Today’s readings: Isaiah 35, 1-6.10; James 5, 7-10; Matthew 11, 2-11.

There are hard facts in life that make it very difficult to hope and believe. Yet the assurance that comes today from God’s Word is uplifting and invites us to reconsider seriously our vision of happiness.

In his book Made for Happiness, Jean Vanier writes that whatever else people may say, happiness is the great concern of our life. People in life want to be successful, to have a salary increase, to start a family, or to have an enjoyable holiday, because that would make them happy. At least, that is what we are after in most of what we do.

On this third Sunday of Advent, when Christmas is at hand, Isaiah speaks prophetically of the wasteland that blooms and the wilderness that exults. He speaks of the courage to change and not be afraid, of miracles that change the lives of people.

In the Gospel, Jesus is asked for his credentials, and he gives proof of his being the Messiah as promised of old. The social settings highlighted in Isaiah and in the Gospel seem to apply to the big issues we face today.

The worst that can happen to our Christmas celebrations year in year out is that we focus too much on the story of Bethlehem in such a way that it has almost nothing to say about us today. This is what makes Christianity and our faith lose credibility. Given the degree to which our human needs and yearnings shape our lives, and the way our values often get misplaced, we are called to spell out our expectations today.

At the time of Jesus, people had what we call messianic expectations. Even today, we have our own ideas about what exactly enslaves us and what can really save us. We also live in a world of promising messianisms. And in a culture of instant gratification, the patience and waiting James speaks about in the second reading sounds beyond our reach. So we tend to go for the quick fix.

From prison, John the Baptist asked about Jesus: “Are you the one who is to come, or have we got to wait for someone else?” The answer is ‘go and tell what you see’.

Believing is seeing. John the Baptist facilitates Jesus’ entry on the scene. The Baptist had gathered a significant following among the Jews of his day. But now it was time for him to move on and let Jesus come in.

This text from Matthew should have helped the community locate itself at a point of transition or confusion, identifying the Christ and providing the clue for him to be recognised. His miracles and preaching served to indicate God’s breaking-in.

Even Isaiah speaks of the desert of life and of history, and of the hope that changes reality. His imagination transfigures the desert itinerary into a festive procession.

This is a basic text from Isaiah heavily marked with hope and consolation. In it he is addressing the return of the exiles from Babylon. Isaiah sees this as a new exodus for the Jews. It was the second experience of liberation which brought depth to their belonging to God.

In Babylon, people were becoming sceptical and losing courage. Scepticism, which also marks our generation, is a major spiritual hurdle in our culture. We live in a time when we cannot afford to sell illusions. We can only talk of hope and joy with our feet to the ground. This is also our duty.

It is no coincidence that on this Sunday, the intermediary between the bright vision of Isaiah and the miracles of the Messiah in the Gospel is James’ talk about patiently waiting on the Lord in the second reading.

As Christians in today’s world, we are daily dealing with the scandal of a promise we continue to narrate in our churches but which is belied by the crude facts around us.

People have been explaining themselves, their relationship to the gods, and what life means with myths for thousands of years. But Christmas tells a different story which we cannot afford to turn into a dangerous alienation.

Just as with the Jews in exile, we need a new exodus, a deepening on an existential level of what we’ve known and celebrated for centuries.

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