What shall we cry?

Readings: Isaiah 40:1-11; Psalm 96; Matthew 18:12-14

“A voice said, ‘Cry aloud!’, and I said, ‘What shall I cry?’” (Isaiah. 40. 6). The prophet Isaiah, in today’s first reading, asks a question which surely haunts the tongue and pen of many preachers. Why should we cry out? Because the celestial voice (in the words spoken to Isaiah, which echo in the hearts of all Christians) has commanded us to ready all peoples for the coming of the Lord. How might this be achieved? What great work can be found within us to give worthy witness to the joy which is to come? Could I fill a valley or flatten a mountain with the little strength afforded me?

What we are called to make known is what God has already done for us, ‘Console my people, console them’. Human beings are weak and will die, but our God has conquered death in His beloved son. We are challenged to bring hope in our words and actions: to affirm that there is something in our lives that sustains and feeds us in the face of all that withers and fades.

As we prepare to remember the first coming and anticipate the return of Jesus, we must call to mind the joy that He has engendered in his friends. Let us pray for grace, through which our preaching and lives may become signs of hope, to make fertile ground of the hearts of those the Lord has given us to nurture so that His coming may reap rich harvest.