Sermons 33

Here we depart from the usual order of the editors, so that we may reckon this homily among the earlier ones on Lent. It is not so much the authority of certain manuscripts that moves us, as the argument of the homily itself. For St. Maximus treats of fulfilling the precept of the Lenten fast. Indeed the title of the Vatican manuscript 1278, page 9, is as follows: 'On the first Sunday of Lent, a sermon of St. Maximus the bishop'; and of another Vatican manuscript, 6452, page 3: 'On a Sunday of Lent, a sermon of St. Maximus the bishop.' In the remaining manuscripts there are as many different inscriptions as there are codices. For Vatican 1268, page 56, offers: 'On the Lenten Fast'; codex 99 of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, homily 39, 'On Holy Lent'; two Modoetian manuscripts:

'In Lent, a sermon of blessed Maximus the bishop'; likewise the Bobbio codex, marked with a cross, and the Lucca codex: 'On a Sunday in Lent'; the Vallicellan, volume II, page 171: 'A sermon of Saint Maximus on Lent'; the Laurentian I, shelf XIV, page 108, on the reverse: 'A sermon of Saint Maximus from the source above'; and it precedes a homily for Ash Wednesday. The codex of the Library of Saint Mark at Venice, CLIII, page 260, likewise: 'On Lent, a sermon of Saint Maximus the bishop'; and finally the Turin codex: 'Likewise on Lent, sermon III.' If so many and so great authorities of manuscript codices had not escaped the Benedictine monks of the Congregation of St. Maur, they would surely have pronounced a more certain judgement concerning this homily.

But since only three codices were available to them—one Remigian and two German—which bore the name of St. Maximus inscribed, they pronounced doubtfully concerning it. See the edition of the works of St. Ambrose, Paris 1690, volume II, page 429, in the preface to sermon 28. Therefore the inscription is to be corrected in the old editions of the works of St. Ambrose, Paris 1569 and 1603, and the Roman one of 1590. In days past, preaching the devotion of holy Lent, we brought forth examples from the sacred writings by which we might prove that this number of forty was not established by men, but consecrated by God; nor devised by earthly thought, but ordained by heavenly majesty.

And therefore he who oversteps the appointed number by eating on a single day is accused not merely as a violator of one day, but is convicted as a transgressor of the whole of Lent. Whence it is good for a man to fast the said number without failure, and thereby to attain equally the sanctity of the whole of Lent. But these things are not so much the precepts of priests as of God. And therefore he who despises them despises not the priest, but Christ, who speaks in His priest. Let us see, then, at what season the Lord has enjoined this observance upon us, whether it be not that through this devotion He willed that all the elements should have their advancement.

For behold, when Lent has been proclaimed, the earth, bound fast by the winter frost, is loosed, and the streams of the waters, the ice being melted, take up their courses again; so too at this same season the sins of our bodies, contracted by wickedness, are dissolved, and the purer course of our life, the rigour of the devil being melted away, recognises its former motion. The earth, I say, when Lent is proclaimed, lays aside the harshness of winter, and I, when Lent is proclaimed, lay aside the harshness of my offences. That earth is cleft by ploughs, that it may be suited to worldly crops; my earth is ploughed by fasts, that it may be fit for heavenly seeds. For just as he obtains a more abundant yield who exercises his field by more frequent ploughing;

so too he receives greater grace who exercises the field of his own body more often by fasting. For behold, in the time of abstinence the grass of the crops grows green again into the harvest, the shoot of the tree strives into a bough, the vine-branch swells into a bud; and all things raise themselves up from lower to higher things: so too at this same season the hope of men, once dead, revives for the future, lost faith is restored unto glory, temporal life advances into eternal, and the whole human race, raising itself toward heavenly things, rises up from the lowest to the higher. Now the husbandman, bearing his iron blade, prunes the tendrils of the vines. So too now the bishop, handling the Gospel, cuts away the filth of the peoples, and in this very forty-day course all creatures do this—

the creatures, that is, in order that, having laid aside their superfluities, adorned and arrayed, they may come forth at Easter. Now all things are in travail, that then they may be found in fruit. For then, contrary to the appearance of nature, the thorn brings forth the rose, the reed is fragrant with the lily, and the dry twigs put forth sweetness: thus too all things are adorned with flowers, so that the very creation is believed to celebrate the festival of the great day by its own splendour. Therefore let us too, in this same time of fastings, bring forth roses from our thorns, that is, justice from our sins, mercy from our severity, generosity from our avarice. For our thorns are those things of our body which choke the soul, of which the Scripture says: Thorns and thistles shall the earth bring forth to thee (Gen. III).

For my earth brings forth thorns to me, when it pricks me with the tribulation of bodily lust. It bears thistles to me, when it torments me with the desire of worldly riches. For a thorn to the Christian is the root of his avarice; a thorn to the good man is the ambition of honour: for these things seem, in appearance, pleasing among their own, but they wound. From these, therefore, we cannot be free save by watching and fasting; because rather, through abstinence, those very thorns will be turned into a rose. For by fasting lust brings forth chastity, pride brings forth humility, sobriety brings forth frugality. For these are the flowers of our life, which are sweet-smelling to Christ, which breathe a good odour to God. Whence the Apostle says: For we are the sweet savour of Christ unto God (2 Cor. II).

This Lent, therefore, the Lord has bestowed upon us, that in the space of this time, after the manner of all creation, we may now conceive the seeds of virtues, so that on the day of Easter we may bring forth the fruit of justice. And with this forty-day number the Lord Himself was exercised, not that He Himself might take any advantage, but that He might show us the advancement of salvation. For there was in Him no thorn of sin that might be turned into a flower; for He Himself was the flower, born not of a thorn, but of a rod, as the prophet says: There shall come forth a rod from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up from his root (Isa. XI): for the rod was Mary, gleaming, slender, and a virgin, who by the integrity of her body brought forth Christ as it were a flower.

For forty continuous days, then, the Lord provided these fasts without hungering: but the evangelist says (Matt. VIII) that He hungered afterward. How then can it come about that He who through so many days felt neither hunger nor thirst, hungered afterward? He hungered plainly, nor can we deny that He hungered; for He hungered not for the food of men, but for salvation: nor did He desire the feasts of worldly viands, but longed for the heavenly sanctity of souls. For the food of Christ is the redemption of the peoples; the food of Christ is the accomplishment of the Father's will: as He Himself says: My food is to do the will of the Father, who sent me (John IV).

Whence let us too hunger for that food, not the food that is prepared with earthly viands, but the food that is gathered by the reading of the divine Scriptures. For the one nourishes the body for a time, but this refreshes the soul unto eternity. Here it ends.