In the texts we have just read, we heard about two people who were aware that they were living through a moment in history that dramatically engaged the responsibility of their people. In relation to God, this awareness fully engaged them both in their own time and in the future. And even though the world seemed to be collapsing before them and beneath their feet, they remained grounded in the hope of what the Spirit of God is capable of doing among human beings.

John the Baptist was waiting for a strong man who would make many people experience the powerful fire of this Spirit. He would be stronger than anyone before him. John himself, who had achieved great fame, would be in no way worthy of comparison with him. Who, then, is this person? The rest of the Gospel tells us – and we will hear it in particular at Christmas – this person is Jesus. However, far from manifesting the terrible power that John might have expected, Jesus long lived close to vulnerability, even going so far as to walk through its greatest darkness.

Despite this unexpected turn of events, John remained attached to the destiny of Jesus and to God. He kept an inner openness to him and was recognised by many, including Jesus himself, as a reliable messenger of God's intentions. It is not known whether John eventually reconciled himself to God's extraordinary simplicity before the end of his life. However, he did at least trust that, even with his own patterns of thought, even with his own personality, in his struggle with his era, he had been led on the right path.

God is able to use our greatest expectations to encounter him, even when we are influenced by our projections onto him (or even influenced by our fears or ambitions). The important question then is the one raised by John the Baptist himself: what fruit do these expectations produce? What happens when we set out on our journey?

Do we, like him, develop a vision of the best that human beings, created by God, are capable of, individually and collectively? Do we seek to live this out with those around us? Do we find the courage to speak out for justice, which is first and foremost demanding for those who have the most influence and who are expected to set an example? And when others express their expectations of God very differently from us, can we still recognise if fruit is being produced?

Isaiah too was waiting for someone. He believed that the Spirit of God could, through one person, lift up an entire people. In fact, he foresaw that this Spirit could open up a much greater horizon, so great that words struggle to describe it. So he searched, with his words, where we did not expect it, where we no longer expected it : in images of great depth and gentleness.

To be able to keep looking at the future, John was baptizing and Isaiah was saying poems. When the one we are waiting for seems to be out of sight, will we be able to place our trust in what is very small? How could we do so without poetry? If the stars twinkle even when we are not looking at them, that is no reason not to look at them.