Memorial of Saint Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church

 Lectionary: 494

Therefore, although I have the full right in Christ to order you to do what is proper, I rather urge you out of love, being as I am, Paul, an old man, and now also a prisoner for Christ Jesus. I urge you on behalf of my child Onesimus...

Saint Paul's brief Letter to Philemon is one of the stranger documents of the New Testament. My authorities don't question its authorship. Were it a fictional account by an unknown author who writes in honor of the great apostle, it should tell us how the story ends. It would say that the wealthy Philemon freed and welcomed the return of his runaway slave, Onesimus. The formerly useless one --Onesimus means useless -- would now be useful to Philemon and the entire church; and they lived happily ever after.

But there is no such ending and we'll have to wait till eternity to learn what happened. The wealthy man, placed in a very awkward position, might have renounced his faith and his friendship with Paul, and punished the runaway. 

On this feast of Pope Saint Leo I notice Saint Paul's claim to authority over Philemon: "I have the full right in Christ to order you to do what is proper..." 

Saint Leo won the honorific "the great" for his leading the church through a very difficult moment. The German Attila with his Huns was coming at Rome with evil intent. According to the legend -- which is disputed but probably bears some resemblance to what actually happened -- Leo personally went out to meet with the Invader. And persuaded him not to siege and sack Rome. In any case, we know the civil authorities had abandoned the city, Leo had taken charge, and the Invader did not attack Rome. And that was miraculous, a sure sign of God's mercy. It was also a sign of God's favor on the Pope and the papacy. 

Saint Leo also sent his delegates to the important church council at Chalcedon in 451 AD. His contribution -- known as the Tome of Saint Leo -- persuaded the bishops to agree on the full humanity and full divinity of Jesus, not only during his life but through his death and resurrection. Leo insisted that Jesus is a man; his humanity has not disappeared, or been subsumed, dissolved, or displaced by his divinity. 

Because Jesus's humanity remains, he is still the Son of Mary, a Jew, and a male. None of these facts changed upon his death, resurrection, or ascension. 

At Chalcedon, the authority of Rome was established as the center of the Church; the bishop of that city is the pope, the patriarch of the west, and the vicar of Christ. Hence, the triple crown. The Roman bishops' authority had been widely recognized already but Pope Leo's heroic actions confirmed it. At a critical moment he established the papacy as the teaching authority of the church with the additional authority to name the bishops of sees. He may also remove them when he finds it necessary. 

Saint Paul alludes to that political power when he reminds Philemon, "I have the full right in Christ to order you to do what is proper." The papacy would grow even more powerful in later centuries. Pope Innocent III, of the thirteenth century, is remembered as the most powerful pope in history. 

I am not the theologian who could assess the value of the pope's position. I know it is disputed in many quarters. I know Chinese government authorities still resist his right to name Chinese bishops. They would name the bishops and control the Church in doing so, with the additional authority to change its doctrine. That cannot happen. Some western Communist authorities also challenge Rome's authority over the bishops. So long as there is a church among humans there will be tensions and disputes. 

Today we celebrate the courage of a man who led the Church through a difficult moment, and we thank God for the Pope in Rome. If he doesn't make us uncomfortable at times, he's not doing his job.