A Sermon by Pope Saint Leo the Great on the Nativity of Christ. This sermon is read from Volume 12 of Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, Second Series. This work is in the public domain. It has been edited for comprehension. Bibliographic information is available on this Holy Communion podcast post at www.cooperatorsoftruth.com or in the podcast feed.

This Sermon is the Fourth of Eight Sermons on the Nativity written by Pope Saint Leo the Great.

On the Feast of the Nativity, IV.

The Incarnation fulfils all its types and promises.

The Divine goodness, dearly beloved, has indeed always taken consideration for mankind in many different ways, and in many degrees. Out of His mercy has He imparted many gifts of His providence to the ages of old; but in these last days He has exceeded all the abundance of His usual kindness, when in Christ, mercy itself, has descended to sinners.  He is Truth to those that are astray, Life to those that are dead, that same Word, which is co-eternal and co-equal with the Father, took our humble nature into union with His Godhead, and, being born God of God, He might also be born Man of man. 

This was indeed promised from the foundation of the world, and had always been prophesied by many intimations of facts and words7:  but how small a portion of mankind would these types and fore-shadowed mysteries have saved, had not the coming of Christ fulfilled those long and secret promises. And now what had  then benefited but a few believers in its expectation, now benefited myriads of the faithful in its accomplishment.  Now no longer, then, are we led to believe by signs and types, but being confirmed by the Gospel we worship that which we believe to have been done.  The prophetic lore assists our knowledge, so that we have no manner of doubt about that which we know to have been predicted by such sure oracles.  For hence it is that the Lord says to Abraham:  “In thy seed shall all nations be blessed”  hence David, in the spirit of prophecy, sings, saying:  “The Lord swore truth to David, and He shall not frustrate it:  of the fruit of thy loins will I set upon thy seat.”  And again the Lord says through Isaiah:  “behold a virgin shall conceive in her womb, and shall bear a Son, and His Name shall be called Emmanuel, which is interpreted, God with us,” and again, “a rod shall come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall arise from his root.”  In this rod, no doubt, the blessed Virgin Mary is predicted, she who sprung from the stock of Jesse and David and was impregnated by the Holy Ghost, and brought forth a new flower of human flesh, becoming a virgin-mother.

II.  The Incarnation was the only effective remedy to the fall.

Let the righteous then rejoice in the Lord, and let the hearts of believers turn to God’s praise, and the sons of men confess His wondrous acts.  For it is in this work of God especially that our humble estate realizes how highly its Maker values man.  After His great gift to mankind whereby he created us in His image and likeness, He contributed far ever more exceedingly to our restoration when the Lord Himself took on Him “the form of a slave.”

For though all that the Creator expends upon His creature is part of one and the same Fatherly love, yet it is less wonderful that man should advance to divine things than that God should descend to humanity.  But unless the Almighty God did deign to do this, no kind of righteousness, no form of wisdom could rescue any one from the devil’s bondage and from the depths of eternal death.  For the condemnation that passes with sin from one upon all would remain, and our nature, corroded by its deadly wound, would discover no remedy, because it could not alter its state in its own strength.  For the first man received the substance of flesh from the earth, and was quickened with a rational spirit by the in-breathing of his Cr...