Leo the Great — Commentary on Scripture

Isaiah 1:13

When, from the teaching of ancient doctrine, dearly beloved, we undertake the fast of September to purify our souls and bodies, we are not subjecting ourselves to legal burdens. We are embracing the good use of self-restraint that serves the gospel of Christ. In this too, Christian virtue can “exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees,” not by making void the law but by rejecting worldly wisdom.

SERMON 92:2

Isaiah 9:2

Although he filled all things with his invisible majesty, [Christ] came, nevertheless, to those who had not known him, as if from a very remote and deep seclusion. At that time, he took away the blindness of ignorance, as it has been written: “For those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, a light has risen.”

SERMON 25:3

Isaiah 9:6

[Eutyches] might have read the words of the same prophet: “A child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulders: and they shall call his name, angel of the Great Counsel, God the Mighty, the Prince of peace, Father of the world to come.” And he would not speak nonsense, saying that the Word was made flesh in such a way that Christ, born from the Virgin’s womb, had a man’s form yet did not have the reality of his mother’s body.

LETTER 28

Isaiah 33:6

But, since there are many kinds of treasures and different grounds for joy, each one’s treasure corresponds to the movement of their desire. If it is an appetite for earthly things, it makes those who share in it not happy but wretched. Those who “savor the things above, not what is on earth,” and are not eager for what perishes but for what is eternal, have hidden, incorruptible resources, in that about which the prophet says, “In your treasure is our salvation. There wisdom and knowledge and holiness are from the Lord. These are the treasures of his justice.”Through them, with God’s grace helping us, even earthly goods are transformed into heavenly, as long as many use their wealth, either left them by law or otherwise acquired, as instruments of goodness. When they distribute, from what they can count as overabundance, to the support of the poor, they collect for themselves riches that cannot be lost, so that what they have withdrawn for alms cannot be credited to expense, and they properly keep their heart where they have “their treasure.” It is most blessed to use wealth of this…

But, since there are many kinds of treasures and different grounds for joy, each one’s treasure corresponds to the movement of their desire. If it is an appetite for earthly things, it makes those who share in it not happy but wretched. Those who “savor the things above, not what is on earth,” and are not eager for what perishes but for what is eternal, have hidden, incorruptible resources, in that about which the prophet says, “In your treasure is our salvation. There wisdom and knowledge and holiness are from the Lord. These are the treasures of his justice.”Through them, with God’s grace helping us, even earthly goods are transformed into heavenly, as long as many use their wealth, either left them by law or otherwise acquired, as instruments of goodness. When they distribute, from what they can count as overabundance, to the support of the poor, they collect for themselves riches that cannot be lost, so that what they have withdrawn for alms cannot be credited to expense, and they properly keep their heart where they have “their treasure.” It is most blessed to use wealth of this kind that it may grow, and not fear lest it be destroyed.

SERMON 92:3

Isaiah 35:5

“God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself,” and the Creator himself was wearing the creature which was to be restored to the image of its Creator. And after the divinely miraculous works had been performed, the performance of which the spirit of prophecy had once predicted, “then shall the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf shall hear; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall speak plainly.”

SERMON 54:4

Isaiah 42:16

The apostle John teaches how this is fulfilled: “We know that the Son of God came and gave understanding to us, that we might know the truth and be in his true Son.” And again, “Let us love, therefore, since God first loved us.” By loving us, God restores us to be his image, so that he might find the form of his own goodness in us. He grants that we ourselves might work what he works, indeed setting light to our minds and causing us to burn with the fire of his love, in order that we love not only him but also the things that he loves.

SERMON 12:1

Isaiah 53:8

The birth of our Lord and Savior, whether that of his divinity from the Father or that of his flesh from his mother, surpasses the power of human eloquence. As a result, the saying (“Who will recount his generation?”) may rightly be referred to either.

SERMON 30:1

Isaiah 64:4

The brightness of the true light will not be able to be seen by the unclean sight, and that which will be happiness to minds that are bright and clean will be a punishment to those that are stained. Therefore, let the mists of earth’s vanities be shunned, and let your inward eyes be purged from all the filth of wickedness, that the sight may be free to feed on this great manifestation of God. For to the attainment of this we understand what follows to lead.

SERMON 95:8

Isaiah 65:2

If, dearly beloved, we comprehend faithfully and wisely the beginning of our creation, we shall find that humankind was made in God’s image, to the end that he might imitate the Creator and that our race attains its highest natural dignity, by the form of the divine goodness being reflected in us, as in a mirror. And assuredly to this form the Savior’s grace is daily restoring us, so long as that which in the first Adam fell, is raised up again in the second. And the cause of our restoration is nothing else but the mercy of God, whom we would not have loved unless he had first loved us and dispelled the darkness of our ignorance by the light of his truth.

SERMON 12:1