The Word Becomes Flesh

As we prepare to walk with Our Lord toward Calvary, this reflection from Saint Leo the Great for the Feast of the Annunciation helps us to understand what it means that God became man and willingly took on our sinfulness to offer us salvation.

He took on the nature of a servant without stain of sin, enlarging our humanity without diminishing his divinity. He emptied himself; though invisible he made himself visible, though Creator and Lord of all things he chose to be one of us mortal men. Yet this was the condescension of compassion, no the loss of omnipotence. So he who in the nature of God had created man, became in the nature of a servant, man himself….He who is true God is also true man. There is no falsehood in this unity as long as the lowliness of  man and the preeminence of God coexist in mutual relationship. (Epistle 28 ad Flavianum).