The distinction between an imminent and transcendent God may seem little more than one of those specialized domains of erudite theologians that have only limited interest or relevance to you and I. And yet, nothing could be further from the truth. For Christians the notion of an imminent God—one present among us and in our midst—is epitomized in the feast we are readying ourselves to celebrate later this month, the Incarnation of the Lord. And today’s gospel illustrates why the imminence of God is relevant to the everyday life of Christians and not just a theological nicety. For although our first reading from Isaiah speaks of the Lord providing a feast of rich foods and choice wines—and in this way mirrors Jesus’ feeding the large and hungry crowd—there is something significantly different in these two events. It can be said that the God who lovingly and generously provides a feast of rich foods and choice wines is—at least at the time of Isaiah—one who knows of hunger and thirst only in what we might term an intellectual manner. In contrast, Jesus as the Incarnate Word is one who keenly knew from personal experience what it is to be hungry and thirsty. And as the Letter to the Hebrews teaches, this personal experience of the pains, sufferings, temptations, hunger and thirst is something that allows Christ to be truly compassionate and merciful since he knows our struggles, not intellectually, but personally and experientially. And it this full sharing in our humanity that allowed him to compassionately sense the hunger of the crowd and, without being asked, to provide for their needs. Accordingly, let us look to the Lord to save us for he knows our every need and only waits to be gracious towards us, to wipe away the tears from our faces and to remove the reproach of his people.