Feast of St. Leo the Great

For the first 400 years of Christianity, nearly all the popes, the Bishop of Rome, were saints. How could they not be? Being the bishop of Rome was equivalent to a death sentence. It was your turn to die, to be a martyr under the Roman Empire. After Constantine, life changed for the better. Therefore, the popes during and after the reign of Constantine would not die a violent death, to die a Christian martyr. Therefore, if they were saints, their contribution lay elsewhere.
Today, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St. Leo the Great who died in 461 A.D. He did not die a martyr. He is most remembered for his eloquence in dissuading the barbarians from plundering Rome. Actually, his major concern was the unity of the Catholic Church. He did what was necessary within his capacity as the pope and his contribution to the Church lay in his settling the issue of combining the humanity and divinity of Christ. His writings on the mystery of incarnation settled the controversy.
Jesus and Paul cannot be more different in their approaches. Jesus is the Son of God. He saw things from a higher perspective, from the point of view of God. Therefore, all men were lost sheep, were redeemable etc. Paul was a Pharisee. His earlier training was to be a teacher of the Law. Therefore, some people were irredeemable. They were trouble-makers in the house of God, disrupting the families from within.
For there are many insubordinate men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially the circumcision party;
they must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for base gain what they have no right to teach (Titus 1:10-11).
You will never find the following words spoken by Jesus against anybody, not even to those teachers of the Law. Jesus would not say this.
they are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good deed (Titus 1:16b).
Jesus would patiently suffer their abuses. He was ready to sacrifice himself on the cross for our good. As for Paul, the best way for a bishop to deal with these people was to rebuke them sharply (Titus 1:13).
Before he finished chapter one, Paul made the following observation:
To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very minds and consciences are corrupted (Titus 1:15).
To the pure, all things are pure. It was a very idealistic situation. Subjectively speaking, it is possible for the pure to see things from their own point of view only. Everything they see is beautiful and pure. Jesus could do this. Paul probably could not. This is only a subjective judgment without supporting evidence. It would be rather awkward for me to criticize a great saint such as St. Paul! But if St. Paul were correct, he would only be able to see all things pure. The fact that he criticized indicates that St. Paul was not a pure man. Sorry Paul!

My pure Jesus, you taught us to keep our hearts pure so that we would be able to see God. Purify our hearts so that we may have a pure enough heart to see God. Amen.