To Juvenal of Jerusalem, on the Witness of the Holy Places

Leo, bishop of the city of Rome, to Juvenal, bishop of Jerusalem.

When I received your letter, beloved, which our sons Andrew the presbyter and Peter the deacon brought me, I did indeed rejoice that you had been allowed to return to the seat of your bishopric. But when I called to mind all the reasons that had brought you into such great troubles, I grieved to think that you yourself had been the source of your misfortunes, by failing to hold out steadily against the heretics. For people can only think that you were not bold enough to refute those with whom you declared yourself satisfied while you were in error. For the condemnation of Flavian of blessed memory, and the acceptance of the most unholy Eutyches, what was it but the denial of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh? The Lord himself, in his great mercy, caused that to be overthrown, when by the authority of the holy Council of Chalcedon he brought to nothing that accursed judgment of the Synod of Ephesus, without barring any of those found guilty from being healed by correction. And so, because in this time of patience you have chosen to return to wisdom rather than persist in folly, I rejoice that you have sought the heavenly remedies, so that at last you have become a defender of the faith which the heretics attack. For although no priest ought to be ignorant of what he preaches, yet any Christian living at Jerusalem is more without excuse than all the ignorant. He is taught to understand the power of the gospel not only by the written word but by the witness of the places themselves, and what elsewhere may not be disbelieved cannot there remain unseen. Why should the understanding be in difficulty, where the eyes are its teachers? And why should things read or heard be in doubt, where all the mysteries of human salvation press themselves on sight and touch? It is as if the Lord, with his human voice, were still saying to each doubter: “Why are you disturbed, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit does not have bones and flesh, as you see that I have.” [a]

So make use, beloved brother, of these proofs of the catholic faith, which cannot be disputed, and support the preaching of the evangelists by the testimony of the holy places where you live. In your country is Bethlehem, where the saving Light shone out from the womb of the Virgin of the house of David, and where the manger of the crowded inn received him wrapped in swaddling cloths. In your country the Savior’s infancy was announced by angels, worshiped by the magi, and sought by Herod through the death of many infants. In your country his boyhood grew, his youth ripened, and his true human nature reached full manhood by the growth of the body: not without food for hunger, not without sleep for rest, not without tears of pity, not without fear and dread. For he is one and the same person, who in the form of God worked great miracles of power, and in the form of a slave underwent the cruelty of his suffering. This the very cross says to you without ceasing. This the stone of the tomb cries out, under which the Lord lay in his human condition, and from which he rose by divine power. And when you come to the Mount of Olives to venerate the place where he ascended, does not the angel’s voice ring in your ears, saying to those who were dumbfounded at the Lord’s being taken up: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him going into heaven.” [d]

So the true birth of Christ is confirmed by the true cross. For the one who is crucified in our flesh is himself born in our flesh, and since no sin entered into it, it could not have been mortal unless it had been the flesh of our race. But so that he might restore life to all, he took up the cause of all, and made void the force of the old bond by paying it for all, because he alone of us all did not owe it. So, as by one man’s guilt all had become sinners, by one man’s innocence all might become innocent, righteousness being given to men by him who had taken on man’s nature. For he is in no way outside our true bodily nature. The evangelist begins his story of him by saying, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” The teaching of the blessed apostle Paul agrees with this when he says, “Theirs are the fathers, and from them is Christ according to the flesh, who is above all, God blessed forever.” And so to Timothy he says, “Remember that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead, of the seed of David.” [e]

But how many are the authorities in both the New and the Old Testaments by which this truth is declared, you clearly understand, as befits the antiquity of your see. For the belief of the fathers, and my letter written to Flavian of holy memory, which you yourself mentioned, confirmed as they have been by the universal synod, are enough for you. And so, beloved, you must take care that no one raises a murmur against the mystery of our redemption and hope, which is beyond words. But if there are any who are still in the darkness of ignorance or the discord of perversity, let them be taught by the authority of those whose teaching in God’s church was apostolic and clear. So they may recognize that on the incarnation of God’s Word we believe what those men believed, and may not by their obstinacy put themselves outside the body of Christ, in which we died and rose with him. For neither loyalty to the faith nor the plan of the mystery allows either that the Godhead should be capable of suffering in its own essence, or that the reality of his taking our flesh on himself should be falsified. Dated the 4th of September, in the consulship of the illustrious Aetius and Studius (in the year 454). [f]