“Send a victory like a dew, you, heavens, and let the clouds rain it down. Let the earth open for salvation to spring up. Let deliverance, too, bud forth which I, the Lord, shall create.”

This beautiful image of the fruitfulness of nature, dreamed of by Isaiah, is one of the most beautiful verses that the Christian tradition has applied to the expectation of the Redeemer. It is the expectation of the encounter between heaven and earth. The divine dew fecundates the earth, humanity meets the divinity. “The Word was made flesh”. Our flesh produced its fruit, a Man was born: He is the authentic image of God.

Of course, the ancient prophet did not have the clarity of the doctrine of the Incarnation and his poetic imagination worked a lot in this verse. Yet, through these inspired words, the Lord reveals his plan of salvation and redemption.

The time of Advent we are experiencing is a time of expectation, of vigilance, of welcoming. Even if today we feel like a barren land, we remember that the Lord has not forgotten us. We welcome Christ who still comes to save us, to give us back joy, happiness, the full sense of life. And the best gift we have to wait for our Christmas is him, Jesus, the Messiah. We must wait for him, welcome him, rejoice in his presence and our life can truly change.

But what is the face of the one we are waiting for? What will he do? The Gospel tells us.

John the Baptist has doubts about the identity and mission of Jesus, it almost seems that he cannot understand. He had announced the presence of the Messiah among the people and therefore it was legitimate to expect Jesus to do what everyone expected from the Messiah. The signs that Jesus does, however, do not seem to go in the direction that everyone expected.

A Messiah was expected to struck sinners and this Galilean even has lunch with them. They expected a Messiah who would finally restore the Kingdom of Israel and he speaks of the Kingdom of a God who takes care of the sick, marginalized, excluded.

Even John, who had spoken of an ax placed at the root of that diseased tree which was Israel unfaithful to the Covenant, raises some doubts, asks himself some questions.

Well, he who comes is the face of the Deus absconditus (the hidden God), the face of the God who raises more questions than answers.

Perhaps our idea of ​​Jesus is also wrong or partially wrong. Perhaps we too are expecting someone who solves all our problems: those of society, those of parishes, those of our families, those of our religious communities.

Advent is the propitious time to purify our relationship with Christ and allow ourselves to be guided and taught by him. Let’s go back to the sources, let’s go back to the Gospel and there we will discover the true face of God, the God of mercy, the God who loves you despite your sins, the God who does everything to bring you back on the right path, the God who knocks on your door and just is waiting for you to open it.

May the word of God illumine our path and our choices.