Day 284 - John 1, Luke 1, Matthew 1

St. Luke kept a certain historical order and revealed to us more miracles of the Lord, yet so that the history of his Gospel embraced the virtue of all wisdom. For what more excellent truth did he reveal concerning natural wisdom than that the Holy Spirit also gave rise to the divine incarnation? [See Luk 1:35.] … He taught that the powers of heaven would be shaken, [Luk 21:26.] that the Lord alone is the only-begotten Son of God, at whose passion darkness fell during the day so that the earth was darkened as night and the sun fled. [Luk 23:44-45.] … As compared with the other Gospels, we see greater zeal devoted to the description of the events than to the expression of rules of behavior. And the Evangelist, writing in historical mode, makes his beginning in narrative form: “There was,” he says, “in the days of Herod, the King of Judea, a certain priest named Zechariah,” [Luk 1:5.] and he continues the story with a full and orderly description. Hence, those who think that the four living creatures described in the Apocalypse [Ezk 1:5-12, Ezk 10:14; Rev 4:6-11.] are to be understood as the four books of the gospel wish this book to be represented by the calf; [The original word means “ox.”] for the calf is the priestly victim. This Gospel is represented fittingly by the calf, because it begins with priests and ends with the Calf who, having taken upon himself the sins of all, was sacrificed for the life of the whole world. [1Pe 2:24; 1Jn 2:2.] He was a priestly Calf. He is both Calf and Priest. He is the Priest, because he is our Propitiator. We have him as an advocate with the Father. [1Jn 2:1.] He is the Calf, because he redeemed us with his own blood. [Heb 9:12-14; Rev 5:9.]—St Ambrose of Milan