ЕВХАРИСТИЈСКА РАДОСТ У ДОГМАТИЦИ ЈУСТИНА ПОПОВИЋА: ОДРАЗ ЈЕДНОГ ПРОТАГОНИСТЕ
EUCHARSTIC JOY IN JUSTIN POPOVIĆ’S DOGMATICS: A REFLECTION OF A PROTAGONIST

Author(s): Đorđe N. Petrović
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Theology and Religion, Eastern Orthodoxy
Published by: Institut za filozofiju i društvenu teoriju
Keywords: Justin Popovic; Eucharist; joy; Bogočovek
Summary/Abstract: The term joy holds a prominent place in the Orthodox life. This term, although present in humanist studies, actually occupies a small space in theological works. Joy as the most positive anthropological state deserves, before all else, an analytical biography: explaining the origin and the ultimate goal joy. Can we imagine let alone live in this world or have faith without joy? The question of joy is an experiment of a personal relationship we seek in the divine-human reality — the Eucharist. The theme of this paper does not exhaust the relation of Dogmatics and Liturgics as much as it rediscovers the term joy as a factor which culminates in both theological disciplines. The doctorate carrying the same title in retrospect represents an attempt to retrieve the unavoidable bond of Dogmatics and Liturgics thus inducing research of the term joy in several domains: Anthropology, Philosophy and Ecumenism. The leading argument is provisionally divided in three parts: 1. Joy – phenomenon of life. The most important characteristic of joy is an integral experience of being as one which became and is transferred from non-being into being. Life itself is joy and as such the constitutive part of conditio humana. The phenomenon of life is particularly questioned in the face of the problem of death and the way of overcoming it. 2. Joy — a state, but also an act (action) toward the true and eternal life, that is, toward the One who is the eternal life — the Lord Jesus Christ. The unity with Christ guarantees the remedy against death and mortality hence providing a quantitativeexistential element. The choice for Christ is a re-establishment of the movement (action) of a being toward the All-being — ὁ ἔσχατος Ἀδὰμ. This choice is not just ethical but an ontological expression of true desire: humanity desires to overcome its non-being by becoming Christ-like (ὁμοιοῦσθαι Θεῷ) in the communion with Christ. However, the question of life resolved in the problem of death is not quantitative in nature only. 3. Joy — an outcome of the divine-human communion in the Eucharist. This result is twofold: in the first instance, the communion with Christ carries existential implications in quantitative categories, and in the second, joy is an event of the order of quality. For the lack of a better expression, joy is an experience of a relationship with Christ in eternity. In Christ, humanity is not merely alive forever, but exists forever in the qualitative sense. Besides, what is the meaning of eternal life without quality, without the greatest excitement of eternal unity with Christ?

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