Isaiah constantly paints a picture of an intimate and faithful relationship between God and God’s people. ‘I am the Lord your God, who teaches you for your own good, who leads you in the way you should go.’ Many of the books of the Old Testament paint beautiful images that reflect the relationship God has with the people of God. The Responsorial Psalm honours the one whose ‘delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night.’ (Psalm 1:2) What image does the Psalmist use? What image for people living in a dry Mediterranean land? ‘They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season.’ (Psalm 1:3)

Today’s Gospel is a classic example of being ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t!’ John is abstemious and ‘he has a demon.’ Jesus eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners, and he is ‘a glutton and drunkard.’

‘Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.’ Years ago, there was a fashion for a short time whereby young people would wear a bracelet with four beads on it, WWJD – What Would Jesus Do? What does he do? He eats with tax collectors and sinners. He embraces the leper. He walks down by a well at noontime with a Samaritan woman. He touches the funeral bier of a young man and comforts the grieving widow. He travels to the house of the Roman Centurion, and he touches the eyes of the blind – but all the while finds himself unable to touch the hardened hearts of the Teachers of the Law.

This is our privileged Advent journey: to grow into such wisdom and such deeds. As we do, Emmanuel, God with us, will become all-consuming and that is a gift.

by Br Damien Price cfc