Sermons 262

Whether Maximus is the author of this sermon, as Cave will have it, we doubt. The Maurists, in the appendix to the works of St. Ambrose (1690, sermon 52, p. 574 of the Venice edition of 1751), deny that it was possible for Ambrose to compose sermons on Saints Nazarius and Celsus, since the bodies of these martyrs were found in the last part of his life. You have heard, most beloved brethren, from the reading of the Gospel, that the Lord called the apostle Philip to follow Him. But he immediately found Nathanael, and exhorted him to come with him to the Lord; which deed most aptly fits today's festivity, because just as the apostle Philip called Nathanael, so the blessed martyr Nazarius led the boy Celsus to the Lord. For to him also most aptly is fitting:

Behold a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile (John 1). For boys are wont to be without guile and treachery; whence in another place the Lord says: Unless you become as this little child, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18). It behooves us, therefore, to imitate what we celebrate on today's festivity, so that whoever has been called by the grace of God to Christ may draw and invite others with himself, and show love to his neighbors without guile and without fraud. For it is guile if anyone speaks to his neighbor with his mouth, and keeps anger in his heart. Whoever does this cannot be a true Israelite, because he will not merit to behold the Lord. For it is written: Blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God (Matthew 5).

Let each one question his own conscience, and if from his neighbor he has received a word of injury, or any other calumny whatsoever, let him forgive it for the love of God, and with St. Nathanael let him be worthy to see heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. May He Himself deign to grant this.