Today’s readings: Isaiah 61, 1-2.10-11; 1 Thessalonians 5, 16-24; John 1, 6-8.19-28

The existential restlessness that has always characterised humanity – and that in this present time marks all aspects of life – can easily take hold of us and stifle the way we see things and approach life. It is so easy, while professing our faith in God, to suppress the Spirit in us, as Paul puts it in the second reading.

The Spirit empowers us to discern our truly human vocation, to face the world as it is and to dream of it as God loves to see it. The mystery of the incarnation we celebrate on Christmas is about redeeming history. There is a social concern that should guide us as much as inspire the witness we are all called to give.

The question is what meaningful and down to earth witness can we provide today, given that the globe we belong to continues to be in tribulation. With millions dying of hunger or war, with genocides still perpetrated, with issues of climate change that perpetuate great sufferings and turbulences, with so many different forms of abuse and violence that continue to strike the headlines without making news, it may sound too illusory to speak of witness.

The Spirit we receive is a spirit of prophecy, which makes us speak boldly in the face of all that kills hope and sows despair. But is it enough to have the courage to speak boldly? Isaiah in the first reading speaks of our anointing in terms of our being in the world to proclaim God’s joy and remedy to all that is distorting.

There is so much around us that amounts to forms of modern-day exiles and that provokes in us very serious questions about the truth of our faith. How empowered can we be in the face of all that is giving shape to history? Can we continue to proclaim the redemption of history while experiencing a deficit of prophecy?

John the Baptist had to undergo a sort of public prosecution for his claims. He ‘was not the light’ but was meant to speak for the light. He was called to justify his claims just as whatever we claim to stand for today we have to account for it. In a culture which is no longer predominantly Christian, we are called to give different forms of witness and commitment.

While on one hand we should beware not to dilute the Christian message, on the other hand we cannot afford to simply convey the message without any cultural mediation. On our part, that would amount to ‘stifling the Spirit’. That was the resistance John the Baptist had to counter for coming from people of religion.

Isaiah reassures us that just “as the earth makes fresh things grow, so will the Lord make both integrity and praise spring up in the sight of the nations”. That is far from the doom and gloom that sometimes we convey. Isaiah had all reasons to speak gloomily, addressing a people in exile bereft of any identity and completely disempowered to rejoice let alone to give praise. Yet without ignoring the existential turmoil of the Jews, he focusses on the anointing that is always transformative.

It is our big challenge today to witness for the light in times which are not the best of times. John the Baptist, asked about his identity, was evasive. He refused to answer clearly, identifying himself simply as “a voice that cries in the wilderness”. ‘Crying in the wilderness’ implies that one has no idea at all where and who can such a voice hit.

We are all practically a voice crying. The role of John the Baptist in the desert scenario was to indicate the unknown “who stands among you”. He stops short of elaborating on who is it he is referring to. His prophetic task was to read beneath what was on the surface and discern the Lord’s response to the people’s needs and thirst.

This is also our prophetic task today for which we need an extra dose of the gift of the spirit. The world as it is weighs down on all of us. It is the gift of prophecy that keeps the dream of the world as God loves it alive in us. This anointing reassures us that speaking of “good news to the poor” or proclaiming true liberty in the face of so many different forms of slavery is not illusory at all.