“Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth;”
Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth — the prophetic poetry of Isaiah 40:4 communicates the comprehensive transformation of the landscape for the royal arrival. Valleys filled, mountains lowered, crooked roads straightened, rough ways smoothed: the entire terrain of resistance is leveled before the arriving Lord. The imagery is simultaneously literal (ancient road-preparation for royal visits) and metaphorical (the moral preparation of the community).
Church Fathers on Luke 3:5
The Word came, and the voice followed. For the Word first works inward, then follows the office of the voice, as it is said, And he went into all the country about Jordan.
Jordan is the same as descending, for there descends from God a river of healing water. But what parts would John be traversing but the country lying about Jordan, that the penitent sinner might soon arrive at the flowing stream, humbling himself to receive the baptism of repentance. For it is added, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
It is plain to every reader that John not only preached the baptism of repentance, but to some also he gave it, yet his own baptism he could not give for the remission of sins.
Read all 13 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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