Leo the Great (400-461) may be best known for his famed encounter with Attila the Hun in AD 452. Attila and his hordes had ransacked most of Italy and were now bearing down on Rome. Leo, in his lead role as Bishop of Rome, resolved to meet Attila on the field of battle and appeal for mercy. Talk about a tough ministry assignment! After their meeting, Attila called off the attack. While the story has achieved legendary proportions and has been infused with supernatural elements, it does convey the indomitable personality of Leo the Great, regarded as one of the ablest popes in Catholic Church history. While “Great” was appended to his name for salvaging Rome, Leo’s greatest achievement may have been a letter (called a tome for its weighty content) written to a fellow bishop about Jesus’ dual nature as divine and human. At the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, the church affirmed Jesus is divine in the same way God is divine. Yet the church neglected to adequately address the human aspect of Jesus’ nature, so the theological pendulum swung in the other direction, leading some to suggest that Jesus wasn’t fully human. Some bishops argued that once Jesus came in the flesh, his human nature was swallowed up and lost in his divinity “like a drop of wine in the sea.” Leo’s Tome defended Jesus’ divinity and humanity against any heretical one-sidedness. He wrote, “For He who is truly God is also truly human. To be hungry and thirsty, to be weary and to sleep, is clearly human, and to satisfy 5000 men with five loaves, and to bestow on the woman of Samaria living water…to walk upon the surface of the sea with feet that do not sink and to quell the risings of the waves by rebuking the wind, is, without any doubt, divine.” Thanks to Leo, the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451 affirmed Jesus as truly human and truly divine, “like us, in all things, sin excepted.” Lest you think the church was quibbling about some arcane theological point, nothing less than the very nature of Jesus was at stake. Leo’s prayer at his call to become bishop of Rome conveys his humility and trust in God:
Leo the Great
Lord, I have heard your voice calling me, and I was afraid: I considered the work which was enjoined me, and I trembled. For what proportion is there between the burden assigned to me and my weakness, this elevation, and my nothingness? What is more to be feared than exaltation without merit, the exercise of the most holy functions being entrusted to one who is buried in sin? O you who have laid upon me this heavy burden, bear it with me, I beseech you: be my guide and my support: give me yourself, who has called me to the work and who has laid this heavy burden on my shoulders.
The Fathers of the Church: St. Leo the Great Sermons, Volume 93, 1996, Sermon 3.
Rev. Dr. Peter James served 42 years as the senior of Vienna Presbyterian Church in Vienna, VA — 21 years in the 20th century and 21 years in the 21st century. He retired in 2021 and now serves as Pastor-in-Residence at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Even as a pastor, prayer came slowly to Pete. Read Pete’s story.