A reading from the book of Isaiah (54:1-10)
‘Shout for joy, you barren one
who has borne no children!
Break into cries of joy, you who were never in labour!
For the children of the forsaken one
outnumber those of the wedded wife,’ says the Lord.
‘Enlarge the space of your tent,
extend the curtains of your home, do not hold back!
Lengthen your ropes, drive home the tent-pegs,
for you will spread out to the right and to the left;
your descendants will dispossess the nations
and repopulate deserted towns.
Do not fear, you will not be shamed,
do not worry, you will not be disgraced;
for you will forget the shame of your youth
and no longer remember the reproach of your widowhood.
For your creator is your husband,
the Lord Sabaoth is his name;
the Holy One of Israel is your redeemer,
he is called God of all the earth.
For like a wife forsaken and sad at heart,
the Lord has called you back;
like the young wife repudiated, says your God.
I did forsake you for a brief moment,
but in great compassion I shall take you back.
In a flood of anger,
for a moment I hid my face from you
but in everlasting love I have taken pity on you,’
says the Lord, your redeemer.
‘This will be to me as it was in the days of Noah
when I swore that Noah’s floodwaters
should never again cover the earth.
So now I swear never to be angry with you
and never to rebuke you.
The mountains may depart and the hills may be shaken
but my faithful love will never leave you,
my covenant of peace will never be shaken,’
says the Lord in his pity for you.
This text of second Isaiah is also found among the readings for the Easter Vigil. It announces the loving mercy of God, who looks on ‘the forsaken one’. During Advent it points to the coming of salvation, and at Easter to the fulfilment of this great mystery. God brings to the ‘wedded wife’ the news that, now that the exile is over, her descendants ‘will spread out to the right and to the left’. The identity of the husband is then revealed. He is ‘your maker, the Lord Sabaoth, the Holy One of Israel’. His anger is over, and, just as at the end of the story of Noah, ‘my faithful love (hasdi) will never leave you’ and ‘my covenant of peace (berit shelomi) will never be shaken’. This is the God ‘who pities you’.
Psalm 30 (29) The anger of God has passed. Tears turn to joy, and mourning to dancing.
A reading from the holy gospel according to Luke (7:24-30)
When John’s messengers had gone he began to talk to the crowds about John, ‘What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swaying in the breeze? Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine clothes? Look, those who go in magnificent clothes and live luxuriously are to be found at royal courts! Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet: he is the one of whom it is written:
Look, I am going to send my messenger ahead of you to prepare your way before you.
‘I tell you, of the children born to women, no one is greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.’ All the people who heard him, and the tax collectors too, acknowledged the righteousness of God by accepting baptism from John; but by refusing baptism from him the Pharisees and the lawyers thwarted God’s plan for them.
Having delivered a veiled criticism of John in the previous verses, which were yesterday’s gospel reading, Jesus goes on to praise John. He was ‘more than a prophet’. He was the one foretold by Malachi the prophet as ‘my messenger’ who prepares the way. No-one is greater than John, and yet the least in the kingdom is greater. Luke then adds his own comment. By accepting the baptism of John most people ‘acknowledged the righteousness of God’; they realised that God was at work in what John did. But the Pharisees and lawyers ‘thwarted God’s plan for them’ by their refusal.
Can you make sense of Jesus’ words that the least in the kingdom are greater than John?
Reflect on the person of John the Baptist and his journey of faith, which culminates in martyrdom for the truth.