Day 286 - Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3

The Son of God, who is to gather the church, first works in a servant. Thus St. Luke fittingly says that the Word of the Lord came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness, so that the church would not begin from a man but from the Word. For she is a wilderness, because children of depravity outnumber hers, though she has a husband. Then it is said to her, “Sing, O barren one,” [Isa 54:1.] and, “Break forth together into singing, you waste places,” [Isa 52:9.] because the desert had not yet been cultivated by any work of a flock of people, nor had those trees which could bear fruit displayed the crown of their merits. The one who said, “I am like a green ...