We see this sermon attributed to Saints Ambrose and Augustine in the old editions of the works of these Fathers; in the Cassinese codex 111, folio 205 on the reverse, to St. Leo; but in the codices of Orvieto, and in two Vatican ones, 1269 and 1272, to no one. Yet not only in the most illustrious Ambrosian and in the Holy Cross in Jerusalem codices 90 and 99, but also in two Laurentian ones — that is, 59 of Pluteus XVII, and 174 of the library formerly of the metropolitan church of Florence — and moreover in the Vatican 6451, in the Vercelli 66, in the Milan codex of the imperial library of the basilica of St. Ambrose, page 214, in the Chigi 16, page 8, in the Farfa one, in the Cassinese 122, page 108, and in the Passionary of Lucca, page (dagger), we read it inscribed to St. Maximus, bishop of the Turinese.
Therefore we have judged that this same sermon should be inscribed to him; and its fragment, not yet published, transcribed from the praised Laurentian codices, we have attached to the common text. I believe that you know the passion of the most blessed martyr Lawrence, whose birthday we celebrate today; and I do not doubt that your charity is able to know how much he endured in the persecution. For so great was the glory of his martyrdom, that by his suffering he enlightened the whole world. Lawrence plainly enlightened the world by that light with which he himself was kindled, and by the flames which he himself endured he warmed the hearts of all Christians. For who by this example would not wish to burn for Christ with Lawrence, that he might be crowned by Christ with Lawrence?
Who would not wish to endure for an hour the fire of Lawrence, that he might not suffer the eternal burning of hell? By the example of blessed Lawrence, therefore, we are stirred to martyrdom, kindled to faith, warmed to devotion. Although the flame of the persecutor is lacking to us, yet the flame of faith is not lacking. We do not indeed burn in body for Christ, but we burn in affection. The persecutor does not put fire beneath me, but the desire of the Saviour supplies fire to me. And that there is a fire of the Saviour we read in the Gospel, the same Lord saying: 'Do you not know that I came to send fire upon the earth; and what do I wish, but that it be kindled?' (Luke 12:49). Kindled by which fire, Amaus (Cleopas' companion) and Cleopas said:
Was not our heart burning within us, while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us (Luke 24:32)? Kindled therefore by this same fire, blessed Lawrence too feels not the burning of the flames; and while he blazes with longing for Christ, the punishment of the persecutor gives him no pain. For in the measure that the ardour of Christ glows in him, in that same measure the flame of his torment grows cold. Blessed Lawrence indeed was labouring under a bodily fire. On the one side he is set ablaze by love of Christ, on the other he is tormented by the persecutor's flame; but the divine ardour of the Saviour extinguished the material fire of the tyrant. For although his limbs are dissolved into ashes, yet the strength of his faith is not dissolved: his body indeed suffers loss, but it gains the profit of salvation.
For blessed Lawrence, brethren, is not put to death by a swift or simple suffering. For he who is struck by the sword dies but once; he who is plunged into a furnace of flames is set free by a single onslaught; but this man is tortured with a long and manifold punishment, so that death neither fails him as torment nor comes to him as an end. For it is said that this continuous punishment was inflicted on him by that most savage persecutor: that, laid out upon a heap of glowing coals and stretched moreover upon an iron grate, a slow flame should consume him, so as not so much to slay the man quickly by burning him, as to torture him while roasting him; so that when the persecutor saw one side burned through, he turned the other side to the fire to be scorched.
We read that the most blessed youths Ananias, Azarias and Misael, shut up in a furnace of fire by the king, walked amid the flames of their own punishments and trampled the balls of fire beneath their feet (Daniel 3). Wherefore blessed Lawrence is to be preferred with no lesser glory; for they indeed walk amid the flames of their punishments, but this man even reclines in the very fire of his torment; they trampled the burning coals with the soles of their feet, but he quenched them by the spreading of his own sides. They, I say, standing in their punishment, prayed to the Lord with hands uplifted; but this man, prostrate in his punishment, besought the Lord with his whole body. Again blessed Lawrence is turned over upon his back, and his loins are burned by the fires;
that the prophecy of the psalm might be fulfilled which speaks in the person of Lawrence: Prove me, O Lord, and try me; burn my reins and my heart (Psalm 25:2). Assuredly he asks to be burned with a twofold fire. For if he were speaking of the one sole fire of the world, it would have sufficed to offer his loins alone to be burned by the flames. But the heart is burned by nothing save the flame of Christ; and therefore, to make manifest his devotion, he asks for a double fire for himself, so that, having engaged in the struggle, he might show that the love of Christ can do more than the punishment of the tyrant. Let us honour therefore, brethren, blessed Lawrence, who, while by his faith he conquered the persecutor's flames, showed us how by the fire of faith to overcome the burnings of hell, and by the love of Christ not to fear the day of judgment.
But we, dearly beloved brethren, if we wish to attain to the fellowship of the holy martyrs, let us reflect upon the imitation of the martyrs. For they ought to recognize in us something of their own virtues, that they may deign to entreat the Lord on our behalf. For if we cannot endure the torments which the holy martyrs bore, let us at least, with their intercession, fight against evil desires. And because there is no lack of daily sins, neither is there any lack of daily remedies. Let no one believe that he possesses any true happiness or any true joy in this world. Here one can prepare blessedness; one cannot possess it. Two seasons succeed one another in their order: a time to weep and a time to laugh.
Let no one deceive himself, brethren: this is not the time for laughing in this world. For we know that every man desires to rejoice; but not all seek joy where it ought to be sought. Truly in this world there has been no joy, nor is there, nor will there ever be able to be. For the Lord himself in the Gospel warns his disciples, saying: In the world you shall have tribulation (John 16:33). And again: The world shall rejoice, but you shall be sorrowful; yet your sorrow shall be turned into your joy (John 16:20). Therefore, in this life, with labour and grief, let us do what is good with the Lord's help, that in the age to come we may be able to gather the fruits of our good works with joy and exultation,