Слово на Рождество Христово. Св. Льва Великого, папы Римского

Let us rejoice in the Lord, beloved, and leap spiritually before Him! For here the day of our redemption has dawned again, the day of deliverance - promised of old, and salvation - eternal: - a day on which it is fitting for us to lift up our hearts and bow before the Divine mystery, perfected for us for the sake of extreme mercy! Almighty and all-merciful God, even at the beginning, as soon as the envy of the devil caused us death, out of His love for us, destined, out of His love for us, means to deliver mortals from it, announcing to them that one day the seed of a woman would erase the head of the serpent, i.e. He made them understand that the hoped-for Redeemer would be together with God and would come clothed in human flesh... And so, when the time approached, appointed for this redemption, then our Lord Jesus Christ, without being separated from the glory of the Father, descends from heaven and is incarnated, but - incarnated in a new way and a new special birth. In a new way: for the invisible becomes visible, the incontainable deigns to be contained, the abiding from eternity deigns to begin in time, the Lord and Master of all, having hidden His impregnable majesty, takes on the form of a slave. By a new birth: for, having been conceived in the Virgin, the Virgin is born without the participation of the father, and without violating the virginity of the Mother. Such a birth befitted the Savior of men in order to have completely human flesh and to be free from its impurities. Therefore, God Himself is called the culprit of the incarnation, as the Archangel testifies in the gospel to the Blessed Virgin: The Holy Spirit will come upon You, and the head of the Most High will overshadow You, and the holy thing to be born will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). All this, beloved, was arranged this way by the highest Wisdom, not without a reason, but in order to hide from the devil the salvation that was waiting for people, and so that he, not knowing the conception from the Spirit, would honor the Lord as being born like other people, according to the ordinary laws of human birth: for when the devil saw Him bearing the same human nature, he thought that His origin was the same as the others, but did not notice he, that is, that He who subjected Himself to all the infirmities of human mortality is completely free from the bonds of original sin. Thus, our most merciful Savior, at the very beginning of His consideration for us, having hidden the greatness of the Divine under the cover of our infirmities, through this wickedness he put to shame the cunning enemy, who could not even guess that he who was born like other babies was a Child who appeared for the salvation of the world: for he saw Him weak, and crying, and wrapped in swaddling clothes, and subject to the painful rite of circumcision, and those who need a sacrifice of purification; then - in adolescence I saw Him strengthened and growing, and even until the years of courage I did not notice anything supernatural in Him, and meanwhile I surrounded Him with slander, slander, reproaches, persecution, insults, finally poured out all the power of my rage on Him, carried me through all the temptations, and - knowing well what poison He had infused into human nature, I did not think of finding Him free from original sinfulness, His mortal nature was known to him from so many experiences. That is why the evil murderer continued even to the end to persist in attacking the One who had nothing in Himself from the prince of this world (John 14:30). But while he, careless, was deceived by the hope of the universal corruption of sin that he had spread, the handwriting of sin was torn from him, because he demanded punishment from Him in Whom there was no guilt. As a result of this, the evil one becomes entangled in his own shackles, and all his tricks are turned on his own head: the strong man is bound, and all the vessels of his house are plundered, our nature, cleansed from ancient filth, is restored to its former dignity, death is abolished by death, birth is restored through rebirth: for redemption, breaking the bonds of sinful slavery, replaces carnal birth with rebirth from the Spirit, and acquires justification for the sinner through faith. Think, everyone who bears the name of Christian, how great the benefits accomplished by Christ, our Reconciler! For you, once rejected and expelled from the shadows of paradise - you, dying in exile, condemned to incorruption in dust and ashes - you, from whom all hope of life was taken away - through the incarnation of the Son of God was given the power to return to your Creator, to see your Father, to become from a free slave, from being a stranger to Him! Having been born in corruptible flesh, you are now reborn by the Holy Spirit, you receive by grace what you did not have by nature - and by the spirit of sonship you do not hesitate to call God your Father! Freed from guilt before God, it is now possible for you to strive for the heavenly kingdom, to fulfill the will of God with the assistance of grace, to imitate the Angels on earth, to overcome the temptations of the enemy and undoubtedly hope, after exploits and struggle, to settle in the abodes of the King of Heaven. Having such hope, beloved, let us remain unswervingly in the faith in which we are confirmed, so that the same tempter, from whose power Jesus Christ snatched you away, does not seduce you with any new deception, and thus does not darken the bright joy of this day with the tricks of his lies... Glorify God in all His intentions and deeds, and honor the real holiday of the renewal of our nature with holy and zealous service to Him; accept into your hearts Christ incarnate for our sake, so that you may be worthy to see Him as God in His glory and kingdom. – To him, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory and honor forever and ever. Amen 70. See Bibliot. patr. Combelis. 1, 211: cf. "Sunday Reading" XVII (1853–1854), pp. 355–356. You might be interested in: