I have not dared to attribute to Saint Maximus this sermon, inscribed to him in the Sankt Gallen codex, because it differs from the elegant and polished discourse of Maximus, and because it is inscribed to him in no other codex. The apostle Paul, when he wished to commend to the Corinthians Luke, the author of the Gospel, judged that he could give no greater testimony than to say that his praise was contained in the Gospel. Writing about him, he says: "We have also sent with him the brother whose praise is in the Gospel throughout all the Churches" (2 Cor. 8); so therefore let us also, dearest brethren, after the example of the supreme Apostle, say something to you concerning the praises of John the Baptist, whose feast we now keep in honor of the Lord.
As we strive to speak, we can bring nothing greater than to say that his praise stands in the Gospel; and you should reckon that nothing better can be contained in that saying. For it is already a vast and inestimable thing to be proclaimed in the Gospel, since the question is not so much whether someone is praised, as by whose authority he is praised; and this is conferred by a great witness. Indeed, to be praised badly by the bad is itself a reproach, for corrupt praise is a kind of censure; and rightly is he judged most praiseworthy whose praise stands in the Gospel, since surely those things praise him which cannot themselves be worthily praised. And it is true. For if those to whom good and wise men bear witness are rightly thought to be good, of what sort at last will they be judged to be who are praised by Christ Jesus?
But before we come to the very testimony of the Lord's title, let us see what things were said and written concerning him before his birth, so that from this we may understand how great a man he must be reckoned, who was proclaimed long before he was born, and who began to have the beginning of his praise before he had the beginning of his light. And first the evangelist Mark opened his Gospel with that prophecy which proclaimed him most worthy in birth and in power; believing, no doubt, that he held this for the beginning of his Gospel, namely that this man had received such praises, especially since whatever he had said in praise of the Lord's forerunner redounded wholly to the praise of the Lord. He began thus (Chapter I): The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet.
Behold, I send my angel before your face, who shall prepare your way. He whom the Lord named an angel must be reckoned as more than of human merit: Behold, he says, I send my angel before your face; he was not yet brought forth into this world, and already by the Lord he was called an angel. Truly a man of outstanding and well-nigh singular testimony, who, merely by anticipating his own birth, merited by heavenly dignity to precede his own rising with honor; plainly worthy to stand as the forerunner of the Lord, he who had even gone before himself in titles: Behold, he says, I send my angel before your face (Malachi III; Matthew XI; Mark I).
Let us consider by what appellation He deemed each one worthy, and we shall find that another was called simply a man, another indeed a just man, a son, a faithful servant; scarcely any was called an angel—not because angels are not servants of God, but because they are set apart from men both in place and likewise in honor. For servants of God are men, and old men, and angels too; yet we are men, while they, the angels, were made by the Lord so much greater, that those whom their very seat and blessedness set apart from men, even the sharing of a common name did not put on the same footing. And therefore the Lord did not call John holy, or good, or elect, but an angel. Why then an angel?
Namely, so that He might grant him even a title befitting the sublimity of his virtues, and that he who had surpassed the measure of human merit might take the name of a supernal dignity, and might attain as much honor through the magnificence of his faith as heavenly beings possessed by their nature. Nor is there any doubt of it; for the evangelist adds (since the Lord had above named him an angel): who shall prepare, he says, your way. Therefore he alone merited to be called an angel, because he alone was worthy of preparing the way for the Lord; for it is a great and singular testimony indeed, to whom the office of preparer is entrusted.
For just as, in earthly duties, the most skillful person is appointed by a fleshly master to prepare what is needful for his coming—one who knows, of course, what he ought to provide for his master who is to come, what to make ready, what lodging, what vessels for the service, what delights for the banquet, lest either a gloomy dwelling or squalid furnishings should displease the master of the house when he arrives—so too holy John, when he was sent by the Lord to prepare, was first instructed by Him who sent him, and, that he might be able to make ready things pleasing to God, he himself long before became pleasing; and being about to procure ways and dwellings for Christ, he himself first became His way and His dwelling; nor indeed could he have known the Lord's delights, unless he had long since experienced by what things he might delight the Lord.
For after long use and lasting proof, he received, as the most fitting reward of proven intimacy, this: that he understood how to prepare the Lord such as he had prepared himself for the Lord Himself. But lest perhaps we should be thought to say these things only by reasoning or conjecture, let us see whether what we say of the Lord's judgment held concerning him, the Lord Himself also attests. We read in the Gospel of Luke that the angel of the Lord said to Zechariah his father: Fear not, Zechariah, for behold, your prayer is heard, and your wife Elizabeth shall bear a son, and you shall call his name John; and there shall be joy and gladness to you, and many shall rejoice at his birth:
for he shall be great before the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink, and he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb (Luke I). Behold that which we mentioned above, that long before this office of preparation for the Lord he had been both a vessel, and a way, and a house of the Lord: for he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb; therefore without doubt he had the Holy Spirit within himself, whom he received at the very beginning of his birth. Happy indeed, and of outstanding blessedness, to whom, as he came forth from the womb and was about to take in this common air, it fell first to draw in the Lord before the light. To him therefore it came to pass that God appointed him worthy of the preparation, in whom the Spirit of God had dwelt; for by Him he was taught, by Him instructed; not by hearing, but by use;
not by reading, but by recognition, not by seed, but by intimacy, all things that would please the Lord; while he himself pleases, he came to know Him, so that it is no wonder that he had within himself the very One who prepares. The same things must be repeated rather often, so that being repeated they may be more fully known; for just as with little infants, who cannot take in the food they need except by much and constant fore-tasting, so too we are not able to grasp the force and greatness of heavenly sayings, unless we take them in at intervals. Therefore, he says, he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. We have said what it means to receive the Holy Spirit at once from the womb;
but because to receive is less than to be filled, the evangelist, in order to set forth the magnificence of the sacred gift, did not say he shall receive the Spirit, or the Spirit shall enter in, but he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit. What is this, he shall be filled? I think that a thing is said to be so filled that nothing is left empty in that which is filled; and so holy John was so filled with the Spirit of the Lord that he could receive within himself nothing else besides that with which he was filled, and, all things being shut out which are wont to occupy the empty senses of men, in him alone reigned that fullness which had filled him. And so it came to pass.
For never did there appear in him any sign of luxury, or of avarice, or of anger, or of gluttony, or in short of that somewhat weaker affection. If lust wished to approach, it was tamed by chastity; if wickedness, it was repressed by kindness; if slackness, it was overcome by severity; for once the man had been sanctified within and without, nothing worldly could any longer enter into him, where the Lord had filled all things; since indeed even the Gospel reading which we began a while ago teaches thus in what follows, saying: John was in the desert baptizing and preaching the baptism of repentance (Luke I). Now why in the desert? For a throng seems rather more suitable to this office, since one who preaches to many is heard by many.
But this man, of whom we spoke above, the Holy Spirit filled at once at the very beginning, so as to preserve utterly the purity of his sacred office; and it was more fitting for him to dwell in the desert—namely, that the very place might set him apart from the fellowship of human defilement; and thus he himself might bring healing to the languishing, yet not feel the contagion of their languor within himself. And so to him as he baptized, no one, as I judge, came except one already purified or one to be purified. Blessed plainly, to whom, sanctified from the womb, only a choir of the sanctified stood by; their filth being washed away through repentance, a people arrayed in white clung to the man of white and shining conduct, giving him no less in the future gift than in the present honor;
since indeed he was surrounded by a crown of purified men, so that he himself might be to all a cause of purity; plainly worthy that in repentance he should wash the rest with water for the remission of their crimes, he who was himself washed by the Spirit, in whom the Lord had made a fountain of cleansings to flow. Hence, therefore, came that which the Gospel had proclaimed, that he was filled from birth with the Holy Spirit; because by that fullness of the divine gift the office was even then being prepared for him, namely, that the river of sacred bounty should so flow in him that it might overflow even into others. Now those things which are elsewhere written of him pertain to the same point. A girdle, it says, of leather about his loins; and his food was locusts and wild honey (Matthew III; Mark I).
A girdle, it says, of leather about his loins. Even those things which in the sacred Scriptures seem of small appearance are nonetheless to be venerated for their great mystery; for since without doubt that which the Lord speaks is divine, and the same thing cannot be at once trifling and divine, even those things which seem small in the sacred Scriptures are by this very fact to be understood as great, that they are divine. For although they may seem slight and weak, the cause lies not in them, but in us. For not understanding the force of the sacred sayings, we suppose those things to be slight which are great. Whence it is clearly to be understood that those things are not weak which upon consideration are found great; but rather that we are weak, by whom things that are great are believed to be weak;
as in this which we mentioned above: A girdle, it says, of leather about his loins. What seems so trifling in appearance? For what of it? Or what advancement is there in this, that it was of leather, or about the loins? As though nearly all who have girdles do not have them about their loins, or as though men could not gird their hands, or feet, or heads, or necks with this girdle. But from this very thing the wonder of the sacred Scriptures is the greater, that in this it hides immense and inestimable riches under the covering of lowly words, and within they are great, though within they seem to promise it nothing.
Namely, because by this very thing the Lord willed to declare how great was the force of the sacred majesty, that even in the most lowly things He had stored up the greatest treasures, and had made great things out of matters of mean appearance. A girdle, it says, of leather about his loins; we see that mention of girdles and loins is made very often in the holy Scriptures. Therefore let us examine what the sacred reading is wont to declare in loins and girdles; so that, when we have recognized what a girdle is to be taken to mean, we may also be able to understand what a leather girdle is. We read in Exodus (Chapter
XII), among the other preparations for the paschal feast, that this was especially commanded by the Lord: that all who were to celebrate the Lord's solemnity should first gird their loins; for he would plainly be unworthy to touch the holy food of immortality who had not first merited the communion of the sacred body by the girding of his loins. Here it ends.