III. Wherefore, beloved, by the ineffable mercy of God, the Church of the faithful nations has acquired that which the synagogue of the carnal Jews never deserved, as David says: "The Lord hath shewed His salvation, hath made His righteousness known before the eyes of the nations" (Psalm 97:2), and Isaiah likewise prophesies: "The people that walk in darkness shall see a great light; on those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death the light shall shine (Isaiah 9:2), and again: Behold, thou shalt call a people whom thou hast not known, and the nations that have not known thee shall hasten unto thee... (Isaiah 55:5). So let us rejoice in the day of our salvation, and, being in the New Testament, we are received into the fellowship of Him to Whom through the Father the prophet says: Thou art My Son; I have begotten thee this day; ask of me, and I will give the nations for thy inheritance, and the ends of the earth for thy possession (Psalm 2:7-8), let us appreciate the mercy of the Ascender, for as the Apostle says: ... you have not received the spirit of bondage to live again in fear, but have received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father!" (Romans 8:15). Therefore, the adopted should do the will of the Father, who testifies that those who share in the humility of Christ will become joint heirs of the future glory, as the Apostle says: ... if only we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified with Him" (Romans 8:17).

So let the Lord be glorified in His infancy, and let bodily birth and growth do not harm the Divinity, for our nature can neither add to nor subtract anything from the unchanging essence, and He Who in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3) was vouchsafed to become like men, at the same time in the unity of Divinity remains equal to the Father, and with Him and with the Holy Spirit He lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.

Homily X on the Nativity of Christ

I. Quite often, beloved, as you know, we expound a good sermon for you about today's glorious celebration, and without hesitation we draw the attention of your souls to the radiant majesty of Divine mercy, so that what is inspired by your faith may also be assimilated by reason. But the birth of our Lord and Saviour (not only in divinity from the Father, but also in the flesh from the Mother) is so far beyond the power of human eloquence, that it is true of both [births] that it is said: Who shall explain His generation? (Isaiah 53:8). And that which cannot be properly interpreted, still gives an abundance of reason for reasoning, and not at all because one can assume what one wants, but because any speech is not enough for a worthy subject. After all, the greatness of the Sacrament (conceived before eternal times for the salvation of the human race and revealed at the end of the ages) always remains unchanged, not losing its own and not accepting what is not ours. But some, wishing rather to impose their opinion than to learn themselves, according to the Apostle, have been shipwrecked in the faith (1 Timothy 1:19), and I would like today to at least briefly refute their perverse and intricate fabrications, in order to separate the darkness of error from the light of truth, piously glorify the Divine blessings and skillfully parry human fiction.

II. The outward signs of the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ (which revealed Him to be the true Son of Man) have assured, for some, only that He is the Son of Man, without indicating that His divinity is to be ascribed to Him, for His infancy, and bodily manhood, and the time of the Passion, even to the Cross and death, proved that He is like other mortals. Others, justly delighted with the splendor of the accomplishments, have reflected the Nativity of the fountain and the efficacy of what has been said and done, and have attributed it to the divine essence, deciding that there is nothing inherent in our nature, and that everything that had a bodily form and action was a manifestation either of matter of supreme origin, or had only an apparent likeness of flesh, 'so that [it appears] that the senses of those who see and touch have been mishytized. In other errors, however, there was the opinion that something of the essence of the Word was made flesh, and that Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary, received nothing of the nature of the Mother, but that which was God and that which is man, are related only to the Word. So it turns out that in Christ, thanks to the dissimilarity of natures, there was a false humanity, and due to the decrease due to changeability, a false Divinity.

III. And so, beloved, the catholic faith, of which God is both Teacher and Helper, has already overthrown both of them, inspired by the devil's instigation of impiety, poured out of the vessel of perdition to the detriment of many. We are encouraged and strengthened by the Holy Spirit by the testimony of the law, by the predictions of the prophets, by the trumpet of the Gospel, and by the apostolic teaching, so that we may unfailingly and meaningfully believe that, according to the words of Blessed John, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). Surely with us, whom the divinity of the Word has made partakers of itself, and we are His flesh taken from the womb of the Virgin. And if the flesh were not ours (that is, not truly human), then the Word made flesh would not dwell with us. But it dwelt in us, for He made the nature of our flesh His own, founding for Himself the house of Wisdom (Proverbs 9:1), not of any other matter, but of that which is inherent in us. And its reception was witnessed [just at the moment] when it was said, "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14).

The same sacred saying is echoed by the teaching of the blessed Apostle Paul, who says: "Take heed, brethren, that no one lead you astray with philosophy and vain deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ; for in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye have fullness in Him (Col. 2:8-10). So that all divinity pervades all flesh, and as there is nothing lacking in the majesty of Him whose abiding is filled with the dwelling, so there is nothing lacking in the body which is not filled by its own possessor. And what has been said: ... you have fullness in Him, testified just our nature. A similar fullness does not apply to those for whom the Word of God has not united with Himself both the soul and the body proper to our race.

IV. And so, beloved, it must be unreservedly acknowledged and confessed with all our hearts that this kind, in which the Word and the flesh (i.e., God and man) signify the same Son of God and Christ, has been exalted above any kind of human origin. For neither the creation of Adam from the dust of the earth, nor the creation of Eve from the flesh of a man, nor the creation into the world by the copulation of both sexes of other people can be compared with the origin of Jesus Christ. Abraham, advanced in years, gave birth to an heir by a Divine vow, and, having passed through the period of fertility, the barren Sarah conceived (Gen. 21:2). But Jacob was beloved of God before he was born (Mal. 1:2-3), and [Divine mercy], anticipating his own actions, separated him from his shaggy half-brother (Gen. 27:11). Jeremiah says: "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you came out of the womb I sanctified you" (Jeremiah 1:5). Hannah, also being barren for a long time, gave birth to the prophet Samuel and dedicated him to God (1 Samuel 1:11-20), so that she was glorified both by birth and by vow. The priest Zacharias received holy offspring from the barren Elizabeth (Luke 1:24), and the future Forerunner of Christ, John, received a prophetic spirit from the flesh of his mother, who even before the birth of this infant revealed the Parent of the Lord with a sign of hidden [in the womb] of rejoicing (Luke 1:41). [No doubt] all this is majestic and full of miracles of divine works, but it has caused much less amazement than many others. But the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ surpasses all understanding and goes beyond any [earthly] experience. It cannot be compared with anything else, remaining one of a kind. To the Chosen Virgin (once from the seed of Abraham and from the root of Isaiah, foretold by the words of the prophets and secret signs) without condemnation by shame is proclaimed by the Archangel blessed fertility (Luke 1:45), which neither by conception nor by birth will violate holy virginity. And when the Holy Spirit descended upon Her and the power of the Most High overshadowed Her (Luke 1:35), the unchanging Word of God, having at His disposal an immaculate body, took on a human form, which is in no way involved in the lust of the flesh, and possesses everything that pertains to the nature of soul and body.

V. [Now] we have departed and sunk into darkness both the fables of heretical wisdom and the blasphemy of insane errors, and we (being the heavenly host that glorifies God (Luke 2:13), and the shepherds whom the angels have instructed to preach), having studied the testimonies of both natures, worship both the Word in the man Christ and the man Christ in the Word. For if, according to the words of the Apostle, he who unites with the Lord is one spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17), then the Word made flesh is all the more Christ alone. There is nothing here that does not belong to one or the other nature. Thus, according to the plan of God's mercy, we are not destroyed, but are transfigured for chastity and life. And so we recognize in our Saviour the manifested signs of both natures, that, seeing the glory of God, we do not doubt the truth of the flesh, or, seeing human humility, we do not doubt the Divine power. He abides in the form of God, Who took the form of a servant (Phil. 2:6-7). One and the same, remaining incorporeal, clothed Himself in a body. One and the same is immovable in His power and subject to suffering in our powerlessness. One and the same does not descend from the father's throne and is crucified by the wicked on the Cross. One and the same is the Conqueror of death, ascending above all the heights of heaven, and at the same time remaining with the whole Church until the end of time. Finally, when He is about to come in the same flesh in which He ascended, as He once endured the judgment of the unrighteous, so He is going to judge the actions of all mortals. Therefore, without taking time with numerous testimonies, it is enough to cite one from the Gospel of Blessed John, in which the Lord Himself says to us: Verily, verily, I say to you, the time is coming, and it has already come, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and having heard, they will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He gave the Son to have life in Himself. And He gave Him the power to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man (John 5:25-27).

Here in one sentence it is shown that One and the same is both the Son of God and the Son of Man. And from this it is clear how we should believe in the Lord Christ in the unity of the Person. He is the Son of God, thanks to whom we were born, and He, having become the Son of Man by taking on the flesh, died, according to the words of the Apostle, for our sins and rose again for our justification (Romans 4:25).

VI. Such a confession, beloved, is not afraid of any dissension and does not succumb to any error. For the mercy of God, promised from the beginning and prepared before the ages, has been revealed to us. Thanks to her alone, the bonds of captivity of the human race were able to fall, with which the seducing creator of sin bound the first man and all his descendants, and subjugated the conquered race by the original fall. The justification of people became possible only because the Only-begotten of God was vouchsafed to become the Son of Man, that is, the Only-begotten God (having the same essence) to the Father also became a true man, consubstantial in the flesh with the Mother. So let us rejoice, because we can be saved only through both essences, without separating the visible from the invisible, the carnal from the incorporeal, the passionate from the passionless, the tangible from the intangible, the image of the slave from the image of God. And though the one rests in eternity, and the other came into being in time, yet they have come together in such a unity that they can neither be separated nor destroyed, for the exalted and the exalted, the glorifyer and the glorified, are so united to one another, that in greatness and in humiliation, neither the divine in Christ is alienated from the human, nor the human from the divine.

VII. In this way, beloved, we become true Christians and true Israelites (John 1:47). Verily, then we are received into the fellowship of the sons of God. For all the saints who lived before our Saviour were justified through this faith, and through this Mystery they became the body of Christ, awaiting the universal redemption of believers in the seed of Abraham, of whom the Apostle says: To Abraham were given promises and his seed. It is not said, "And to the descendants," as of many, but as of one, "And to thy seed, which Christ eateth" (Gal. 3:16). That is why the Evangelist Matthew, in order to prove that the promise given to Abraham was fulfilled in Christ, enumerates the sequence of generations (Matthew 1:1-16) and shows which of them was blessed. The Evangelist Luke, referring to the Birth of the Lord, also enumerated in reverse order the sequence of His generations (Luke 3:23-38), testifying that those centuries that preceded the flood were also connected with this Sacrament, and every transmission of inheritance from the very beginning tended to Him in Whom alone was the salvation of all.

So we should not doubt that besides Christ there is no other name under heaven given to men by whom we must be saved (Acts 4:12), and that He, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, equal in the Trinity, lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.

The Encyclical or Conciliar Epistle of His Holiness Leo, Archbishop of the City of Rome, Written to Flavian, Archbishop of Constantinople (Against the Heresy of Eutychius)