The voice said,
Cry.
And he said, What shall I cry?
All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is as the flower of the field:
All Commentaries on Isaiah 40:6 Go To Isaiah 40
Jerome
AD 420
Indeed, if anyone regards how weak the flesh is, that we wax and wane with the minutes of the clock and that we do not remain in the same state … there can be no doubt that flesh is rightly called “grass” and its glory like the flower of the grass or the rushes of the fields. The one who was once an infant is suddenly a boy; the boy is suddenly a youth and up to old age is changed through stages. A beautiful woman who carries a train of young men behind her becomes wrinkled, her brow all furrowed; she who before was fit for love is afterwards fit for loathing.… But the one who has and guards the image of the heavenly, such humanity discerns the Lord’s salvation, is renewed daily in knowledge after the image of the Creator and puts on an incorruptible and immortal body; it changes its glory but not its nature.
