Leo the Great
Sermon XLVI. On Lent, VIII.
(in Vol XII, NPNF (2nd))
I. Lent Must Be Kept Not Only by Avoiding Bodily Impurity But
Also by Avoiding
Errors of Thought and Faith.
II. All the Actions of Christ Reveal the Presence of the Twofold Nature.
III. Hold Fast to the Statements of the Creed.
IV. Use Lent for General Improvement in the Whole Round of Christian
Duties.
I. Lent Must Be Kept Not Only by Avoiding Bodily Impurity But Also
by Avoiding Errors of Thought and Faith.
We know indeed, dearly-beloved, your devotion to be so warm that in
the fasting, which is the forerunner of the Lord's Easter, many of you
will have forestalled our exhortations. But because the right practice
of abstinence is needful not only to the mortification of the flesh but
also to the purification of the mind, we desire your observance to be so
complete that, as you cut down the pleasures that be long to the lusts
of the flesh, so you should banish the errors that proceed from the imaginations
of the heart. For he whose heart is polluted with no misbelief prepares
himself with true and reasonable purification for the Paschal Feast, in
which all the mysteries of our religion meet together. For, as the Apostle
says, that "all that is not of faith is sin1 ," the fasting of those will
be unprofitable and vain, whom the father of lying deceives with his delusions,
and who are not fed by Christ's true flesh. As then we must with the whole
heart obey the Divine commands and sound doctrine, so we must use all foresight
in abstaining from wicked imaginations. For the mind then only keeps holy
and spiritual fast when it rejects the food of error and the poison of
falsehood, which our crafty and wily foe plies us with more treacherously
now, when by the very return of the venerable Festival, the whole church
generally is admonished to understand the mysteries of its salvation. For
he is the true confessor and worshipper of Christ's resurrection, who is
not confused about His passion, nor deceived about His bodily nativity.
For some are so ashamed of the Gospel of the Cross of Christ, as to impudently
nullify the punishment which He underwent for the world's redemption, and
have denied the very nature of true flesh in the Lord, not understanding
how the impossible and unchangeable Deity of God's Word could have so far
condescended for man's salvation, as by His power not to lose His own properties,
and in His mercy to take on Him ours. And so in Christ, there is a twofold
form but one person, and the Son of God, who is at the same time Son of
Man, is one Lord, accepting the condition of a slave by the design of loving-kindness,
not by the law of necessity, because by His power He became humble, by
His power passible, by His power mortal; that for the destruction of the
tyranny of sin and death, the weak nature in Him might be capable of punishment,
and the strong nature not lose aught of its glory.
II. All the Actions of Christ Reveal the Presence of the Twofold
Nature.
And so, dearly-beloved, when in reading or hearing the Gospel you find
certain things in our Lord Jesus Christ subjected to injuries and certain
things illumined by miracles, in such a way that in the same Person now
the Humanity appears, and now the Divinity shines out, do not put down
any of these things to a delusion, as if in Christ there is either Manhood
alone or Godhead alone, but believe both faithfully, worship both right
humbly; so that in the union of the Word and the Flesh there may be no
separation, and the bodily proofs may not seem delusive, because the divine
signs were evident in Jesus. The attestations to both natures in Him are
true and abundant, and by the depth of the Divine purpose all concur to
this end, that the inviolable Word not being separated from the passible
flesh, the Godhead may be understood as in all things partaker with the
flesh and flesh with the Godhead. And, therefore, must the Christian mind
that would eschew lies and be the disciple of truth, use the Gospel-story
confidently, and, as if still in company with the Apostles themselves,
distinguish what is visibly done by the Lord, now by the spiritual understanding
and now by the bodily organs of sight. Assign to the man that He is born
a boy of a woman: assign to God that His mother's virginity is not harmed,
either by conception or by bearing. Recognize "the form of a slave" enwrapped
in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger, but acknowledge that it was the
Lord's form that was announced by angels, "proclaimed by the elements2
," adored by the wise men. Understand it of His humanity that he did not
avoid the marriage feast confess it Divine that he turned water into wine.
Let your own feelings explain to you why He shed tears over a dead friend:
let His Divine power be realized, when that same friend, after mouldering
in the grave four days, is brought to life and raised only by the command
of His voice. To make clay with spittle and earth was a work of the body:
but to anoint therewith and enlighten the eyes of the blind is an undoubted
mark of that power which had reserved for the revelation of its glory that
which it had not allowed to the early part ofHis natural life. It is truly
human to relievebodily fatigue with rest in sleep: but it is truly Divine
to quell the violence of raging storms by a rebuking command. To set food
before the hungry denotes human kindness and a philanthropic spirit: but
with five loaves and two fishes to satisfy 5,000 men, besides women and
children, who would dare deny that to be the work of Deity? a Deity which,
by the co-operation of the functions of true flesh, showed not only itself
in Manhood, but also Manhood in itself; for the old, original wounds in
man's nature could not be healed, except by the Word of God taking to Himself
flesh from the Virgin's womb, whereby in one and the same Person flesh
and the Word co-existed.
III. Hold Fast to the Statements of the Creed.
This belief in the Lord's Incarnation, dearly-beloved, through which
the whole Church is Christ's body3 , hold firm with heart unshaken and
abstain from all the lies of heretics, and remember that your works of
mercy will only then profit you, and your strict continence only then bear
fruit, when your minds are unsoiled by any defilement from wrong opinions.
Cast away the arguments of this world's wisdom, for God hates them, and
none can arrive by them at the knowledge of the Truth, and keep fixed in
your mind that which you say in the Creed. Believe4 the Son of God to be
co-eternal with the Father by Whom all things were made and without Whom
nothing was made, born also according to the flesh at the end of the times.
Believe Him to have been in the body crucified, dead, raised up, ·
and lifted above the heights of heavenly powers, set on the Father's right
hand, about to come in the same flesh in which He ascended, to judge the
living and the dead. For this is what the Apostle proclaims to all the
faithful, saying: "if ye be risen with Christ seek the things which are
above, where Christ is sitting on the right hand of God. Set your mind
on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth.
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. For when Christ,
our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory5 ."
IV. Use Lent for General Improvement in the Whole Round of Christian
Duties.
Relying, therefore, dearly-beloved, on so great a promise, be heavenly
not only in hope, but also in conduct And though our minds must at all
times be set on holiness of mind and body, yet now during these 40 days
of fasting bestir yourselves6 to yet more active works of piety, not only
in the distribution of alms, which are very effectual in attesting reform,
but also in forgiving offences, and in being merciful to those accused
of wrongdoing, that the condition which God has laid down between Himself
and us may not be against us when we pray. For when we say, in accordance
with the Lord's teaching, "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our
debtors7 ," we ought with the whole heart to carry out what we say. For
then only will what we ask in the next clause come to pass, that we be
not led into temptation and freed from all evils8 : through our Lord Jesus
Christ, Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever
and ever. Amen.
1 Rom. xiv. 23.
2 Declaratam ab elementis, viz. by the star in the east.
3 Per quam tota Ecclesia corpus est Christi. This is
a great saying, by which the centrality of the doctrine of the Incarnation
is fearlessly asserted.
4 Notice that both here and in the next sentence the
construction is credite Filium - credite Hunc not credite in Filium - in
Hunc, the exact language of the creed being the latter (I believe in, &c.).
5 Col. iii. 1-4.
6 Lit. "polish yourselves up (expolite vos).
7 S. Matt. vi. 12.
8 A malis omnibus liberemus. The free turn given to this
passage is interesting: a!po; tou' ponhprou' (Vulg. a malo) being now considered
personal "from the evil one" (R.V.).
