Although this homily has a close connection with the two preceding ones, the copyists of the manuscripts nevertheless disagree among themselves: some of them, as in the Vatican codex 4632, inscribe it with the name of Saint Leo the Great; a few, as in the Laurentian codex I, Plut. xiv, page 112, on the reverse, with the name of Saint Ambrose; but most, as in the Sangallensis homily 59 on Lent, in the 99th of Holy Cross in Jerusalem, and in the Turin sermon 21, with the name of Saint Maximus. And indeed it is neither reckoned among the sermons of Saint Leo by the Ballerini brothers, who most diligently prepared the latest edition of his works, nor is it attributed without hesitation to Saint Ambrose by the monks of Saint Maur.
Therefore we shall never grant that it is not by Maximus, unless it be shown by the authority of ancient codices and by the evidence of reasons that either Leo, or Ambrose, or some other person was the author of this same homily. We wish our readers to be advised of this: that the sermon in which there is treatment of the bitter water which Moses made sweet is referred by the Benedictine monks of Saint Maur to the appendix of the works of Saint Augustine under number 25, for the reason that it is read in almost the very same words in Origen, homily 7 on Exodus. But you will find nothing similar in this homily of Saint Maximus, if you turn your attention to Augustine's words, which we have reported on the pages following.
Your minds still retain, brethren, that we preached this on the preceding Sunday: that those forty-two encampments were a figure of this our Lent, through which the people of Israel, going out from Egypt, by a daily advance entered the land of promise, and as by certain steps of salvation ascended, after the yoke of servitude, to the kingdom (Numbers 33). It was, I say, a figure in those encampments of our fasts, not only in the quantity of number, but also in the observance of virtues; for the sons of Israel did not so much walk in the way of the desert with the steps of the body, as they advanced in the way of the Lord by religious deeds.
Plainly they walked in the way of the Lord, which gave them drink in the waves and fed them from heaven. For to those who hungered in the wilderness the manna was not wanting, and for those in peril in the sea the earth did not flee. There the sea is spread out into a path; here heaven is opened for food. On account of the grace of the servants of God the Jordan holds back its streams; myrrh changes its water. There the wave that followed, turned backward, goes before; here the spring that dripped bitterness, tempered into something sweeter, grows sweet, and in a wondrous manner the river lost its course, the fountain its flavour.
But since we have said that the sons of Israel, coming to Marah, suffered from the bitterness of the water, and could not drink it except by the casting in of wood, let us see that there was also in it a type of the Old Testament, from which this same people, setting out from there, arrived (at the next stage). It arrived at the place which is called Elim, in which there were twelve most pure springs, and a multitude of seventy flourishing palm trees. See the mystery of God: how after the bitterness of the law the streams of gospel piety overflow. There one spring is harsh to drink; here many springs are all sweet to drink. There after weariness no refreshment; here after labour refreshment and victory. For to the thirsty the springs are supplied, and to the victorious the palms are offered.
The palms, I say, are offered to the victorious, because to have arrived, after the harshness of the law, at the grace of the Gospel, is to have conquered. For it is a certain prize of the victor to wash his mouth at the living fountain, to arm his right hand with the palm of triumph. For through the fountain the tongue of confession is purified, through the palm the martyr's right hand is honoured: the one, because it exalted the glory of Christ; the other, because it refused the altar of sacrilege. For the palm of martyrdom is a certain prize, which grants to the confessing tongue sweet fruit, and bestows on the victorious right hand a glorious ornament.
The palm is plainly sweet to the martyrs as food, shady for rest, honourable for triumph, ever green, ever clothed with leaves, ever ready for victory; and therefore the palm does not wither, because the glory of the martyrs does not wither. Those same palms, moreover, are offered by the people to the Lord as He sits upon the ass and comes to the temple. For when the disciples spread their garments and paved the way for Christ with their own clothing, He had no greater reward, save the palms, which the devotion of the people offered Him—signifying, by the garments strewn in the way, that the way is undefiled in the world; by the palms offered, that He Himself is the victor of the world. He Himself, I say, is the victor, of whom Scripture says: 'The lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered' (Revelation
5)—He Himself is plainly the victor, who destroyed the death of the devil and illumined eternal life. Palms therefore are raised up for the coming Christ. It is written: 'The just shall flourish like the palm tree' (Psalm 91). Rightly, then, are the banners of righteousness raised up for the coming Just One, and the tokens of triumphs pay homage to their author. But before the palms are taken up, the way of the Lord is covered with the garments of the disciples all the way to the temple, and, that the path of the Saviour may be undefiled, it is paved with the cloaks of the apostles. And indeed think that this was done as a mystery. For the way of Christ, which leads to the temple, is His faith and doctrine.
This way, therefore, the disciples—that we might walk without stumbling—stripping off the garments of their own bodies, paved with their martyrdom, so that amid the throngs of diverse nations they might spread the garments of their members beneath the path of righteousness, and cover the miry filth of the world, and show forth the undefiled way of the Saviour. To the twelve springs, therefore, the people of Israel came after Marah. We read in the prophet: 'Bless the Lord from the springs of Israel' (Psalm 67). The springs of Israel are the Lord Christ, who is learned only through the mouths of the apostles and the teaching of the disciples.
The apostles are to be called springs, because like most pure springs they poured forth the grace of preaching, and after the bitterness of the law the abundant wisdom of their veins distils the sweetness of the sacrament's draughts. Nor is it wonderful if the drink of the springs is sweet, in whose bosom the food of the palms is sweeter. The apostles, therefore, are springs, who watered the face of the whole earth with the river of their teaching, and gave to the weary peoples of the nations the drink of the divine mystery. But the seventy palms, produced beside the apostolic springs, I would call those seventy disciples who, in the second rank after the apostles, are sent forth by the Lord for the salvation of men; whom Luke the Evangelist (chapter 10), describing them, asserts to have been appointed two by two.
They indeed, like palms returning with exultation after their labours among men, glory in the presence of the Lord that even the demons are subject to them. Rightly, therefore, are they compared to palms, who by the prize of the palms stood forth as victors over the devil.