That this homily is akin to the preceding one, everyone will recognize at first glance, since the same thief is commended, and the excellence of his example is illustrated by new arguments. That preceding one therefore, vindicated for St Maximus by the undoubted evidences of manuscripts and editors, adopts this one as its companion. Nor indeed would it be needful for us to heap up particular proofs to show this, were we not eager to build up a greater foundation of the truth. We adduce four: namely codex 99 of Santa Croce in Jerusalem (homily 48), the St Gall (homily 65), and the Laurentian (Plut. XIV, page 285), with the title 'Likewise what follows'; and the Turin codex: 'Likewise on the same, on the blessed thief.' The editors related above set down an epigraph like to this. Gymnicus, on page 129, has it thus:
'On the thief, and Peter the apostle, and the doorkeeping maidservant, homily 1.' Galesinius likewise on page 126, Raynaudus, Cumdius (tome II, page 1335), Margarinus (in the Bibliotheca Maxima, tome VI, page 23). Fortified therefore by these supports, we convict of forgery the Parisian editor and the Romans, who reprinted it under the name of Ambrose, as before; just as the codices Vaticanus 6452 and Vallicellianus II bear that same name. But the title of this homily is singular in the Sixtine edition: 'The collect which the Church reads today, dearest brethren, thus God, from whom Judas also the punishment of his own guilt, etc.'
You remember, brethren, that your charity gave me the reason why this inveterate thief, guilty of such great crimes, and condemned by the confession of his own crimes, could earn paradise on the very gibbet of his punishment, and was saved with such swiftness that grace anticipated his sins before punishment did, and he began to glory in his evils before being punished; for he does not suffer punishment while he earns paradise. To Peter it is said by Christ: 'Thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow afterward' (John 13). And to this one it is said: 'Today thou shalt be with me in paradise' (Luke 23). As it were, that disciple is deferred, and this one is invited as a companion; that one is still reserved for a later time; this one is loved even unto fellowship.
'Thou canst not,' He says, 'follow me now.' It is impossible for Peter to follow the Lord: yet it is easy even for the thief to be with the Lord. 'Today thou shalt be with me in paradise.' It is not deferred to another time, it is not reserved for another; the very hour in which He receives the Lord, He receives the thief also: there is one price for the salvation of all, and to two alike the gate of salvation is unlocked. But faith alone bestowed all this upon the thief. For it is faith that covers, that conquers crimes, that makes the innocent out of the guilty: for however great may be the fault of offenders, yet greater is the grace of faith: it is of more account to have believed Christ than to have offended against the world; it is of greater merit to have hoped for pardon from the Lord than to have contracted guilt from the world;
for just as [unbelief] makes one criminal, so faith perfects one innocent. And Judas, after he lost faith, lost the innocence of his apostolate; for he was made guilty of all crimes, after he denied the God of all virtues. As therefore it suffices for this one, to have raged against Christ for his crimes, so it suffices for that one, to have believed the Lord unto innocence. Faith therefore makes even thieves innocent, and treachery makes even apostles criminal. Perfect faith therefore was in that thief—it is an admirable faith, which believes that the crucified Christ is glorified rather than punished; for in this is the whole form of salvation: it recognizes the Saviour then as the Lord of majesty, when He is seen to be tormented by the patience of His lowliness; whence the Apostle says:
'Had they known, they would never have crucified the Lord of majesty' (1 Corinthians 2). This, I say, is perfect faith: not to believe Christ guilty upon the cross. Hence that thief was justified, because, when the Saviour was set upon the gibbet and the Jews were insulting him, even calling him a criminal and saying, 'Free thyself, if thou canst' (Matthew 27), the thief, certain of his divinity and secure of his goodwill, asked rather that he himself be freed. Great, I say, was the faith in that thief, comparable to that of the holy apostles; save that perhaps it even went before them. For he went before in devotion who went before also in reward, since the thief reached paradise sooner than the apostles. In short, Peter follows the Lord, but this man accompanies him.
But the Lord bestows both the tribute of reward and the honour of recompense according to faith and merit. For all the disciples, as we read (Matthew 26), trembled at the Saviour's passion; all forsook him well-nigh at the moment of his betrayal; and it came to pass as it was written: 'I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered' (Zechariah 13). In the end Peter, though warned, could not keep his faith: he stumbled as often as he was warned lest he fall; and unless the Lord had appointed a certain limit of three times to his denying, perhaps, being questioned more often, he would have denied more often.
For the Saviour's passion brought such trembling upon the disciples that what Christ had foretold to the apostle, a maidservant undid; and the doorkeeper prevailed more toward faithlessness than the apostle toward caution. Not good was that doorkeeper, who therefore let Peter into the high priest's house that she might shut him out from faith in the Saviour. Ill did Eve lead Adam in; ill did the maidservant bring Peter in: she shut the one out of paradise, this one shut the other out from Christ; the one deceived her husband by her persuasion, this one entrapped the apostle by her questioning; the one drove Adam to transgress, this one drove Peter to deny; and the same sex, discharging the doorkeeper's office in both, either shuts one out from life or shuts one in unto death.