CHRISTMAS 2018 - Prophecies, pseudo-realities and the new creation

CHRISTMAS 2018

Prophecies, pseudo-realities and the new creation

It is sad that many times, in the midst of hardships, we seek out someone to provide us with absolute solutions to solve our difficulties and to foretell us what is to come in the future. By doing so, we reduce the gift of the healing prophetic word of the Church – the Body of Christ – and we do not allow the Holy Spirit to work in our weakness. Limiting the gift of prophecy to fortune telling and problem solving limits our ability to recognize the manifestation of God in the world and the workings of the Holy Spirit in our personal lives.

The gift of prophecy is the power given to each Man to discern the presence of God in the world. A true prophet identifies himself with the sufferings of this world and knows how God manifests Himself throughout time so as to grant salvation to the world. A prophet has true knowledge because he has come to know God through a living relationship with Him. This knowledge differs from the “objective” knowledge that many in this world proclaim to have. It is a reality beyond the limited reality that we, with our own abilities, can conceptualize, see or fantasize.

For many years, knowledge was based on rationalism and reality was determined by “scientific objectivity”. Today objectivity has given way to a subjectivity based on individualistic desires, whereas knowledge and true human nature have lost their catholic perspective. This has left humans bewildered in their need to find meaning and deal with the incongruent elements of life, causing loneliness, despondency and despair. As a counter reaction to this, humans have formed a virtual reality where sex, lust and affluence prevail together with terror and violence. Yet emptiness on all levels of human existence prevails. For darkness has come over the world!

In this darkness the prophets exclaim: “Behold, darkness and gloom shall cover the earth upon the nations, but the Lord will shine on you; and His glory shall be seen upon you… For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given.”[1] With His divine presence, the Son of God shines the light of true knowledge upon the world; a knowledge which springs from His love, the Father and the grace of the Holy Spirit. This love and grace disperses all the false realities that deceive us. By His light, which is like a star, He instructs us to worship Him and He shows us how to enter into a living relationship with Him, to commune with Him, to come to know and love Him. By doing do, we will become a new creation. We will not have to form pseudo-realities to ease our fears. All things will have become new.[2] For He shall be our Angel of Great Counsel, and will grant us peace and health and His peace shall have no end.[3]

Fr. Stavros Kofinas

[1] Isaiah 60:2; 9: 5

[2] (2Cor. 5:17).

[3] Isaiah 5:6

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