Leo the Great on the Trinity & Hypostatic Union

I understand, dearly beloved, that I must meet your expectation by delivering my promised sermon concerning the glorious Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ-in such a way that this duty of preaching might both render service to the Paschal Feast and counteract the effrontery of wicked error. Those who deny that the Son of God took on the true nature of our flesh are "enemies" of the Christian faith and question the Gospel teaching with exceedingly great presumption.

According to these people, the Cross of Christ was either the pretense of an imaginary being or a punishment endured by the divinity. This suggestion must be driven away far from the hearts of devout people, since Catholic integrity can have neither "taint" of perfidy nor "wrinkle" of falsehood.²⁹⁷ It confesses one Christ, both God and man, in such a way that it cannot say either that the man was false or that God was capable of suffering.

From that very beginning (when the "Word was made flesh,”²⁹⁸ in the Virgin's womb), no division ever existed between the divine and the human substances. Throughout all the increases of bodily growth, his actions during that whole time belonged to one and the same Person. Yet we do not confuse those things which happened inseparably by mixing them up somehow. Instead, we realize the nature to which any given thing might pertain from its properties. Divine operations do not prejudice human ones, nor do human operations prejudice divine ones. Both join together without the deletion of any proper characteristic or a doubling of the Person.

2. Now that we have reviewed the events that preceded the Lord's Passion, let us deal with what proofs exist for the Paschal Mystery. While the wrath of Jews was burning to execute their crime-as "God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself”²⁹⁹-no force could have been brought against the " temple of his body,”³⁰⁰ unless he himself permitted it. Even when that terrible " cohort" of soldiers and that mob of people were " sent by the chief priests and the Pharisees with swords and clubs,”³⁰¹ they were driven back by one word from the Lord. When the people had said that they were looking for Jesus of Nazareth and he replied, " I am he,”³⁰² not one of them stood their ground. Instead, losing the use of their limbs, they all fell at once, driven "backward" and struck down.³⁰³ This was an indication of divine power which frustrated the attempts of the wicked men, not by hostile arms or the help of any created power, but solely by the strength of his word.

It was another kind of work, however, that was appropriate for saving the human race, and the blood of Christ could not have become the price for [redeeming] believers had the Redeemer not allowed himself to be apprehended. So he permitted wicked hands to be laid on himself, and the power of divinity was held in check so that the glory of the Passion might be attained. Certainly a mere semblance would have been worthless, and the appearance of suffering would not have benefitted anyone, had true divinity not clothed itself with the true feelings of human flesh.

Son of God and of a human being, incapable of being violated by reason of the one state, capable of suffering by reason of the other, he renewed our mortal essence through his immortal one. He lacked neither sorrow nor fear so that he could strengthen us to overcome disturbances of this sort, not only by the mystery of having assumed our nature, but by his example of fortitude as well. His exhortation to endurance would seem unjust had he not participated in our weakness.

3. Isaiah the prophet foretold the real sufferings of the Lord, speaking in his place: "I presented my back for scourges, my cheeks to their blows. I did not turn away my face from the shame of their spittle.”³⁰⁴ What the flesh of the Word suffered was punishment not of the Word but of the flesh. Yet injuries and tortures redounded even onto the one who cannot suffer, so that the things which he permitted against his body are appropriately said to have been inflicted on him, as the Apostle says: "For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of Majesty.”³⁰⁵ Jews, blinded in their malice, did not know into what crime they had precipitated themselves.

Wherefore, the merciful Lord Jesus-who wanted to save even his murderers by his Death-prayed from the height of the cross for the ignorance of those raging against him, saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”³⁰⁶ Not by the understanding of their heart, nor by the hearing of their ears, nor by the sight of their eyes³⁰⁷ did they perceive who it was they had assailed with false witnesses, who it was they had forced to be hanged on the cross. They do not recognize in his human body the substance of divinity. They saw him to be lowly. They did not worship him as Maker of the universe. Disparaging the meekness of the one who had been judged, they did not understand the power of the one who would judge. One wickedness joined the persecution of true God and the rejection of true man. Jews see in Christ only the " form of a servant,”³⁰⁸ while heretics claim it to be false.

4. Let these docetistic Christians say what substance of the Savior was fastened to the wood, what lay in the sepulcher, what flesh rose on the third day when the stone of the tomb was rolled away, and what kind of body Jesus brought before the eyes of his disciples when he entered to them through closed doors, when he dispelled the hesitation of those who saw him when he asked them to behold with their eyes and to touch with their fingers the still-open holes caused by nails and the fresh wound in his pierced side.³⁰⁹

If heretical obstinacy does not abandon its darkness in so great a light of truth, let them demonstrate from where they assure themselves of a hope in eternal life, from where they believe themselves to be partakers in the Resurrection of Christ. They cannot say with the Apostle, "Christ has risen from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep,”³¹⁰ for he does not constitute the first fruits of humanity if he does not come from the stock of human nature. He who rose first of all represents the fullness of that portion which would follow. We devoutly believe that what had been initiated in the Head is to be completed also in the members, because “Just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ will all be brought to life.”³¹¹

5. Embracing then, dearly beloved, the sole pledge of the Christian hope, let us not be torn from our adhesion to the body of Christ, in whom, as the Apostle says, "dwells the fullness of divinity in bodily manner, and you have been filled out in him.”³¹² Since the substance of God is incorporeal, how does it dwell in bodily manner in Christ unless the flesh of our race has been made the flesh of the divinity? We filled out in that God in whom we have been crucified, in whom we have been buried, in whom we have even even been raised up. We can therefore say with the Apostle: " Our abode is in heaven. From heaven also we await the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, and he has transformed the body of our lowliness to be made like the body of his glory,”³¹³ living and reigning with the Father and with the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen. (Pp. 282-285)

That coming of the Holy Spirit, dearly beloved, has consecrated this day's feast as worthy of reverence in all the world. He, on the fiftieth day after the Resurrection of the Lord, came down on the apostles and the crowd of believers, as they hoped. They hoped, indeed, because the Lord Jesus had promised the Spirit would come, not that then for the first time he should begin to live in the saints, but that he might inflame even more. fervently the hearts consecrated to himself and might flow over them more abundantly. He was increasing his gifts, not simply beginning them. Because he was richer in his generosity does not mean that he was a novice in giving.

The majesty of the Holy Spirit is never separated from the omnipotence of the Father and the Son. Whatever the divine government does in managing all things, it comes from the providence of the whole Trinity. In the Trinity, the kindness of mercy is one, the application of justice is one, and there is no division in action where there is no difference in will. What the Father illumines, the Son illumines, and the Holy Spirit illumines. Although the Person of the one sent is one, of the one sending is another, of the one promising is another, at the same time there is made clear for us both unity and Trinity, so that the essence, having equality yet not allowing solitariness, is understood to be of the same substance yet not of the same Person.

2. By the saving cooperation of the indivisible divinity, whatever the Father, whatever the Son, whatever the Holy Spirit accomplishes in his particular way, is the plan of our Redemption. It is the order of our salvation. For, if human beings, made in the image and likeness of God, had remained in the honor of their own nature and, undeceived by the devil's lies, had not deviated from the law placed over them for their lusts, the Creator of the world would not have become a creature, the eternal would not have undergone temporality, and God the Son, equal to God the Father, would not have assumed the "form of a servant,”⁴³ and the "likeness of sinful flesh.”⁴⁴

Since, however, "by the ill will of the devil, death entered the world,”⁴⁵ and because captive humanity could only be freed in one way, namely, if that one would undertake our cause who, without the loss of his majesty would become true man, and who alone had no contagion of sin.⁴⁶ The mercy of the Trinity divided for itself the work of our restoration so that the Father was appeased, the Son was the appeaser, and the Holy Spirit enkindled the process. It was right that those to be saved should do something for themselves, and, when their hearts were turned to the Redeemer, that they should cut themselves off from the domination of the enemy. In regard to this, the Apostle says: "God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying, 'Abba, Father.’”⁴⁷ "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”⁴⁸ "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except in the Holy Spirit.”⁴⁹

3. If, then, led by grace, dearly beloved, we would know with faith and wisdom what belongs to the Father, what to the Son, and what to the Holy Spirit in our Restoration, and what is common to them, we will accept without any doubt those things which have been done for us in lowliness and in the flesh. In this way we would feel nothing unworthy about one and the same glory of the Trinity. Although no mind is adequate to think about God, no tongue to speak of him, nevertheless, whatever human intelligence touches on concerning the essence of the Fatherhood of God, unless it is one and the same when either his Only-Begotten Son or the Holy Spirit is considered, the thinking is not done in a worthy manner but is too much darkened in a carnal way. That very thing which seems to be understood consistently about the Father is lost, because it withdraws from the whole Trinity, if the unity is not held fast in it. By no reckoning is that truly one which is different by any inequality.

4. When we direct the keenness of our mind to praise the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, let us dispel far from our soul the forms of visible things and the ages of natures in time. Let us place far off the structures of places and the conditions of bodies. Let there depart from the heart what has extension in space, what is limited by boundaries, and whatever is not always everywhere, and what is not whole. Let any thought conceived about the divinity of the Trinity not take into consideration anything about difference, anything about degrees. If it understands something worthy about God, let it not dare to deny this to any Person in the Trinity, as if it would ascribe something of more honor to the Father that it does not attribute to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. It is not reverent to put the Father before the Son. Abuse of the Son is an injury to the Father. What is taken away from one is subtracted from both. With them, both eternity and divinity are common. And the Father can not be thought omnipotent or unchangeable if he either begot one less than himself or if he derives advantage by having him whom he did not have before.

5. The Lord Jesus does indeed say to his disciples, as it was read in the Gospel, "If you loved me you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I.”⁵⁰ But those ears which more often heard, "I and the Father are one,”⁵¹ and "Who sees me sees the Father also,”⁵² receive it without any variation of the divinity, nor do they understand this concerning that essence which they know to be eternal with the Father and of the same nature. The elevation of humanity by the Incarnation of the Word is entrusted to the apostles, and those who were distressed at the departure of the Lord when it was told them are encouraged to eternal joy by the increase of their honor. " If you loved me," he said, "you would rejoice that I am going to the Father.”⁵³

If in perfect knowledge you saw what glory is added to you in this, that, begotten from God the Father, I was also born of a Mother from the human race; that, though the Lord of eternity, I wanted to be one of the mortals; though invisible, I presented myself as visible; though eternal in the "form of God," I took the " form of a servant,”⁵⁴ "you would rejoice that I am going to the Father.”⁵⁵ For, to you this Ascension is important, and your lowliness is raised in me above all the heavens and placed at the right hand of the Father. But I who, with the Father, am that which the Father is, remain with the Father, inseparable, and thus I do not leave him in coming to you, just as I do not leave you in returning to him.

Rejoice, therefore, "that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than 1.”⁵⁶ I have united you to myself, and I have become the son of a human being so that you can be children of God. Granted that I am one in both, nevertheless, where I am conformed to you, I am less than the Father; but, in that I am not divided from the Father, I AM ALSO GREATER THAN MYSELF. And so, let the nature that is less than the Father go to the Father, and let the flesh be where the Word always is. Let the one faith of the Catholic Church believe that according to his divinity, he is equal, whom, according to his humanity, it does not deny that he is less.

6. As a result, dearly beloved, let us despise the empty and blind crafts of the wickedness of heretics who flatter themselves with a perverse interpretation of these words. When the Lord says, "All things which the Father has are mine,”⁵⁷ heretics do not understand that they take from the Father whatever they dare to deny the Son. They so miss the mark in those things which are human that they therefore think the qualities of the Father are lacking to the Only-Begotten because he has taken on our qualities.

(2) Mercy in God has not lessened his power, nor is the reconciliation of the beloved creature a defect in eternal glory. What the Father has, the Son also has, and what the Father and the Son have, the Holy Spirit also has, because the whole Trinity is one God. Earthly wisdom has not invented this faith, nor has human opinion fixed it, but the only Son has taught it himself, and the Holy Spirit established it. Nothing different must be believed about him than about the Father and the Son. Although he is not the Father, and he is not the Son, yet he is not divided from the Father and the Son. As he has his own Person in the Trinity, so he has one substance in the divinity of the Father and the Son, filling all things, containing all things, and governing the universe with the Father and the Son. (Pp. 341-345)