Sermons 113

That the series of sermons may conform to the order which we established in arranging the homilies, this sermon is to be placed before the orations on the Nativity of the Lord. Of its author, St. Maximus, as we read in the Vatican codex 1267, page 13, whence it is transcribed, there can be no doubt; since the holy prelate of Turin treated of the same Gospel parable in the second homily of this collection. The title On the Advent of the Lord, which is found in that codex, we have rejected, since in that place we said, following Mabillon and Muratori, that it was introduced into the Church much later, in the fifth and sixth centuries. The sermon is extant in three other codices: in the Vatican of Queen 425, and the Vatican Palatine 1276, as well as in the Vallicellan II, inscribed to Augustine, as in the codex

E III of Monza. But the Benedictine monks of the congregation of St. Maur did not accept it among the Augustinian sermons, nor did they mention it in the appendix. Who are the two in that night in one bed, and the two women grinding together, and the two in the field, of all of whom, out of each pair, one shall be taken and one shall be left? Three kinds of men seem here to be signified. One, of those who love leisure and quiet, occupied neither with worldly affairs nor with ecclesiastical affairs, whose repose is signified by the name of the bed. Another, of those who, being placed among the common people, are governed by teachers, doing the things that are of this world, whom He signified also by the name of women, because, as I said, it is expedient for them to be governed by the counsels of the skilled.

And He said 'grinding' on account of the round and circuit of temporal affairs. Yet He said them grinding 'into one,' inasmuch as out of their own things and affairs they furnish for the uses of the Church. The third, of those who labor in the ministry of the Church, as it were in the field of God; of which cultivation of the field the Apostle speaks. In these three works, then, there are again two kinds of men in each, and they are distinguished according to the strength of their powers. For although all seem to belong to the members of the Church, yet when the temptation of tribulation comes, both from those who are in leisure, and from those who are in the affairs of the world, and from those who minister to God, some remain in the Church, some fall.

Those who remain are taken; those who fall are left. Therefore one shall be taken, and one shall be left. It is said not as of two men, but of two kinds of dispositions in each of the three kinds of dispositions. He said 'in that night,' that is, in that tribulation. To these three kinds which are taken I think there pertain also those three names of holy men, whom alone the prophet Ezekiel declares are to be delivered, Noah, Daniel, and Job. For this seems to pertain to those by whom the Church is governed, just as by that man the ark was steered through the waters, which bore the figure of the Church. Daniel, however, because he chose the celibate life, that is, despised earthly marriages;

that he might live without anxiety, as the Apostle says, taking thought for the things of God, he signifies the class of those who are at leisure, yet most valiant amid tempests, so that they may be taken up. But Job, because he had both a wife and children and abundant supplies of earthly goods, belongs to that class to which the mill is assigned; yet these too must be most valiant amid tempests, as that man was. Not otherwise can they be taken up. Nor do I think there are other kinds of men of whom the Church is composed than these three, each having its twofold distinction on account of being taken up or being left behind; although in each of them many diversities of pursuits and desires may be found, all converging toward concord and unity.