The following is from Pope Leo the Great, Sermon 22 (alt. 21), “In Nativitate Domini II,” found in PL 54:196-97
Cap. III.
Hoc ipsum autem, dilectissimi, quod Christus
nasci elegit ex Virgine, nonne apparet altissimae fuisse rationis? ut scilicet
natam humano generi salutem diabolus ignoraret, et spiritali latente conceptu,
quem non alium videret quam alios, non aliter crederet natum esse quam
caeteros.
Cujus enim similem cum universis advertit naturam, parem habere
arbitratus est cum omnibus causam; nec intellexit a transgressionis vinculis
liberum, quem ab infirmitate mortalitatis non invenit alienum. Verax namque
misericordia Dei, cum ad reparandum humanum genus ineffabiliter ei multa
suppeterent, hanc potissimum consulendi viam elegit, qua ad destruendum opus
diaboli, non virtute uteretur potentiae, sed ratione justitiæ.
Nam superbia hostis antiqui non immerito sibi in omnes homines jus
tyrannicum vindicabat, nec indebito dominatu premebat, quos a mandato Dei
spontaneos in obsequium suæ voluntatis illexerat. Non itaque juste
amitteret originalem humani generis servitutem, nisi de eo quod subegerat
vinceretur. Quod ut fieret, sine virili semine conceptus est Christus ex
virgine, quam non humanus coitus, sed Spiritus sanctus fecundavit.
Et cum in omnibus matribus non fiat sine peccati
sorde conceptio, hæc inde purgationem traxit, unde concepit. Quo enim paterni
seminis transfusio non pervenit, peccati se illic origo non miscuit. Inviolata
virginitas concupiscentiam nescivit, substantiam ministravit. [Assumpta est
de matre Domini, natura, non culpa.] Creata est forma servi sine conditione
servili, quia novus homo sic contemperatus est veteri, ut et veritatem
susciperet generis, et vitium excluderet vetustatis.
English Translation :
Chapter III.
This very thing, then, beloved,
that Christ chose to be born of a Virgin — does it not appear to have been of
the highest wisdom? namely, so that, the one born being hidden, the devil might
not know the salvation for the human race, and, with the spiritual conception
concealed, who would see no one different from the others, would not believe
him to have been born otherwise than the rest.
For when he perceived a nature
like all others, he judged that it had an equal claim with all to be a cause;
nor did he perceive him free from the bonds of transgression, whom he did not
find alien to the weakness of mortality. For the true mercy of God, since many
things were ineffably at hand for him to repair the human race, chose above all
this way of comforting, whereby, to destroy the work of the devil, he would not
make use of the force of power, but of the reason of justice.
For the pride of the ancient
enemy was not without reason claiming for itself a tyrannical right over all
men, and was oppressing with an undue dominion those whom it had drawn away
from the command of God into the obedience of its own will. It would therefore
not rightly lose the original servitude of the human race unless it were
overcome in that which it had subjected. That this might happen, Christ was
conceived from a virgin without male seed, whom not by human intercourse but
the Holy Spirit fertilized.
And since in all mothers
conception does not take place without the stain of sin, this one drew
purification from the source from which she conceived. For because the infusion
of paternal seed did not reach there, the origin of sin did not mingle itself in
that place. Unviolated virginity knew not concupiscence; it ministered
substance. [he assumed from the Mother of the Lord nature, not guilt.]
The form of a servant was created without a servile condition, because the new
man was so tempered with the old that he might both receive the truth of the
race and exclude the vice of the former.
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