That this sermon too was rashly ascribed to Saint Maximus by the scribe of the Cassinese codex 123 is plainly evident to anyone comparing it with the genuine works. I cannot, dearest brethren, utter with my mouth what I conceive in my mind, and my tongue cannot unfold the gladness of my heart. Yet this I suffer not alone, I who long to declare what I feel, but you also suffer it together with me, exulting more in inward awareness than in eloquence of speech. This day seems to me to be brighter than the other days, and the sun to have shone forth clearer upon the world, and all the stars, indeed the very elements, to rejoice; those which, while the Lord suffered, had withdrawn their own light and had been unwilling to behold their Creator, the Lord, crucified.
Behold, now, rising as victor from the dead, He summons them to a new homage of His splendor. Heaven believes, the earth believes, and the net which fished the whole world could not hold the Jews. 'This is the day which the Lord has made; let us exult and be glad in it' (Psalm 117). As the Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Lord, holds the primacy among all women, so among the other days this one is the mother of all days. I say no new thing, but what is confirmed by the words of the Scriptures. This day is both one of the seven and beyond the seven. This is the day which is called the eighth; whence in certain titles it is superscribed: 'For the octave.' This is the day on which the Synagogue comes to its end and the Church is born. This is the day in whose number eight souls were saved in the ark of Noah.
And indeed it would be necessary to unfold things without end. The day will not be long enough, if I should wish to expound the whole mystery of the day. This much only do I say, that the whole grace of the Sabbath and that ancient observance of the Jewish people has been changed into the solemnity of this day. They on the Sabbath day did no servile work. Let us on the Lord's day, that is, on the day of the Resurrection, do no servile work, since we are not slaves to sins and vices: for 'whoever commits sin is the slave of sin.' They did not go out from their houses; and let us not go out from the house of Christ, for we are in the Church. They did not kindle fire on the Sabbath day; let us, on the contrary, kindle in ourselves the fire of the Holy Spirit, and burn away every vice of our sins. Of which fire the Lord says:
'I came to cast fire upon the earth, and what will I, but that it be kindled?' (Luke 12). The Lord desires that very fire to burn in us, according to the Apostle, that the Holy Spirit may glow, so that charity may not grow cold. They walked no journey on the Sabbath day; for they lost Him who said: 'I am the Way' (John 14). But we say: 'Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord' (Psalm 118). And again: 'I have chosen the way of truth.' And: 'Teach me the way of your ordinances' (ibid.). They crowned the Lord with thorns; but we, if we are precious stones, crown our Lord. Diadems adorn the head of the emperors of this world; we, however, are set upon the head of our King, that we may be adorned by that Head.
They did not receive Christ, and they will receive Antichrist; we receive the humble Son, that afterwards we may have Him triumphant. And finally, our goat is sacrificed before the Lord's altar; their goat, the Antichrist, is spat upon and cursed and cast out into the wilderness. Our thief entered paradise with the Lord; their thief, a murderer and blasphemer, dies in his own sin. To them the robber Barabbas is released; for us Christ is slain. For all these things, dearest brethren, let us sing together with one accordant voice: 'This is the day which the Lord has made; let us exult and be glad in it' (Psalm 117). The flaming sword and the gate of paradise, which no one had been able to break through, Christ has this day opened, saying to the angels:
'Open to me the gates of justice, and having entered into them I will confess to the Lord' (ibid.). And once it has been opened, it is never closed to believers. And from that time when the Lord suffered, even unto the present day, this gate is both shut and unbarred. It is shut to sinners and unbelievers; it is unbarred to the just and to believers. Through this Peter entered, through this Paul entered, through this all the saints and martyrs went in, through this daily the souls of the just from the whole world enter. For these are the gates of paradise and the gates of the Church. We enter through the gate of paradise.
Thus, then, ought we to live, lest we be cast out of that house, and, cast outside, be devoured by the beasts, which the prophet in another place, dreading them, remembers, saying: 'Do not deliver up to the beasts the soul that confesses to you' (Psalm 73). Behold, now the Lord, standing in the gate of paradise, speaks to us who are gathered together in His house, and says: 'This is the gate of the Lord; the just shall enter through it' (Psalm 117). Which may He deign to grant, who lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen.