Thus when he [Isaiah] says "Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways" he is signifying the exaltation of the lowly, the humiliation of the self-willed, and the hardness of the Law changed into the effortlessness of faith. It is no longer toils and labors, he says, but grace and the forgiveness of sins, affording a great capacity of salvation. -- St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew 3, *A Year with the Church Fathers* p. 5.
I have this section underlined in my Ancient Christian Commentary: Luke edited by Prof. Just. But in what you quoted, it changes "easiness of faith" to "effortlessness of faith." I love that. How ... Lutheran.
ReplyDeletePastor Jerry Gernander