nature, in order to reach the true "gnosis" – the contemplation of the Most Holy Trinity. However, "change of mind," metanoia, means repentance. The apophatic path of Eastern theology is the repentance of the human person before the Face of the Living God. It is an incessant change of the human being, striving towards the fullness of his revelation, towards union with God, accomplished by the Divine grace and freedom of man. But the fullness of the Godhead, the final completion to which created persons aspire, is revealed in the Holy Spirit. He is the Mystery Guide on the apophatic path, where the negations indicate the presence of the Ineffable, the Unlimited, the Absolute Fullness. He is the secret tradition in the open tradition and "preached on the housetops." It is a mystery hidden in the teaching of the Church, although it imparts to it its certainty, inner certainty, life, warmth, and light, which are inherent in Christian truth.