Traditionally it has been called Gaudete Sunday, of joy, because the reading from Isaiah announces a time of joy as a future of God's intervention in the history of the people. Isaiah 35 is a shout of joy at the manifestation of the glory of God in the history of Israel. He uses landscape images suggesting the description of a second exodus, probably after the exile to Babylon. Nature is presented as an image of God's salvation. Israel's desert is transformed into a flowery garden just as it was in some parts of the Middle East. The immediate consequence of the glory of God is the healing of the blind, the dumb and the lame, who will manifest the power of the Lord in the face of illness and human limitations; likewise, divine glory will give the necessary courage to those who doubt, to the weak, to those who are afraid.