When in 449 A.D. Leo the Great sent his famous Tome to the Metropolitan of Constantinople, Bishop Flavian, he wrote to him nothing out of the ordinary. Leo's points had been offered by many teachers of the ancient church; such as the Cappadocian Fathers, Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria, Hilary of Poitiers, who was called "Hammer of the Arians," and others. But his Tome was written at the right time and delivered in the right place. Who could have predicted that this clear and simple recitation of the Nicene faith of the ancient church would have such an enormous impact on the church's Christology? Even the preceding arguments of a more political nature could not have anticipated the effect of Leo's Tome.

This is why church leaders should remain faithful students of both Scripture and the holy church's trustworthy teachers. They may be bored with the recitation of the catechism, but sometimes a well placed catechetical reply makes a world of difference. As we read the ancient teachers, we may be offended by the arcane discussions of theology extant in the ancient literature, or impatient with its repetitive character. But all of this serves careful study and gives the gift of readiness because of the repetition. When we are called to account for the hope that is in us, we will be prepared to confess it.

Augustine had previously tackled what appeared to be contradictory dominical statements from John's Gospel: "I and the Father are one" (Jn 10:30), and "the Father is greater than I" (Jn 14:28). Whether Leo was aware of that fact, I am ignorant. But they shared a certainty that both things could be attributed to the person of Christ by reason of the properties of each nature: divine and human. Christ was certainly equal to the Father in regard to His full divinity. This was nothing less than the meaning of the Nicene statement: "being of one substance with the Father." Yet, according to His manhood the incarnate Christ was certainly inferior to His heavenly Father. Both inferiority and equality are shared with the person by reason of the personal union. There is but one united God-Man. He is equal to us in His manhood and equal to His Father in His divinity. What a joy it is to search into those things that the angels in heaven long to see (1Pt 1:12)!

"The nativity of the flesh was the manifestation of human nature. The childbearing of a virgin is the proof of divine power. The infancy of a baby is shown in the humbleness of His cradle (Lk 2:12). The greatness of the Most High is proclaimed by the angels' voices (Lk 2:13-14). He whom Herod treacherously endeavors to destroy is like us in our earliest stage. But He whom the Magi delight to worship on their knees is the Lord of all. So too when He came to the baptism of John, His forerunner, lest He should not be known through the veil of flesh which covered His divinity, the Father's voice thundered from the sky, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased' (Mt 3:17). And thus Him whom the devil's craftiness attacks as man, the ministrations of angels serve as God. To be hungry and thirsty, to be weary, and to sleep, is clearly human. But to satisfy 5,000 men with five loaves, and to bestow on the woman of Samaria living water, drafts of which can secure the drinker from thirsting anymore, 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 winds, without any doubt, is God. Just as therefore (to pass over many other instances) it is not part of the same nature to be moved to tears of pity for a dead friend, and when the stone that closed the four-days' grave was removed, to raise that same friend to life with a voice of command. Or to hang on the cross, and turning day to night, to make all the elements tremble. Or to be pierced with nails, and yet open the gates of paradise to the robber's faith. So it is not part of the same nature to say, 'I and the Father are one' (Jn 10:30), and to say, 'the Father is greater than I' (Jn 14:28). For although in the Lord Jesus Christ God and man is one person, yet the source of the humbling, which is shared by both, is one, and the source of the glory, which is shared by both, is another. For His manhood, which is less than the Father, comes from our side: His Godhead, which is equal to the Father, comes from the Father."