John’s question is surprising:“Are you the one who is to come,or should we wait for another?”

Is this really the same John?The one who leapt for joy in Elizabeth’s womb?The one who pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”The one who claimed he was not worthy to untie the straps of his sandals?

So… why the doubt? Why this anxiety, this fragility that comes up all of a sudden?

This question is not just a weakness on John’s part: it makes sense.It touches on identity – that of Jesus, that of John, perhaps even our own!It expresses the fear of having been wrong, as we sometimes are when we are caught in our own prisons: the prison of fear, the prison of routine, the prison of our projections.

But what if this question were a call? A call to break out of our confinement, to get moving again, to let God refocus us on something other than ourselves?

Jesus replies very simply:“Go and tell John what you hear and see:the blind see, the lame walk,those with leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear,the dead are raised, the poor receive the Good News.Blessed is the one who does not stumble because of me.”

In other words: look.Look at what God is doing. Look and understand with the intelligence of the heart that each of us has. And that is a call to our freedom.

John is the one who prepares the way.To walk is to move forward without understanding everything. It is to accept that the path comes into existence by the very fact of walking.Like those short distances we know so well, those familiar comings and goings, full of everything and nothing… and yet full of presence. And the path is first and foremost a way of looking.

So today, perhaps we can welcome John’s question as an invitation:And you, what do you hear? What do you see?What signs of life, and of light, does God place on your path?

The Kingdom approaches when our eyes become open, when start to make steps again.When we dare to say:“Yes, I am walking…” and the path gently opens up.

Isaiah tells us what it opens up to: eternal joy on every face, overflowing joy.