Today’s readings are as familiar to most of us as the carols we sing and the commercials that over-whelm this holiday season. Often Christmas finds us tired, struggling with preparations and expecta-tions. What we really want to feel is joy and peace. The stress of preparation, of waiting, is reflected in both Isaiah and Paul’s letter to Titus. Luke tells us of the exhaustion that Mary and Joseph felt: a young pregnant wife and her husband, forced to travel just as she is about to give birth, unable even to find a room to stay in. It must have been miserable. They must have been afraid. In the midst of this exhaustion, misery, and fear, a child is born, a Son is given. The world is then filled with light and hope, joy and peace. In that moment they, and we, know what all the waiting has been for.

What great lengths God will go to in loving and saving us! Think of the most outlandish circumstance you might conceive. That seems to be what the Lord is saying to Ahaz in today’s first reading. “A virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.” Not only is the idea of a virgin conceiving beyond comprehension in Ahaz’s time, so would the concept of God wanting to be with us be, as the name Emmanuel indicates. And yet, this is what we celebrate in the Incarnation - God wants so completely to be one with us that God came to be with us in a son born to a virgin, the Blessed Virgin Mary. There is more to this story than even these amazing and outlandish occurrences, however. God wants to be one with us so deeply that God partners with us to make God’s presence known.What great lengths God will go to in loving and saving us! Think of the most outlandish circumstance you might conceive. That seems to be what the Lord is saying to Ahaz in today’s first reading. “A virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.” Not only is the idea of a virgin conceiving beyond comprehen-sion in Ahaz’s time, so would the concept of God wanting to be with us be, as the name Emmanuel indicates. And yet, this is what we celebrate in the Incarnation - God wants so completely to be one with us that God came to be with us in a son born to a virgin, the Blessed Virgin Mary. There is more to this story than even these amazing and outlandish occurrences, however. God wants to be one with us so deeply that God partners with us to make God’s presence known.

Put yourself in the scene of today’s Gospel passage. John the Baptist is in prison. He has heard stories of what Jesus is doing, and wants reassurance that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah. John’s disciples and those who surrounded Jesus were faithful Jews who would have known Isaiah’s prophecies by heart. God would send One who would bring sight to the blind, healing to those who were ill, salvation to all who longed to know God’s mercy and peace. Jesus’ response to the disciples’ question rings as powerfully in our ears today as it surely did for the people who were with him that day. His actions are precisely those that the people had been told to expect. Jesus is the One for whom the people have been patiently yet anxiously waiting, like the farmer who waits for the fruits of his labor. Jesus is the One for whom our hearts long.

Have you ever known a moment when, just for a brief instant, you felt that all was right with the world? It is just such a moment, stretched into eternity, that the writer of Isaiah describes in today’s first reading: the perfection of everything, centered in God’s spirit, where knowledge, justice, and awe in God’s presence reign. In such a paradise, everyone sees eye to eye and thinks in harmony with each other, as Saint Paul describes in his letter to the Romans. Even animals with a natural animosity toward one another coexist peacefully. John the Baptist understood that such harmonious relationships do not simply happen. They are the fruit of living in right relationship with God and others.