The crowds that Jesus encountered were ‘harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.’ Both Isaiah and the writer of Matthew’s Gospel invite us to ponder a God who is deeply engaged in people’s lives. Isaiah reminds us that ‘your teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your teacher.’ On the journey of life, when we turn to the right or to the left, from behind, we shall hear a voice, ‘This is the way, walk in it!’ Matthew has Jesus going from one town to the next, teaching in the synagogues and ‘curing every disease and sickness.’

Our Advent God is a not an ‘elsewhere God’. The Emmanuel that we long for is not ‘up there’ or ‘out there’ but intimately within and around, God ‘with us’! Hence, the writer of Isaiah constantly uses images of hope, the rains that come, rich pasture, food for the herds and the hillside brooks running with water.

The harassed and helpless that flocked to Jesus were so often trapped in poverty, slaves to corrupt temple practices and a legalistic interpretation of the Torah that placed huge burdens financially and emotionally upon their backs. The image that comes into the heart of Jesus is powerful and no accident. The people who fill his day are like sheep without a shepherd: lost, frantic, vulnerable to attack and lacking the compassionate guide of the shepherd to find pasture, water and shelter.

This is the harvest and privileged space of ministry we are called to. We, each and every one of us, are invited to respond in compassion just as Jesus did. When we do, we will, each in our own small way, be the sign of hope that our world so desperately needs and is at the heart of Advent.

by Br Damien Price cfc