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 olive tree in the house of the Lord,” [Psa 52:8.]had not yet come, nor had that heavenly Vine borne fruit with its shoots of words on the trained branch of its own people. [See Jhn 15:1.]So the Word came that the desolate earth would bring forth fruit for us. The Word came, and the voice followed, for the Word first works within before the voice follows. Hence David too says, “I believed, and then I spoke.” [Ps 115:1 LXX.]—St Ambrose of Milan

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