How marvelous the power of the cross; how great beyond all telling the glory of the passion: here is the judgment-seat of the Lord, the condemnation of the world, the supremacy of Christ. [The] cross is the source of all blessings, the cause of all graces. Through the cross the faithful receive strength from weakness, glory from dishonor, life from death. God’s compassion for us is all the more wonderful because Christ died, not for the righteous or the holy but for the wicked and the sinful.

—Leo the Great, Sermon 8 for the Lord’s Passion