Advent Voices – plain speaking

“For I, YHWH, love justice…”

So continues the rest of the oracle in Isaiah 61:8-11.

Isaiah’s euphoric response to God’s affirmation assumes a community that is equally responsive, having embraced an equal love for justice tempered with loving-kindness and mercy.  It is infused with the life-giving Spirit that binds all together.  This reality goes far beyond personal belief that is merely assent to a set of propositions. It is faith and love in pro-active vigour – creative imagining of how even the least regarded within the community can enjoy a transformation. It is an infusion of the manifesto of the chapter’s beginning into daily experience.