Quest for the Holy Grail

This is a brief summary of eucharistic writing "The Holy Grail" by Father Sergius Bulgakov, published in a book The Holy Grail & The Eucharist by Lindisfarne Books in 1997. It is full of the most profound spiritual wisdom that is giving ground for thought for all Christians. I highly recommend it!

Bulgakov begins his study by referring to the Gospel of St. John directing our attention to the feature that is absent in the other Evangelists, how Jesus' side was pierced with a spear and forthwith came there out blood and water. He points out how this story is given a special significance: "The man who saw it [the beloved disciple] has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe" (John 19:35 NIV).

Later on Bulgakov explains the nature of blood: "We know that the soul of animals, the power of life of the body, lies in blood." [...]
"Blood is wholly special substance; what is remarkable about it is that psychical and material, living and nonliving being, the animal soul and body, are united in it. The blood is intermediate between spirit and body, between spiritual and material being, as their living connection." [...]
"In the act of death... With the decomposition of the blood, the animal soul perishes, dies... Only the human spirit is immortal, and it is this spirit that animates the soul and, through the soul, the body."
Then Bulgakov suggests an astonishing fact: Christ's human substance was divided on the cross, the blood and water that had flowed remained in the world, they didn't belong to the resurrected body. Christ's blood expresses his humanity, while water is the protoelement of the cosmic matter out of which the world was created in Gen.1:2, 6. Christ has the Spirit (Logos), the soul (blood), and the body (water) as in 1 John 5:8 it is stated.

Now we come to the main point: Bulgakov describes how... "The blood and water that flowed into the world abide in the world. They sanctify this world as the pledge of its future transfiguration", says Bulgakov and continues: "And the whole world is the chalice of the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail is inaccessible to veneration; in its holiness it is hidden in the world from the world. However, it exists in the world as an invisible power, and it becomes visible, appears to pure hearts who are worthy of its appearance."

What about the Eucharist? In the light of the Grail legend it becomes obvious it is not only a repetition in remembrance of the Last Supper but it is deeply rooted in Golgotha - it is also a celebration of the resurrection! This dual-unity is expressed in the Grail legend as the Grail is said to be the chalice of the Last Supper that ended up in the hands of Joseph of Arimathea and into same vessel he collected the blood (and water) out of Jesus' side. I personally find this symbolism particularly beautiful and significant!
It also reminds of Jesus' own words: "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him" (John 6:53-56 NIV).
Anyway, Bulgakov mentions that as food eucharistic bread and wine are consumed, communion has accomplished its purpose, it ends. However, the Holy Grail (the blood and water out of Christ's side) "abides in the world as the mysterious holiness of the world, as the power of life, as the fire in which the world will be transfigured into a new heaven and new earth."

The meaning of Ascension is brilliantly revealed by Fr. Sergius Bulgakov. Did Christ leave the world orphaned and emptied, he asks; Is the Ascension abandonment? Does the world have a natural connection with Christ besides the Eucharist?
Bulgakov strongly emphasizes the fact that the story of the Ascension is told only by two of the Evangelists, Mark and Luke; in John there is only an indication of the departure in the farewell conversation and St. Matthew is silent about it: Instead Matthew ends with a Lord's promise, "I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen" (Mt.28:20). Bulgakov's conclusion is therefore that "the two testimonies are equivalent or, in any case, compatible: The Lord abides on the earth 'unto the end of the world,' while, at the same time, sitting at the right hand of the Father." Here a remark from James H. Hindes, a priest in The Christian Community, might prove to be helpful: Right is usually seen an active side opposite to passive left. Thus Christ Jesus has united with that side of the Father which actively reaches out to the world!
"Heaven is not a place situated somewhere in astronomical space", says Bulgakov, "Rather, it is the metaphysical state of the perfect glorification and deification of human substance, which thereby becomes inaccessible to human perception."
The Lord appeared to the Apostle Paul even after the Ascension; in fact, His departure from the world would correspond to His total de-incarnation! The Second Coming... "does not signify the arrival from one place to another, from 'heaven' to 'earth'. Rather, it signifies a change in human beings in the case of which the Lord will become accessible to our vision." Indeed, a Greek word parousia means the presence which is revealed!

There is a connection between the Ascension and the Pentecost. The Lord said: "It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, The Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you" (John 16:7 NIV). It might be worth to pay regard to the fact that in Exodus during the journey through the desert, the Lord - identified as I AM - went ahead of Israelites in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night, just like Jesus Christ was taken up into heavens and a "cloud hid him" from the sight of disciples, and at Pentecost there came the tongues of fire. This is the etheric life force. Christ is abiding in the etheric counterpart of the earth, and the Holy Spirit is also Christ in us: when we get in touch with His aura surrounding the earth, the fire of the Holy Spirit fulfills us.

But let's return to Bulgakov once more: "The whole world is the chalice of Christ's blood and water. The whole world partook of them in communion at the hour of Christ's death." [...] "The world has become Christ, for it is the holy chalice, the Holy Grail. The world has become indestructible and incorruptible, for in Christ's blood and water it has received the power of incorruption, which will be manifested in its transfiguration" (New Jerusalem is made of precious stone, that is, ennobled, spiritualised matter). And concerning human beings: "The fullnes of the Incarnation, includes its effectiveness in nature as well (as is witnessed by Christ's miracles and the answering movements of the natural world: the star of Bethlehem, the eclipse of the sun and darkness at the hour of crucifixion, the earthquake, and so on). And by no means can one allow that human nature as such remained deaf and indifferent to the fact of its adoption by the God-man"... "Human nature is healed by the Incarnation inwardly, organically, by a new creation of it, as it were, a creation that will be revealed in its power and glory beneath a 'new heaven' on a 'new earth.'"

It is remarkable how much in common Sergius Bulgakov's ideas have with those of Rudolf Steiner's. Bulgakov's Sophiology would require a whole new story.