The wasteland will rejoice and bloom with flowers

 

Hope for good things to come at Christmas and planning to celebrate with family and friends are very much on people's minds at this time of the year. Both desires are so well expressed in the readings of today's liturgy. First Isaiah says that the wasteland will rejoice and bloom with flowers. For millions of people in the world, their life must appear to be a wasteland. Homes destroyed by enemy rockets, crops and animals wiped out by drought, all those forced to leave their countries because of extreme poverty caused by corrupt governments. Isaiah saw his people in exile in Babylon and he encouraged them to hope. ''Steady all trembling knees and say to all faint hearts, 'Courage! Do not be afraid. Look, your God is coming.'' Columbans have protested and been imprisoned or expelled from countries ruled by military dictators, but finally peace did come. It never came through the efforts of one person but through thousands of hands joined together. In Jesus' time, there was a paralyzed man with no hope of recovery by himself. But he was not left by himself; a group of friends carried him to Jesus and went as far as taking off part of the roof and lowering him down into the middle of the gathering in front of Jesus. Jesus cured him as a result of the action of the man's friends. Who will I work together with to bring joy into someone's wasteland this Christmas?