In the Vatican codex 1273, page 16, and in the Sublacensian Homiliary, this sermon, interpolated in certain places, is ascribed to Saint Maximus. We have undertaken to publish it in its entirety from codex 39, Plut. XVII, folio 173 verso of the Laurentian library, in which it bears the name of Saint Fulgentius the bishop. To set forth this sermon to your charity, both the feast of the holy martyr and the authority of the Father invite me: as sweetly as the Father commands me, so does it summon me to obey. And I trust that my lowliness will be helped by God. For God, who then fed the blessed Lawrence, will deign also to feed His faithful. Through him He gives bread to the poor; through the same He will deign to grant us a discourse.
As the command of the blessed Father is present, so shall his prayer not be lacking. For he does not cease to pour out prayer to God, that what he has enjoined may be sufficiently fulfilled -- he whom God has established illustrious both in name and in honor; and just as He conferred upon him a preeminent dignity, so did He pour into his heart a most abundant charity. Greatly, therefore, are we lifted up in hope, when we are aided by his prayers before God. Greatly, brethren, do we delight in the Lord, while we behold the frequent gathering of this devout multitude. And seeing the abundant assembly of your expectation, we recognize the inmost affection of your charity. But charity is not from oneself; rather it is healthfully bestowed by Christ. Christ bestowed it upon His martyrs, He who bestows it upon His faithful.
The charity of Christ, therefore, just as it conquered in His martyrs, so does it lead the faithful to the martyrs' festivals. This same charity you show that you have in loving holy Lawrence, to whose feast you hasten with delight. For the blessed Lawrence, clothed with the strength of charity, fought the good fight, finished the course, kept the faith, overcame in suffering, triumphed in being slain. Now there is a certain saying of worldly men, which is wont to be uttered: 'Among warlike men the one slain is therefore conquered, though he be victor.' This the world says to those who love it; but Christ speaks otherwise to His faithful. For in the holy Church there is found that whereby that saying is annulled, so that he who was slain as victor is not called conquered.
For it is one thing to be slain for the world, another to be slain for Christ. He who is slain for the world is conquered when he is slain; hence he is rightly called conquered, even if he is slain after victory. And so such a one is found not as victor, but conquered though slain, because unless he had been conquered, he would not have been slain. But he who is slain for Christ is not conquered, though he be slain; rather he is truly slain as victor, because when he is slain he is made victor. Now the crown is given to victors; how then is that slain one denied to be victor, who for the very cause of being slain is crowned by the just Judge? Behold, the blessed Lawrence the martyr was indeed slain, yet he was not conquered; but he remained victor though slain, because he is found slain for the sake of the Unconquered.
For Christ the Lord is unconquered, for whom the martyr chose rather to be slain; for if he had feared to be slain for the Unconquered, he would not have attained to victory -- nay, if he had not been slain, he would have been wretchedly conquered. He conquers, then, by dying for the faith of Christ, who would have been conquered by living without faith. Now it is written that 'the just man lives by faith' (Rom. 1). Accordingly, if this martyr had delighted to live with his faith lost, he would have lived bodily in vain, since he would have died spiritually in his soul. For the body lives by the soul, and the soul lives by faith. And Christ deigns to dwell by faith in the hearts of His faithful; for the Apostle says that Christ dwells in the inner man by faith in our hearts (Eph. 3).
So then, while faith remains, Christ remains in a man. When faith departs, Christ departs from the man. And when Christ departs, life departs from the man. For the Apostle says that Christ is our life, saying: 'When Christ our life shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory' (Col. 3). Vainly, therefore, is the body quickened by the soul, if the soul die when Christ departs. For the Lord Himself, to show that faith is the life of the soul, called unbelievers dead, saying: 'Let the dead bury their dead' (Matt. 8). What profit, then, will it be that he seems alive in body, who has been slain in his soul by the death of unbelief?
This blessed Lawrence, full of the Holy Spirit, so reflected; and that he might live forever in his soul, he in no way dreaded the death of the body. For he remembered that the Lord had said: 'Fear not them who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell' (Matt. 10).
The blessed Lawrence knew, then, that if the soul dies, the body too will perish together with it in eternal punishment; and if the soul lives, the body too will live together with it in eternal rest and felicity. Hence it is that he willed undoubtingly and bravely to undergo the death of the body, because in that very temporal death he found eternal life for soul and body alike. Is he not, then, conquered though slain as victor -- he for whom the death of the body was made so triumphant that through that death he became immortal? Now let us attend to the course of his contest, that we may learn from it how he overcame the enemy. From the blessed bishop Xystus, himself soon to be a martyr, he received the treasures of the Church to be laid away with careful diligence.
To do this, what fit person could he seek, what safest place could he find for laying away those treasures? He was afraid to entrust those treasures to any man however great, because Decius Caesar was feared by all. What, then, remained, but that he should think of raising up to heaven what he could not keep safe on earth? But bearers had to be sought through whom all could be conveyed to heaven. He found Christ's poor, whom he could have both as faithful bearers and as fit guardians. Whatsoever he placed in their hands, he stored up in heaven; nay, he consigned to Christ Himself whatever he consigned to the poor.
A great counsel it was, that he should entrust the treasures of the Church not to a man who was subject to the emperor, but should entrust them to Christ, to whom the emperor himself was subject. Whatever, therefore, is laid up with Christ, this alone is kept without peril. Saint Lawrence is found to have used the best of counsels, since indeed he took care to find such a place for laying away the ecclesiastical treasures. And so secure did he show himself concerning the place where he had laid them all, that he led those same poor to Caesar, and the cruelty of Caesar could avail nothing to harm them. Behold how great a power Christian poverty possesses, that it can always overcome every power of the world.
The blessed Lawrence knew that he had taken up a conflict against Decius Caesar, in which his struggle was not for earth but for heaven. He knew, too, that it is written: 'Shut up alms in the heart of the poor, and it shall entreat for thee against all evil' (Sir. 29). Secure, therefore, he ordered the most wholesome counsel of holy Scripture -- a battle of humility and meekness -- that he might attain the true victory. He gathered an army, distributed the stipend, prepared himself for the coming contest, drew up the battle-line, led forth against Caesar the soldiers of Christ, who knew how to fight not with the sword but with faith and prayer. Behold, now they contend: faith and unbelief, mercy and avarice, meekness and cruelty.
A most fierce conflict is waged between vices and virtues; and because avarice could not overcome mercy, unbelief attempted to conquer faith, and cruelty to vanquish meekness. And so Lawrence is handed over to Valerian, appointed to be slain by fire; he is roasted alive upon a gridiron, yet is not deprived of divine refreshment. Then already did Lawrence, victor in Christ, begin to insult his adversary, when by the divine will he felt the coals minister to him not pain but refreshment. Hereupon at last he answered Valerian, saying: 'Learn, wretch, how great is the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, for these coals afford me not pain but refreshment.'
O truly wondrous power of the Lord and Savior, who inflamed His martyr more vehemently with the fire of charity, and armed him against the fire of the persecutor! For unless Lawrence had glowed with heavenly fire, he would not have been able to overcome earthly fire. Therefore he did not fear the flames applied to his body, because he was burning within with spiritual flames. Kindled first with the fire of charity, he conquered the fire of greed; then, holding fast the fire of confession, he did not dread the ardor of the burning. He presented his body a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God. There was fulfilled in him even bodily what is written spiritually of the just in the book of Wisdom (chap. 3), concerning whom it is written:
'For God tried them, and found them worthy of Himself; as gold in the furnace He proved them, and as a holocaust victim He received them.' Holocaust, brethren, is a Greek word, not Latin. What in Greek is called 'holocaust,' in Latin is called 'wholly burnt.' A holocaust, then, was the name given to that sacrifice which was wholly consumed upon the altar. And so the charity of Christ presented the blessed Lawrence as a holocaust, which the cruelty of the persecutor kindled. And Valerian indeed roasted Lawrence, but the most holy martyr offered himself to God as a holocaust and victim.
The impiety of the judge, therefore, slew Lawrence, whom his glorious passion perfected as a holocaust victim, and thus God gladly received His martyr as a living sacrifice. Now Lawrence knew that Christ had said: 'He who ministers to Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there also shall My minister be' (John 12). He ministered in the diaconate, he followed in martyrdom. He was made a midpoint between Xystus and Hippolytus. And since he had learned from the Apostle that what is owed must be rendered to all, so, as a faithful minister of Christ, he rendered to both what he acknowledged that he owed: to Xystus he gave service, Hippolytus he won over. To Xystus the bishop he showed pious humility; to Hippolytus the pagan he offered pure charity.
In Xystus he honored the dignity of the priesthood; to Hippolytus the pagan he preached the truth of the Christian faith. From Xystus he learned to suffer for Christ; to Hippolytus he granted that he should confess Christ. There was preserved in this the manner of the ecclesiastical order, in that in martyrdom the bishop was found first, the deacon second, the layman third. Deacons are indeed wont to go before bishops in the order of procession, but not in the order of passion. Now, however, the Lord so ordained it, that the bishop should go before and the deacon follow; and with the deacon going before, the layman too should follow. Let us all, therefore, rejoice in this festival, and imitate the virtues of the saints as much as the Lord aids us. For here every rank has that by which it may be truly instructed.
Every profession has that which it may wholesomely imitate. Let bishops and presbyters consider Xystus, let deacons attend to Lawrence, let laymen likewise gaze upon Hippolytus. Let the joy of this festival profit all as an example of virtue. Let us all learn to despise avarice, let us learn to love mercy, let us learn to feed the poor, let us learn to store our monies not on earth but in heaven, let us learn to strive even unto death for the name of Christ, let us learn to glow with inmost charity, and for the sake of justice to endure tribulations patiently as though they were coals. For there is for the just a certain burning, namely temporal affliction, of which it is said: 'The furnace tries the potter's vessels, and the trial of tribulation just men' (Sir. 27).
Let us, therefore, most beloved, love Christ the Lord, and, fortified by His power, that we may overcome the incentives of carnal desires, let us glow spiritually with the fire of holy charity. Thus it shall come to pass that we shall not be wearied by the fires of tribulations, but shall be lifted up by the unconquerable refreshment of divine power; and so we shall be led to that rest, where with the holy martyrs we shall rejoice without end.