But against this persuasion the impious Jews contend, and would rather die than be conquered, saying: 「We worship one God, as it is written in the books of Moses: You shall have no other gods besides Me, and you shall adore the Lord your God, and Him alone shall you serve; and: Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one」 (Deut. VI). This precept, they cry, was given to the fathers, which it behooves and befits us to keep. To whom we say: Tell us then why your fathers, having forsaken this one God, turned to idols? And they made a calf in Horeb, and adored a graven image, and changed their glory into the likeness of a calf that eats hay (Ps. CV); and served the host of heaven? They add: 「Let them see to that; we know nothing.」 To whom we say:
Hear then, and learn: for this reason was that admonition given by God, that He might turn them to Himself... From there for themselves groves (IV Kings XXI), from there for themselves they presumed unlawful sacrifices, from there many gods, from there false figments and empty idols. Therefore, wishing, as we have said, to turn them from such great errors to the worship of His majesty, the Lord often thundered forth with sacred utterance, saying: 「You shall have no other gods besides Me, and you shall adore the Lord your God, and Him alone shall you serve; and: Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one」 (Deut. VI). For, that you may know for certain what is the Christian faith, we believe, worship, and venerate that same one Lord, invisible, incorporeal, immortal, without beginning and without end.
...that you may be worthy, we bear zeal for the preaching of the truth; and therefore, after what we have said, we still take up divine testimonies, that we may prove Christ to be God and the Son of God, as we have already set forth in some particulars. God the Father almighty says to Moses in Deuteronomy (Cap. XVIII) concerning Christ His Son: 「I will raise up for them a prophet from among their brethren like you; and I will put My word in his mouth, and he shall speak to them whatsoever I shall command him. And whoever will not hear your prophet, I will take vengeance.」 And again in Kings we read: 「I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest, who will do all that is in My heart」 (I Kings II); and in the Gospel the Father Himself says: 「This is My most beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear Him」 (Matt.
XVII)... He says; and Him... He says: hear Him... let the word be to itself and befitting to them, He Himself is proved to be, both the prophet, who is Christ the Lord the Son of God. He is called the Prophet of the Father; but He is the Lord of the Father's prophets; deservedly a Prophet, as the herald of His author, but Himself imparting the grace of prophecy to the rest. For as He is called both Prophet and Angel by the Father, so it is written: 「Behold, I send My angel before your face, who shall prepare your way; observe him, and hearken to him, and do not be disobedient to him: for he will not fail you; for My name is in him」 (Exod. XXIII); whence the Lord Christ Himself said in the holy Gospel:
「I have come in the name of My Father, and you have not received Me; when another comes in his own name, him you will receive」 (John V); and David said: 「Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord」 (Ps. CXVII). But it is said... and let us search through the writings of the other prophets, and thence seek the rule of truth, and repeat what we have already brought forth. The blessed Moses, illumined by the Holy Spirit, said in the book of Genesis (Cap. I): 「In the beginning God made heaven and earth.」 Attend at once to this, that He began from the beginning, and named the beginning, which we understand to be called Christ the beginning, in whom God the Father made heaven and earth;
He made heavenly and earthly things alike in Christ, that is in His power, who ministered by the command of the One commanding; in Him He made, He fulfilled whatever was commanded; for concerning the Father it is written: 「He Himself spoke, and they were made; He Himself commanded, and all things were created」 (Ps. XXXII); therefore in the beginning, that is... God made heaven and earth. 「He created me the beginning of His ways for His works. Before the ages He founded me」; and again in the person of Wisdom Christ Himself says of Himself through the prophet: 「I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, the firstborn before every creature」 (Ecclus. XXIV). Therefore in this Son and through this Son, as has often been said, God the Father almighty made all things, as again He said in the psalm:
「In the head of the book it is written of me」 (Ps. XXXIX). But, says the Jew, He who spoke, He also made. To whom we say: And what need was there that He should speak? If there was no other to hear and to make, was He saying to Himself, 「Let it be made」? But again the Jew says: 「He spoke to the angels」; to whom we say: But the angels did not make it, rather God has, and made it... the Jew; and he says: 「How... can God have a Son... the Jew, invisible, and in heart...」 to whom again we reply, as the Lord did: 「Is it not written in your law that: I said, You are gods, and sons of the Most High, most dear? If He called them gods and sons of the Most High, to whom the word of God was made, and the Scripture cannot be broken;」
「Are you angry at Me,」 says the Lord, 「because I said I am the Son of God? If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, even though you will not believe Me, believe the works」 (John X). Then we say: What seems to the Jews to be said in that which David said, without doubt in the person of Christ: 「The Lord said to Me: You are My Son; this day have I begotten You」? And again, in the person of the Father, that most holy prophet David himself says to the Son: 「With You is the beginning in the day of Your strength, in the splendors of the saints; from the womb before the day-star I have begotten You」 (Ps. CIX). 「Whom He begot,」... He says, therefore you believe, because... we reply, thus the Prophet... and we too so believe He begot... but that... holy divine begetting...
...that as God begets, the Lord begot the Lord, light light, splendor splendor, mighty the mighty, king king, one the one, whole the whole, eternal the eternal, power power, creator the creator. These things we have already said, and we say, as we are able. But that other thing is inexplicable and unspeakable, which is the Father and the Son; the Son of the Father, the Word of the Father, the power and wisdom of the Father, in whom and through whom the Father made all things. This Word understand to be the Son of God, whom He sent for the salvation of the world, as the prophet said: 「He sent His Word, and healed them」 (Ps. CVI). Therefore He is called the Son of God, who is the Word of the Father, not as you in a fleshly and blameworthy sense understand us to say that God begot in a carnal way. For hear Isaiah (Cap.
LIII) the holy prophet saying of Christ: 「But His generation who shall declare?」 Can it be said or explained how the Father begot the Son, how God brought forth the Word? ...I wish to understand in what manner you believe these things concerning Christ; to whom we say: Hear: it is written, the Father saying: 「With You is the beginning in the day of Your strength, in the splendors of the saints; from the womb before the day-star I have begotten You」 (Ps. CIX); He who says 「You」 shows there is another, that is, second to Himself, His Son, to whom He says 「You」: He who says 「You」 declares that there are two persons, both of the one speaking, and of the one to whom He speaks. 「From the womb,」 He says, 「before the day-star I have begotten You.」
By 「womb」 here I understand a sense of majesty, an unutterable fullness, and a profound mystery, the incomprehensible wisdom of God: 「before the day-star I have begotten You」; either before the adornment of heaven, or before the beginning of the Holy Spirit — for the Holy Spirit Himself is called the day-star, who pours the light of truth and of good faith into human minds; and who through the prophets most frequently announced, as a day-star, the coming of Christ the eternal sun. For this Lord Christ, the Son of God, was seen even before by many saints, and is recognized to have appeared beforehand: to Abraham, and to Jacob, and to Moses, and to the sons of Israel in the pillar of fire and cloud, concerning whom God the Father had said: 「Behold, I send My angel before your face, who shall prepare your way before you」 (Mark I);
and to the son of Nun He Himself was seen, who also said: 「I am the prince of the host of the Lord's power」 (Joshua III), indeed He is also the Son of the Father; and He is called His Angel, that is messenger, and prophet, and priest, and child, and advocate, and power, and wisdom, and the rest. For that He was seen by Abraham, hear the Scripture (Gen. XXII) saying: 「The angel of the Lord called Abraham from heaven, and said: Abraham, Abraham, do not stretch out your hand over the boy...」 whence in what follows you will find it written that 「the Lord rained from the Lord fire and brimstone upon the two cities Sodom and Gomorrah」 (Gen. XIX). Do you hear that the Lord rained from the Lord? Which Lord? From which Lord, unless the Son from the Father?
For He Himself also appeared to Jacob, and wrestled with him; whence Jacob himself said: 「I have seen the Lord face to face, and my soul has been saved」 (Gen. XXXII); assuredly he had seen Christ in the figure of the body which He was afterward to assume, with whom he wrestled. For concerning the Father it is written: 「Whom no one of men has seen, nor is able to see」 (John I); and again, 「A man,」 says God the Father Himself, 「cannot see My face and live」 (Exod. XXXIII). This same Angel of the Lord, who is Christ, appeared to Moses in the bush, in the fire; and He Himself said: 「I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and of Jacob」; who is said first to have appeared as the Angel of the Lord in the fire; He then is said (Exod. III) also to have said:
「I am the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob」... to the son of Nun standing on the bank of the river at Jericho... the Lord Christ Himself holding a sword in His hand, to whom, when Joshua said: 「Are You our Lord, or of our adversaries?」 the Lord said to him: 「I am the prince of the host of the Lord's power」 (Joshua III); this is the prince seeking a principality, and He Himself is the king appointed by the Father, He Himself testifying and saying: 「But I am appointed king by Him」 (Ps. II). For in a certain psalm too, in the person of Christ Himself speaking, David said: 「Offer to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay to the Most High your vows, and call upon Me in the day of tribulation, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me」 (Ps. XLIX).
In these verses He admonishes that sacrifice ought to be offered to God the Father, and that He Himself is to be called upon to aid His suppliants, as if He were to say: pay to the Father the homage of praise, and I will furnish you the help of a protector; honor the begetter, and you will find Me a helper. Whence He Himself also said in the holy Gospel: 「I honor My Father, and you have dishonored Me」 (John VIII). We Christians therefore believe and confess one God the Father, and one our Lord Jesus Christ His Son, of whom both the law and the prophets have spoken, and through Him we pray to God the Father, and give thanks to Him, because the Saviour Himself thus commanded us, saying, and all who wish to believe:
「This is life eternal, that they may know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent」 (John XVII). Therefore, knowing the precepts of our Saviour Christ, let us ever praise, through Him, one God the Father, to whom is glory unto the ages. Amen. Long ago Gennadius, in the Catalogue which he first composed, had noted concerning the works of St. Maximus of Turin that he had wisely expounded much concerning the Chapters of the Gospels and of the Acts of the Apostles; and after him John Trithemius, a most learned Benedictine monk, another relater of the works of Maximus, made mention in the first place of the Chapters of the Gospels. Until now those chapters have lain so buried in darkness that none of the later writers has made mention of them;
nor has any of the commentators on the sacred Scriptures given a sign that he has examined or seen it. Yet some hope had shone upon us that the blessed Thomas, who compiled the Catena from the opinions of the Fathers upon the four Gospels, would adduce some of Maximus' interpretations. He does indeed have a few, especially In Lucam, but he did not draw them from the Chapters of which we are treating. But the silence of this later age is no obstacle to our asserting Maximus to be the author of these Chapters. For it is well known that in the course of time many writings of the Fathers have been discovered which lay hidden in ancient manuscripts and awaited the care and diligence of more recent critics.
In editing these, Sirmond, Mabillon, Leo Allatius, Luc d'Achery, the Benedictine monks of the Congregation of St. Maur, to pass over many other worthy men, have won renown and have fortified ecclesiastical doctrine with great supports. As for us, besides those two testimonies of Gennadius and Trithemius, there are reasons that carry no small weight with us. In the first place, the very same arguments meet us as those set forth by Maximus in his homilies and sermons. Secondly, the constant use of the old Italic version of the divine Books, which is unfailing in Maximus. Thirdly, the admirable interweaving of the sacred Scriptures; and whether he expounds the literal or the mystical sense, he shows not so perfect an understanding of the word of God only, but also a singular sharpness of mind.
Fourthly, the style of the expositions, which, although we hold it to be somewhat plainer, nevertheless very many of his modes of speech shine forth, so that they seem to have flowed from the same vein. Fifthly, we add that singular agreement with those works, whether you take the homilies or the treatises of Maximus—a thing very hard to achieve, if another mind and another hand had produced them. Interpolated in various places, these chapters have come down to us out of an antiquity from the Verona codex marked with the number 49; but we have supplied certain gaps from the sentences indicated in Scripture. Moreover, we have corrected not a few errors of the copyist, which are to be pardoned to the age of the times, so that, as far as lay in us, we might render the text purer and more entire. We hope to do something welcome to those devoted to sacred studies, in that we set before them the blessed
Maximus, who deserved most excellently of the Interpretation of the Gospels, for their perusal. Perhaps someone will arise who will rescue from oblivion the Expositions of the same Maximus upon the Acts of the Apostles. Today it has been recited in the holy Gospel that the Lord Jesus in the desert satisfied five thousand men from five loaves and two fishes. Everywhere the Lord Jesus heals all, satisfies all; with him the blind find eyes, the deaf receive hearing from him, lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised, demons are put to flight, paralytics with their loosened limbs are again made firm; the lame run with steady steps, and all glory in his gifts;
the waters too of the sea and its swelling waves, checking their motions within themselves, revere him as he walks upon them, with the obedience of a servant. Therefore today, as has been covered, five thousand men are satisfied by the Lord from five loaves and two fishes, and twelve baskets full of fragments are gathered up. Let us consider, brethren, the wonders of the Lord Jesus. He touches the loaves, and as he multiplies the rains upon the earth, so all things grow into a copious multitude. The bread receives increase, and in wondrous ways amid the crowds of those who eat a white harvest of fragments springs up. All things are made full, the peoples are satisfied;
and still twelve baskets are gathered full, to the number of the twelve beloved disciples, so that the Church may ever abound with the truth (or the plenty) of the apostles, and be satisfied with the bread of their teaching. And so on. Rightly did the most holy prophet David, who beheld in the spirit those who were held in suspense by a religious thirst and kindled with an exceeding ardor, say to him: As the hart desires the fountains of waters, so my soul desires you, O God (Psalm 41). With such ardor did that blessed Mary, sister of Martha, also burn, whom the Lord nourished with his sacred words... in no way did she withdraw... this good woman without doubt bore the part that could never be taken away from her.
For she could never lose what by his benefit the Lord had granted her to possess, since he himself bestows spiritual water upon those who thirst—he who today was saying: Whoever thirsts, let him come to me and drink (John 7). This Mary, therefore, of whom we made mention, shows, as it seems to me, the person of the faithful Church, which prefers to cleave to the Lord—the Church which the Lord ever builds up by his address, which is bathed with frequent flooding from the fountains of Christ, which the Lord, as she sits beside him and clings to his footsteps, does not spurn but rather consoles; he who deigned even to wash the feet of the disciples, so that what Abraham had once done for him, this he might take care to render to the sons of Abraham.
Does it not seem to you, I ask, that this Mary, sitting beside the footsteps of the Lord... we say represents a person... In the Psalms the divine word addresses her: Hearken, daughter; incline your ear, and forget your people and the house of your father; and the king shall desire your beauty, for he is the Lord your God, and you shall adore him (Psalm 44). Therefore from the fountains of Christ, as has been said, the Church is watered. For the Lord Christ loves and has loved the Church, as the Apostle testifies and says: Christ loved the Church and delivered himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, cleansing her by the laver of water in the word of life (Ephesians 5), and so on. Therefore, whoever thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
Let us drink, I beseech you, brethren, those heavenly waters that come from the fountains of Christ, and let us sing to the same our Lord a new song. For the people of the Church, being made new, let them sing a new song also. Let us go forward chanting psalms along the royal way, that we may come to the Father of the Lord. You say to me: what is this royal way? Hear the Savior himself saying: I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me (John 14). It is called the royal way, because he himself is our king; and the prophet says: Give to the king your judgment, O God, and your justice to the king's son (Psalm 71). This is the royal way, this is the fountain of life from which, while we live, the soul receives the fullness of all good things.
From the person of the Lord himself the prophet again spoke, saying: Come, children; hearken to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord (Psalm 33). Come, children. He says 'children,' because as many as received him, to them he gave the power to become the sons of God (John 1). Therefore come, children, hearken to me; come to me the way, that, delivered from the errors and windings of the world, you may proceed by a covered path to the Father. I am, he says, the way, in which there are no crooked bendings of crimes, no wickedness of perversity, no rocky, no thorny places; but all is clear, all sweet, all innocent and secure, where the footsteps of the faithful soul are not hurt.
There is nothing harsh with the Lord, brethren, there is nothing to shudder at with Christ, where fatherly clemency has prepared all things sweet. Therefore from his person the evangelist teaches that it is better to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, one hand, and one foot, than, having two eyes, two hands, and two feet, to be cast into the gehenna of fire, where their worm shall not die and the fire shall not be quenched (Matthew—rather Mark 9). Whoever hears this is doubtless troubled, and would that he were more vehemently terrified; for by fearing the divine precepts one is freed from sin; for the fear of the Lord, as Scripture says, drives out sin (Sirach 1). For he who is without fear cannot be justified;
therefore if your eye scandalizes you, pluck it out and cast it from you (Matthew 5); for it is better to bear a wound of the body than to suffer the shipwreck of chastity, where the soul will perish together with the body. But let not this excision alarm you, whoever you are, of frail sense, so that you think you ought to amputate the members of your body, and especially the most necessary ones; the Lord commanded not the members at all to be cut off, but the vices, and all impulses to be broken, and the assaults of sins: so that where the enemy strikes the mind toward the precipice of damnation, there, with the wall of chastity resisting him, his contrivances of sin may perish.
If your right eye scandalizes you—that is, if with an unlawful intention you delight to behold what could slay, and to make ready swords for yourself with curious eyes—how much more ought you with laudable modesty to guard your eyes with your very fingers, and, covered with the comely veil of chastity, not relax them to any wanton vices, but to snatch away, as has been said, your gaze and subject it to the reins of divine vigor; lest the soldier of Christ be overcome by the fickle enticements of thoughts, nor a chaste woman with playful eyes be held fast in serpentine coils. These things are to be guarded against, dearly beloved. I am, says the Lord, the light of the world; he who has followed me will not remain in darkness, but will have the light of life (John 8).
Let us therefore choose, dearly beloved, the pure light rather than the error of darkness, so that, abiding in the light, by the help of the light, we may be filled with the common joy of a good conscience, ever giving thanks to the Lord, who is blessed unto the ages. Amen. Hence, dearly beloved, with the Lord himself helping, let us speak concerning the word of the Lord: He who speaks sows a word. It is most certain that he who speaks sows a word; he indeed scatters words as seeds, but God gives the increase. For take a comparison: a seed, while it is held in the hand, remains alone by itself; but if it be cast forth, and sown, drenched by the heavenly rain, by divine Providence it takes root and grows. So we too, while we hold a word in the mouth, it alone remains:
but if it be cast forth and in some manner sown, by the grace of God it takes root in the hearts of individuals, and grows, and multiplies in fruits. Therefore rightly has it been said: He who speaks sows a word; and what fruits the seed of God, the spiritual word, brings forth, learn: The fruits of the Spirit, he says, are hope, charity, joy, peace (Galatians 5), and so on. The earth of the heart which receives the Lord's seed bears fruits both joyful in body and in spirit. Whence also the apostle Paul said to his hearers: We have sown spiritual things to you; is it a great matter if we reap your carnal things (1 Corinthians 9)? Let therefore the field of our breast be made fruitful, that it may receive the Lord's seed and enrich it with a fertile crop;
let there not be in the earth of our heart the thorns and thistles of worldly ill-will, lest the noxious weed choke the good seed: let there not be for you rocky places, and the barren ruin of stones. For the Lord abhors such a way, who says: I will dwell in them and walk among them (2 Corinthians 6); but let the earth of our heart be, as I said, good, which brings forth fruits thirtyfold, and sixtyfold, and a hundredfold; that is, let it be multiplied in all good things, let it have in itself the fruits of grain, wine, and oil. The fruit of wine is faith and the confession of the passion and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, who washed his robe in wine and his garment in the blood of the grape (Genesis 49), and drenched the winepress with the ferment of salvation:
by the sacrament of whose chalice those who live are so inebriated by his spiritual ferment that they do not feel the tempests of the world, nor its injuries, nor the punishments of persecutors; so that they proclaim and say: And your inebriating chalice, how excellent it is (Psalm 22). Therefore the fruits of grain, wine, and oil. The fruits of oil are gladness, peace, sweetness, serenity of mind, which, like oil, is borne above and rises to the top; whence the head also is commanded to be anointed, that the head of our heart may shine again with light. In these spiritual goods, therefore, let our mind ever abound, that we may ever give thanks to the Father through the Son. Amen.
It has been recited that, after John the Baptist was slain by the impious Herod, the Lord addressed his disciples that they should cross over into a desert place and rest a little. John was slain by Herod, the holy man by the wicked, the kindly by the impious; but let not the enemy rejoice, for the just man, by whatever death he be forestalled, shall be in refreshment (Wisdom 4). Rightly did the prophet say: how greatly has the enemy done malice against your holy ones (Psalm 73). But he is ordered to be slain at a banquet. What do luxurious banquets not force upon mortal hearts? What do drunken mockeries not compel rash minds to do? O wickedness! Amid the pouring out of wine, the pouring out of a just man's blood is demanded.
It was too little for the abominable lust that such extravagance was carried on at the banquet: a holy man is slain. A wanton girl by her dancing enticed the mind of the impious Herod. She had learned to follow shamelessness from her impious mother. Such a girl pleased Herod, whom lust could please more than an adulterer. The devil found an art by which he might slay the man of God, so that he might butcher the one accusing lust by that very lust. But the unhappy woman does not know that precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints (Psalm 115). It is so precious that by dying he possesses eternal life. But the Lord, hearing about John, went away into a desert place with the disciples. He gathered to himself his flock, lest they be harassed by the savagery of wolves;
lest Herod, the persecutor of justice, should again find some whom he might destroy. He passes over to the desert, that he might refuse the fellowship of the impious and display the wonders of his powers. For the desert signifies the Church, which did not yet have the tillage of the apostles nor the crops of the divine word, but, still uncultivated, was squalid with the brambles of vices and of ignorance. Of which it was said: Rejoice, thirsting wilderness, and many are the children of the deserted woman, more than of her who has a husband (Isaiah 54). There the Lord Jesus comes, multiplies the five loaves, that the Church of God might abound with the manifold gifts of divine grace.
Those five loaves which are multiplied we can understand as the five bodily senses, which are multiplied in spiritual senses. The two fishes are the New and Old Testament, by which men are nourished, but together with the bread, that is, with Christ, who is the bread of life. He blessed therefore, and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them, and divided the two fishes among all (Mark 6); and increases of bread follow, and the fishes likewise are multiplied, and by the sweetness of Christ's gifts five thousand men are satisfied. And they gather still twelve baskets full of fragments; but these twelve baskets show the shining fullness of the twelve disciples;