In the printed editions the title of this homily is 'On the Grace of Christ,' otherwise than nearly all the manuscript codices require and than the matter itself bears out. For Maximus treats copiously in it of the Baptism of Christ, not of grace, and of all the codices we have seen there is but one, the Martinensis, in which the title 'On the Grace of Christ' is read. Therefore, following the Turin codex, we have entitled it 'On the Baptism of Christ.' Codices Vat. 1267 and 4991, and Vat. Reg. 125, Casin. 106, the Florentine Laurentian library codex II, Plut. XIV, Lucca 85, Lambach, Monza E III, Novara 27, bear the title 'On the Epiphany,' or 'On the Epiphany,' because the said homily was delivered on the same day of the Epiphany, on which day the solemnity of the Baptism of Christ is celebrated.
There were those who made Saint Ambrose the author of this homily. They erred. For nothing is farther from the style of Ambrose. It ought certainly to be reckoned as belonging to Maximus, whose style it is, and whose method of adducing passages of holy Scripture and of weaving together thoughts is—so at least it seems to us—altogether the same. The eternal Author of our redemption, the almighty Lord, the only-begotten of the living God, remaining ever inseparable with the Father, so deigned to take up for us a perfect man, so emptied himself in himself, though he was God, that he might pass through all the sacraments of the legal ordinances. For as soon as he came forth from the holy womb of his blessed Mother, he is dedicated with the seal of circumcision;
whether that he might show the undoubted truth of his flesh, or lest the Jewish people, nurtured in circumcision, should shun him as a foreigner. Then, because the precepts of the law handed down through Moses could not be passed over, a holocaust of purification is offered for him (Exod. 13:2; Luke 2:23); and for him, brethren, a holocaust of purification is offered, who came to purge away the filth of all men. But when John, sent before his face, was both correcting by his preaching the peoples who ran together to him, and consecrating them with the baptism of repentance,
he himself hastened to him among the mixed and lowly crowds, as one of the people, and with so great condescension did this most kind one submit himself, that he bowed to the hands of his little servant that most sacred head, dread to the Powers, to be venerated by the angels, in order to receive baptism. Seeing him coming to his baptism, and recognizing in him the marks of the Lord's glory, John said to him: 'I ought to be baptized by you' (Matt. 3). That is, the earthly by the heavenly, the mortal by the eternal, the frail by the mighty. 'And you come to me?' The judge to the forerunner, the Creator to the creature, the king to the minister? And will you humble yourself to me, from whom I am not worthy to carry your sandals?
'You come among sinners to baptism, you in whose mouth no guile was found (Isa. 53:9; 1 Pet. 2:22), and through whom the sins of the whole world are taken away: and you subject yourself so greatly to your creatures that you might be thought to forget that you are God. I indeed see a man, but I recognize my Lord; I behold in you a human body, but I understand a heavenly mystery; nor does this appearance of assumed flesh lead me away from faith in the truth: you it is, Lord, you it is, the very one who sent me to these things. But how can I now be ignorant of you standing present before me, whom long ago, while still in the virginal womb and set within a mother's inward parts, and not yet born myself, I recognized?' To whom Christ said: 'Let it be so for now:
for thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness' (Matt. 3:15). 'Let it be so for now,' says the Lord; that is, the things you mention are indeed true, nor do I refuse them; but I have come to fulfil the ministry of servitude, that those whom sin subjects to servitude I may recall to my liberty. Nor marvel, John, if I bow myself to your hands; for he who was content to be born, content to be circumcised, content also to be wrapped in swaddling clothes, how should he not be content willingly to enter this Jordan? Do not think this baptism harmful or unworthy for me; other injuries await me, other insults there are, which I have appointed to suffer for human salvation. After these things blessed John devoutly received him whom, fearful, he had forbidden.
Nor was that chief of the prophets ignorant that the Lord was to be baptized by him; but he was unwilling to complete his ministry without confession; and so faith confessed the Lord, and obedience completed the service. When the Lord had therefore been baptized, both the Holy Spirit was present, and the voice of the paternal majesty was heard from heaven, saying: 'You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased' (Matt. 3:17). Which deed, brethren, is manifestly to the profit of our faith, that both the presence of the Holy Spirit, and the authority of the paternal voice among every race of men, and the testimony of John, and the truth of the Son, and the sacrament of baptism might be confirmed—through which we magnify and glorify God the almighty Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Concerning the author of this homily there is no controversy, since both the codices and the editors wondrously agree upon Maximus. The only discrepancy is in the assignment of the title. Codex Vatic. 1278, page 14, has: 'Sermon of Saint Maximus on the day of Lent.' Two codices, Vat. Palat. 432, page 120, and 435, page 47, differ from each other; for in the first is read 'Homily III on Lent,' in the other: 'Sermon of Saint Maximus in Lent.' In the Reichenau 14 it is: 'Homily V on Lent'; two Cassinese, 103, page 221, and 106, page 375, the Vallicellan vol. II, page 219, the Lambach, the Laurentian I, Plut. XIV, page 141, and the Saint John ad Carbonariam have: 'Homily on Lent.' The Turin codex, however, for the second sermon in Lent, records:
'Likewise, sermon II on the fast of Lent.' Singular is the title of the Lucca codex 85: 'Sermon on the head of the fast,' and it recalls to memory the very ancient appellation of that day in the Church; namely: 'Wednesday at the head of the fast.' That this was in use the council of Agde, held in the year 506, teaches by the canon reported by Burchard in chapter 26 of book 19 of the Decretals: 'At the head of Lent all penitents,' etc. Here it may be observed in passing how ancient was the custom in the Church of beginning the fast on the Wednesday before the Sunday called 'in Lent.'
Nor do we wish to pass over in silence that, of so many codices which either we ourselves have examined, or of which we have received extracts from others, only two Belgian ones, the Martinensis and the Camberonensis, have the title inscribed: 'On the Day of Ashes.' But it seems probable that the same inscription was exhibited in other ancient manuscript monuments, since Damian of Aschendorf, a celebrated Benedictine monk, whose collection of the homilies of Saint Maximus was published at Cologne by Gymnicus in the year 1535—and we know of no other earlier than it—placed the first homily on Lent, assigning it the title 'On the Day of Ashes.' Him the remaining editors then followed: Galesinius, page 107, Combefis, vol. II, page 49, Cumdius, vol. II, page 42, Raynaudus, page
205, Margarinus in the Bibliotheca Maxima, vol. VI. All inscribe this homily 'On the Day of Ashes.' Remigius Ceillier, in vol. XIV of the History of the Sacred Authors, most excellently observed that from this homily it is gathered that in the time of Saint Maximus it was customary to read in the Church on the same Day of Ashes the same Gospel from chapter 6 of Saint Matthew; which rite we see preserved even to this day. Wherefore Francis Cajetan Incontri, archbishop of Florence, most illustrious for piety and learning, in his excellent work (Florence edition, 1762): 'Explanation of the celebrated feast days,' page
56, in citing the beginning of this homily of Maximus, wrote that in all the most ancient codices that Gospel is found affixed to the Wednesday before the first Sunday of Lent, from which it can plainly be understood that on that day the beginning of the Lenten fast was for the most part taken up by the faithful. Since it is the custom of some, dearest ones, to anticipate the approaching days of Lent with a more devout fast, of necessity the present reading of the Gospel has been read through, in which our Lord, the rewarder of spiritual virtues, gave us a holy and perfect rule of fasting, saying: 'When you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, sad; for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear to men to fast' (Matt. 6).
For whoever seeks human glory by the ostentation of his fasting fasts not for God, but for men. And they disfigure their faces who, by feigned mourning, lie with a religious countenance to the eyes of the peoples: for the master of heavenly discipline does not wish that to be done irreligiously which is commanded to be done for the sake of religion; nor does he suffer the labour of those who invoke him, for whom he prepares an eternal reward, to be lost through the vice of fruitless boasting. 'You shall not be,' he says, 'like the hypocrites, sad.' For if you are truly gloomy and sad because you fast, you will reserve for yourself, as one ungrateful, no grace with God: because, although you do a good work, you nevertheless unwillingly work the perversity of a degenerate mind.
But if for the sake of some semblance of holiness you feign sadness, you, an ostentatious show-off of your service, lose the whole fruit of the divine promise. But if you offer your service to God, why do you display it, a follower of vainglory, to men living in the same condition as yourself? Following this sentence, the apostle Paul assuredly said: 'Do not become desirous of vainglory' (Gal. 6). For empty and vain is whatever stands firm with the weight and virtue of nothing. Empty is that which, failing along with the passing world, does not pass over to eternal life: for whatever is laboured for the sake of fleshly honour slips away with the corruptible flesh, as the prophet says: 'All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass; the grass has withered, and the flower has fallen;
but the word of God abides forever' (Isa. 40). Nor can we, most beloved, for one and the same work both seek the praise of a flattering world and acquire the reward of the heavenly life. 'But anoint,' he says, 'your head when you fast, and wash your face.' Truly every devout person anoints his head, whose religious fast grows rich with the abundance of holy almsgiving; and if we think of something loftier, you anoint your head, which is Christ, if, adding better things to good works, you gladden it with simple devotion. You will without doubt also wash your face, and wipe it with all the serenity of gladness, if, made more joyful by divine worship, it is soiled by the affectation of nothing.
Unwashed is the countenance of those who, by a false mourning of the eyes, buy for themselves worldly acclaim; whom the Apostle marks with his verdict, saying: 'They esteem godliness to be a means of gain' (1 Tim. 6). And though these things are so, the Lord does not reject those who mourn either for their sins or for the world, he who said: 'Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted' (Matt. 5). Not reproved is he who, long straying with wandering heart and slippery steps from the path of salvation, strives to restore himself to God by the sorrowful satisfaction of repentance, as is read in the fiftieth psalm: 'A contrite and humbled heart God does not despise.' God assuredly does not despise holy mourning, but he does not wish a servant who is a craftsman to himself, and a sadness feigned by guile, to be carried about:
concerning whom Christ says to his disciples: 'Amen I say to you, they have received their reward' (Matt. 6). How great, therefore, is the hope of their faith, or what expectation of future recompense, who consume the whole reward of their works in the present age through the ambition of a temporal breeze? And therefore, brethren, keep in all things a measure that is inoffensive and pleasing to God: let there be among you a pure fast, a simple mercy, and a wholly sincere devotion, that the full recompense of our God may attend your holy life made perfect by evangelical instruction.