Sermons 216

I trust that readers will be grateful to me, when I bring forth into more splendid light (than it has hitherto had in the appendix of Saint Augustine's sermons, no. 81) this excellent sermon, wrought with much learning. Concerning it the Benedictine monks of the congregation of Saint Maur taught that it was at first left without a name by the Louvain editors among the works of Augustine, and then rejected by Verlinus and Vindingus, because it treats of the Eutychian heresy, which arose after Augustine. A fair and correct judgment indeed. But if it cannot be reconciled with Augustine, will it be repugnant to Maximus? Nay rather, since Saint

the bishop of Turin plainly understood that mystery of iniquity, and learnedly and solidly assailed that very thing in his writings, and condemned so wicked a heresy in the Council of Milan, Maximus himself is to be established as the author of this sermon. Let no one object to me that the same war against Eutyches could have been waged by another writer, or that no documents are produced which confirm my opinion. For all these things, as trifling, collapse, if this same sermon be compared with the preceding one. In that one Maximus discoursed on the marvelous multiplication of the five loaves and two fishes, as it is found in Matthew chapter 14; here he illustrates the passage of Mark chapter

8, where it is narrated that Christ the Lord satisfied a great multitude of people with seven loaves and a few fishes. In both sermons the hidden mysteries are mutually connected: the calling and the rejection of the Synagogue, but the enlightenment of the Gentiles, and the new beginnings of the rising Church, are marvelously explained. Since, then, there is so great a linking, since the spirit of understanding is the same, since finally the manner of speaking is the same, why should we not likewise acknowledge Saint Maximus as the author of this sermon? In the chapters or lections of the Gospels now for the first time being brought to light, there is found the same interpretation by Saint Maximus of this passage of the Gospel of Saint Mark, very closely akin to what is said in this sermon.

There is added the style, which is plainly Maximian, and the manner of adducing passages of sacred Scripture, which was peculiar to Maximus. In many and various ways in the holy Scriptures our Lord Jesus Christ showed the loftiness of His divinity and the mercy of His humanity, as He is wont to do in mysteries and sacraments: so that both those who ask may receive, and those who seek may find, and to those who knock it may be opened. For all the miracles which in this world He displayed under our frailty profit us. Not without cause did the Lord do them, nor as it were in vain and to no purpose. Christ is the Word of God, who speaks to men not only by words alone, but also by deeds. For this too which today has been read from the

Gospel—seeks one who understands it; and when it has been understood, it produces spiritual joy. And in this reading there is at the same time to be considered, in one and the same our Redeemer, the distinct operation of the divinity and of the humanity; and in every way the error of Eutyches is to be detested, who presumes to dogmatize only one operation in Christ. For on either side, either he who shall have said that He was only man will deny the glory of the Creator; or he who says only God, will deny the mercy of the Redeemer. Namely, in that the Lord has compassion upon the crowd, lest it fail either from want of food or from the labor of a longer journey, let us recognize the affection and the compassion of human frailty;

but in that from seven loaves and a few fishes He satisfied four thousand men, we believe it to be the work of divine power. Let your holiness therefore attend, because this has been set before us, which we discuss with your charity: what so great a mystery of this thing means for itself, that in this manner holy Scripture testifies God to have shown Himself to the disciples, as the Gospel narrates. For the evangelist says in today's reading: 'When there was a great crowd with Jesus, and they had nothing to eat; having called the disciples together, He said to them: I have compassion on this crowd' (Mark 8). But let us inquire what He says above: 'In those days, when there was a great crowd.'

For above, the Jews came to the Savior, accusing His disciples because they ate with unwashed hands. These the Lord refuted, because the evils which proceed from the heart rather defile a man. And leaving them, He came into the borders of the Gentiles, where the Canaanite woman, who is the mother of the Gentiles, beseeches the Lord for her daughter, that is, the Church; and she kept asking until she received what she sought. After these things He again healed a man dumb and deaf. Therefore in those days, when a multitude of people had come together, and they had nothing to eat—because the Gentiles did not have the Law, that is, the five books of Moses and the prophets; nor the preaching of Saint John, because the Gentiles had come to the Redeemer not through the Law, but through faith—

therefore they persevere for three days, that is, in the Nativity, in the Passion, in the Resurrection of the Lord, or in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit. For to persevere is to remain in confession, as the Lord Himself says: 'He who shall have persevered even to the end, he shall be saved' (Mark, cf. 13:13). The Lord therefore says: 'They have nothing to eat, because they have not the Law; and I am unwilling to send them away fasting, lest they faint on the way' (Matt. 15); so that those who have believed through the faith of Christ might be saved through the faith of Christ. But some of them came from afar. For the Gentiles were far from God, straying through idols; and now everyone who sins is far from God. His disciples say: 'Whence can anyone satisfy these with loaves in the wilderness?' (Ibid.)

Still unbelief held the apostles, until the mysteries should be revealed, nor did they remember what He had done with the five loaves and two fishes. And Jesus asked them how many loaves they had. They said, seven; and He commanded the crowd to recline upon the ground. And taking the bread, He gave thanks and gave it to His disciples, that they might set it before them. And the fishes likewise He blessed, and set them before them. And they ate, and were satisfied, and took up seven baskets full. Now those who had eaten were about four thousand, besides women and children (Ibid.). And we most certainly believe the miracles of the Lord to have been done in the present event; but let us inquire, by the gift of His grace, what lies hidden in its mystery.

For in the earlier reading, with five loaves and two fishes He satisfied five thousand men: here with seven loaves He satisfied four thousand men. There the disciples suggest to the Lord, saying: 'The place is desert, and the hour is past; send away the crowds, that going into the villages they may buy themselves food' (Ibid.). Here the disciples are wholly silent; but the Lord Himself is solicitous for them. Let us see why they are silent. Because they had not yet been sent to preach to the Gentiles, but rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Therefore that former parable pertains to the Jews; but this one to the Gentiles. There were five loaves, that is, the five books of Moses; here, however, seven loaves, which are the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit, as Saint Isaiah the prophet says:

'The Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of fortitude, the Spirit of knowledge and of piety; and He shall fill him with the Spirit of the fear of the Lord' (Isa. 11). There the twelve baskets full of the Holy Spirit; here the seven Churches, or the seven golden candlesticks. There the two fishes, which are the two Testaments, or the one book of all the prophets, or the preaching of Saint John; here an indefinite number is set down, which are the gifts of graces, as the Apostle says: 'To one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, to another prophecy, to another kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of speeches: all these one and the same Spirit works' (1 Cor. 12). There they recline upon the hay, and here upon the ground.

On both sides there is one manner of life, one grace, one power, one Deity. There they recline upon the hay, that is, the works of the flesh have been mortified, because 'all flesh is hay,' says the prophet (Isa. 40); here they recline upon the ground, that is, they trample under foot earthly works. There five thousand were refreshed, which number pertains to the Jews; for after the Lord's ascension, when Peter spoke, five thousand were baptized; here, however, four thousand, that is, all the nations from the whole earth, from the four quarters of heaven, were filled with the grace of the sevenfold Spirit unto eternal life. And therefore, dearly beloved, we who believe in our Lord Jesus Christ not through the Law but through faith, who are redeemed not by works but by grace itself;

we who are filled not from five loaves, that is, from the five books of Moses, but from the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit, as the blessed Isaiah had prophesied, saying: 'The Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of fortitude, the Spirit of knowledge and of piety; and He shall fill him with the Spirit of the fear of the Lord' (Isa. 11); let us therefore abide in this grace of the sevenfold Spirit, in which we have been called, filled with the gift of the Holy Spirit through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, through all ages of ages. Amen.