“Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God.” With these words, made famous by the opening aria of Handel’s oratorio “The Messiah,” the second part of the Prophet Isaiah calls attention to the plight of the children of Israel. Their homes have been plundered and the young and strong among them have been led off into slavery by the Assyrians. They are languishing in the ruins of Jerusalem and the surrounding countryside. God’s people are in need of comfort.
“The Book of Consolation,” as Deutero-Isaiah is known, presents seventeen lyrical and persuasive speeches offering comfort to the children of Israel by promising to rescue them from exile. These verses are from the first of the seventeen speeches. The scene is set in a heavenly assembly. In an altered state of consciousness, the prophet makes a sky journey to this assembly. Such assemblies are common in the writings about the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses. However, the difference between this meeting and those about the Roman and Greek gods is that here the God of Israel presides. There is no raucous interchange or compromise which is common in assemblies of the mythical gods of Rome and Greece. The prophet is simply instructed to tell Israel that though she is still in exile, her enslavement is about to come to an end.
Using imagery from a royal procession through the countryside, the prophet announces the arrival of the king. Consequently, the people would prepare for such a procession by making the roadway level and even so that the procession can proceed without incident. The terrain of Israel is full of “rough places.” Its deserts are not just areas of sand, but cliffs and valleys. However, in this oracle it is God who will prepare the way. God levels the hills, lays down a road, brings in water, and makes the place habitable. Reminiscent of the creation and the exodus stories, God is seen as both the one who prepares the land as well as the one who leads the people (like a shepherd).
Just as the first Biblical account of God’s creative work starts “in the beginning,” so Mark’s Gospel points to a new beginning of God’s manifestation to humankind. The first verses interweave the words of Malachi (3:1, 23) and Isaiah (40:3) reinterpreting them to announce the presence of the one who will herald the arrival of Jesus.
Israel’s journey to freedom out of the bondage of Egypt took them through the desert into a land of promise. This theme became the pattern to speak of other experiences of liberation. Chief among them was the release from Babylonian captivity and the trek back home. This latter is the background for these Isaian verses. Now with the Roman occupation of Israel, the people have become disillusioned with their political situation, and they began to look for a new liberation and a new religious leader. By casting John the Baptist in this light, Mark invests him with prophetic authority. John proclaims a baptism of repentance open to ALL people. Mark is careful to include not only the people from Jerusalem but people from the entire Judean countryside where many Gentiles live.
Like our ancestors, we too are looking for a liberation from our bondage. All of us are looking for God to visit us with healing and compassion in the current pandemic, but our bondage goes beyond the current pandemic. In his farewell address to the Church, St. Peter’s counsels us to be patient, just as God is patient with us. He reminds us that we are to live in holiness and devotion as we wait for the appearance of the Lord. Like his counterpart, Peter picks up a theme that is prevalent in the writings of St. Paul, reminding us that when we live in holiness and devotion, bearing our crosses with patience, we are actually hastening the day on which the Lord will appear. God has promised us a new heaven and a new earth, a completely new reality. God’s promises are true, for God is faithful. During this season of Advent, we remember that the children of Israel waited thousands of years for the coming of the Messiah. As they waited, so we too look for the Day of the Lord when all God’s promises will be fulfilled.