Go up to a high mountain and cry out at the top of your voice, for behold, here is your God! He comes with his reward. Advent is a period of devout and expectant delight because of the twofold celebrations unto which it is directed: the commemoration of Christ’s first coming (Christmas) which also acts as an anticipatory celebration of his second coming and the end of times. Consequently, Advent becomes the season for living out the virtue of hope that defines our identity as a people destined for a life with God, and which has been accentuated by the news of the Lord’s imminent visitation of his people.  
In the first reading, the Prophet Isaiah has been inspired by the Lord to pronounce to his people the imminence of the Lord’s visitation. Having been carried off into exile, Isaiah’s community has found itself in a foreign land and is feeling “abandoned” by the Lord. All the “privileges” that they might have had as a people close to God’s heart were revoked. The Lord was not fighting their battles and winning for them their wars anymore. Even though day after day they cried to the Lord without much success, they did not give up hope. The Lord had made promises to their great fathers and they knew the promises of the Lord were never left unfulfilled. And as the period of their chastisement in exile was drawing to a close, the Lord set out to relieve their sufferings and to revive their hopes by pronouncing his imminent visitation. It was a pronouncement that could not have come at a better time.
In the Gospel reading, the preaching and ministry of John the Baptist introduces the saving mission of Jesus Christ. As John himself testified, Jesus Christ fulfills the prophecies of old concerning the coming of the Messiah. Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh, is the fulfillment of Moses’ promise to the sons and daughters of Israel that the Lord would raise for them a prophet like him who would reveal to the people the face of God (cf. Deuteronomy 18:15). In Jesus Christ, the Lord has finally come to visit his people. For it was in the ministry of Jesus that the fullness of life that had eluded the universe since the rebellion in the Garden of Eden was to be finally realized. It was in the ministry of Jesus Christ that the coming to rest in God (Sabbath rest) was fully realized. It was in the life and ministry of Jesus that creation became fully reconciled to God. It was in Jesus Christ that humanity was able to discard the yoke of its bondage to sin in order to enjoy the freedom of the children of God (cf. Romans 8:21). By calling on the people to turn away from their rebellion and come back to God, the Baptist’s goal was to help the people prepare themselves for their salvation which was close at hand.  
The Lord is a bringer of goodies, and his visitation is always expectantly awaited. The proclamation of the Lord’s imminent visitation was good news to the ears of Prophet Isaiah’s community. It was a proclamation that revived their hopes and gave them reason to look to the future with confidence. For the news of the visitation by the Lord was an assurance that they would soon return to their land where they will be free to worship the Lord their God and chart their own destiny. And most importantly, it was an affirmation that the Lord God was going to renew the covenant he had made with them through their ancestors: the Lord was going to be their God and they were going to be his people. Like a shepherd, the Lord was coming to gather them as one flock and gently lead them back to their land. 
Like the exiled Israelites who were expectantly awaiting the news of the Lord’s visitation, so are we awaiting the coming of the Lord to us both on Christmas and at the end of time. Our waiting is filled with joy and happiness because of what the Lord has prepared for us (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:9).