Sermons 15

From the Turin codex, which has contributed many and excellent things to the honour and increase of this our collection of the works of St. Maximus, it can be plainly understood that the holy prelate delivered 35 sermons and homilies on the Epiphany of the Lord to the people. Of these some were published before now, some are edited either now for the first time by my labour; the rest have perished. But being about to give the series of all those that survive, I shall begin with the unpublished ones. Why I have thought this one should be placed in the first position among them, I shall say afterward, when I have spoken of the meaning of the title. Now this is established: that the manifestation, or appearance, or revelation of Christ the Saviour is sometimes called Theophany, most often Epiphany, and that each is a word carried over from the Greek to the Latins.

Moreover he teaches—he of whose admonition I made mention above, Alexander Politi, in his annotations on the Martyrology at the eighth day before the Ides of January—that to Gregory of Nazianzus this seems to be the difference between Theophany and Epiphany: that by Theophany is indicated the birthday of that same Saviour of ours; by Epiphany, His baptism. But the same Politi fears that this distinction may not seem to have been established accurately enough by Gregory. For as Theophany, so also the word Epiphany is used by the Fathers for the purpose of signifying the birthday of the Lord. Whether fittingly or otherwise, he thinks it not altogether to be conceded.

But however that may be, 'Certainly indeed,' he says thereafter, 'Epiphany, from the most ancient times, was taken not specifically and properly of the day of Christ's nativity, but of the baptism of Christ, on which day Christ made known His divinity to men by sure and manifest proofs. But since on the same day the Church treats with such great celebration not only of Christ's baptism, but also of His worship by the Magi and of the prodigy of the water turned into wine, hence some affirm that this threefold manifestation of Christ was indicated by the name Epiphanies in the plural number.' And indeed in the plural number they pronounce it: Jerome in book I on Ezekiel, chapter 1; Cassian in Conference 10, chapter 2, and others whom Cotelier names in the notes on book V of the Apostolic Constitutions, chapter 13;

Du Cange in the Glossary of Middle and Low Latinity; Baronius in the notes on January 6, the day of the Roman Martyrology; Jacobus Gothofredus on book V of the Theodosian Code, 'On Spectacles'; Suicerus in the Ecclesiastical Thesaurus at the word; and six hundred others name it, whom it would be tedious to enumerate. The Greeks call it 'the Day of Lights.' There survives an oration of Gregory of Nazianzus, which is the thirty-ninth, 'On the Sacred Lights.' Nazianzus gives the reason for this appellation in the same place, page 624: 'The holy day of Lights,' he says, 'to which we have come, and which we have today celebrated by divine favour, has for its beginning indeed my Christ's baptism—that is, of the true light that enlightens every man coming into the world.' At which passage the interpreter Nicetas [says]:

'Baptism,' he says, 'is called by the name of lights, because it cleanses and illuminates. Whence it also comes that at that time we kindle torches as a sign of gladness.' And the beginning and cause of this feast is indeed the baptism of Christ. I return to Maximus. Gennadius relates that homilies on the Theophany were delivered by him. Galesinius retained a title of this kind in his earlier edition of the works of St. Maximus. But we have judged that this and the following homilies should be inscribed 'On the Epiphany,' following the trustworthiness of the manuscript codices of St. Dalmatius and of Turin, in which it is homily number 13—in which matter we agree excellently with Leo the Great, whose sermons inscribed 'On the Solemnity of the Epiphany' are extant. But this one, drawn from the codex of St.

Dalmatius, we have taken care to publish before the rest, because it is, as it were, a kind of prelude to the others. For both the time at which it was spoken is indicated in it, and the mysteries are commemorated in order whose memory is honoured and celebrated on that day—which I do not see done so distinctly in the following ones. Let us exult in the Lord, most beloved brethren, that new vows ever succeed our vows, and joys are heaped upon joys. For behold, scarcely had we with joy celebrated the most solemn day of our most holy restoration, when at once we rejoice over the glorious manifestation of our Redeemer among the nations. For on this most festive day we celebrate the solemnities of that day on which He Himself, born an infant in a stable, willed to manifest Himself to the world.

For lest the nations should be ignorant of His coming in the flesh—He who had descended from heaven to free the whole human race from the servitude of sin—He gave a star in heaven for a sign, which even Judea, unbelieving from that time, could have recognized, yet which the Gentiles alone, who came to His cradle, recognized. The Gentiles alone therefore came then to Bethlehem in the three Magi; but Judea remained in the west, and in the person of those three men paid its own gifts to so great a King. For they offered, as you have heard, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. In the gold, that they might show the beginnings of our redemption, which already appeared in Him; in the frankincense, that the worship of the true religion, one day to come, and the superstition of idols that would cease, might be signified:

...in the myrrh, whereby it might be foretold that his own resurrection, and one day our own from the dead, should come to pass. (Ten lines are missing here, then the text continues.) Therefore, brethren, let us who have come from among the Gentiles to the light of the adorable faith exult in this so great solemnity of the manifestation of our Lord, and let us rejoice in it. Yet no less ought we also to exult, in that on this most sacred festival of this day, as we are instructed by the tradition of the Fathers, Christ himself our Lord, being invited, came to an earthly wedding; not that he might take delight in that banquet, nor that he might make himself drunk with wine;

but that he might show himself to be the author of marriage, and that, sanctifying that same wedding, his divine power might be made known, when to those celebrating the marriage he himself gave the wine that had failed them. He gave wine indeed, and provided drink as well; wine indeed and drink that could gladden those guests, when he himself turned into wine the water-jars that had been filled. This was indeed wine, which the master of the feast, when he had tasted it, judged better than what had already been set out. And no wonder: for the wines they had drunk before had been drawn from the vines by the hands of men and made into wine.

But this wine, made from the water with which a hired servant had earlier filled those jars, had been changed by the working of divine power, which by transforming the whole nature of the water turned it into precious wine that gladdened those who were celebrating the marriage. Seeing therefore so great a miracle, his disciples believed on him, as the divine word declares. They believed now that he was not the Son of man, but the Son of God, which was proved by so great a miracle. This too let us, brethren, believe with our whole heart: namely, that he, though a partaker of our nature, is nevertheless coequal with the divine substance of the Father. Why then, of those who were celebrating the marriage, did his disciples alone, on seeing so great a miracle, believe on him? Those others were attending to the wine, and did not perceive his miracles.

They knew that the wine had failed, but they did not know that the water had been changed into wine. For it is clear, as we have said elsewhere, that from those vessels the one company drank a ruinous drunkenness, but the others an everlasting righteousness: for among the former, what was earthly, which they had drunk, passed away; but among the latter, because it was heavenly, what they had received abode. The end.