Encouragement (Jeremiah 33)

‘…The word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah … while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying, Thus saith the Lord the maker thereof, the Lord that formed it, establish it; the Lord is his name; Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.’
 
A very important passage, which profoundly speaks to our situation. We are offered fresh insights and new revelations. God’s angel (of history) is always waiting for us to offer a new beginning. When history seems ‘closed around us’, we are given the encouragement that all our situations are redeemable!
 
This hope comes from the future. This encouragement and assurance of our freedom from the present is the gift of the Holy Spirit. This ‘turning to God’ is a great reminder ‘that the Spirit is not something that “animates” a Church which already somehow exists. The Spirit makes the Church be. Pneumatology (the works of the Holy Spirit) does not refer to the well-being but to the very being of Church. It is not about a dynamism which is added to the essence of the Church. It is the very essence of the Church.’ (John D. Zizioulas, Being as Communion, New York, St Vladimir’s Seminary Press 1993 /1985/, p.132)
 
Our ability to believe and know that our future is always open to a positive transformation is the essence of the local community, and that of individual spirituality.
 
24.08.2017