Sermons 48

There are eight codices in which we read this homily ascribed to St Maximus, of which the oldest is the codex of St Gall, homily 66; then that of Ratisbon, of St Emmeram, page 23; the Martinian, homily; the Laurentian X, Plut. XIV, page 76; the Turin one, with the title 'Likewise, On the Penitence of Peter, and On the Maidservant'; the rest have 'Likewise, what follows.' The Cassinese codex, page 2 on the reverse, and the Reichenau XV do not agree in their titles; for in the first is read 'On the Penitence of Peter,' in the other 'On the Holy Day of Easter.' It is found also in the Ambrosian codex H 146, written eight hundred years ago and more, which we name in the eighth place. Therefore the Vatican codex 1270, in which alone St [it is ascribed to] ...

... to Ambrose named [in it], and the editors of Paris and Rome, ascribing this homily to that same holy doctor, do not have such force as to overturn the consensus of very many manuscripts; the more so as against them stand Gymnicus, no. 133, Galesinius, page, Raynaudus, page 216, Cumdius, tome II, page 1336, and Margarinus in the Bibliotheca Maxima, tome VI, page 23. To these, who assign to the homily the title 'On the Penitence of Peter and the Maidservant Doorkeeper,' we have given our assent. The Benedictine monks of the Congregation of St Maur, in the oft-praised preface to the sermons of St ...

... of Ambrose warn that everything cries out Maximus as the author of this homily, and they profess to think the same concerning the remaining homilies which are linked together among themselves. We have said, brethren, that after the likeness of Eve the doorkeeping woman deceived Peter also; and just as a woman entrapped Adam, so also a woman circumvented the apostle. For that sex is the accustomed instrument for deceiving: the devil recognizes in the doorkeeper the little vessel of his own fraud, because he has been wont to assail faithful men only through woman. There he puts Adam to flight through Eve (Genesis 3); here he overcomes Peter through the doorkeeper; for the devil was, as we read, in the paradise of delights, nor was he absent, as we understand, in the Jews' praetorium. There Satan the serpent was pressing hard;

here Judas the serpent was pressing on. There is therefore the same likeness of deception in Peter as there was in Adam, since the likeness of the command is also the same. For each received a command from the Lord: Adam that he should not touch, and the apostle that he should not deny; the one that he should not presume upon the tree of knowledge, this one that he should not pass over the cross of wisdom; but each, transgressing the precept, sins in like manner; the one tastes what is not lawful, this one speaks what is not fitting; and yet Peter's denial is easier than Adam's transgression, for the apostle is succoured sooner than the first-formed man. For God seeks out the one erring at evening, but the Lord seeks the other denying at cockcrow.

Adam, guilty of a deed, blushed naked; Peter, conscious of a word, groaned when rebuked; the one, as though caught, hastens to a hiding-place; this one, as though amended, bursts forth into tears. For it is said to Adam, as one lurking and concealing himself from the Divinity: 'Adam, where art thou?' (Genesis 3) — not that Adam could hide from the Lord's sight, but that for a sinful conscience no place is safe or sure, while it fears to be caught. The Lord looked upon Peter, and by opening his eyes amended his error (Luke 22). Rightly does he amend by the eyes, since it is written: 'The eyes of the Lord are upon the just, and his ears unto their prayers' (Psalm 33). Therefore Peter burst into tears, having prayed nothing with his voice. For I find that he wept; I do not find what he said;

I read of his tears, I do not read of his making satisfaction. Rightly indeed did Peter weep and keep silence, since what is wont to be bewailed is not wont to be excused, and what cannot be atoned for by pleading can be washed away; for a tear washes off the fault which the voice is ashamed to confess. Tears therefore serve modesty and salvation alike, and they blush not in the asking and obtain in the entreating: tears, I say, are in a certain manner silent prayers; they beg not pardon, and yet earn it; they plead not their cause, and yet obtain mercy; save that the prayers of tears are more useful than those of words, because speech in praying perhaps deceives, but a tear deceives not at all; for speech sometimes does not set forth the whole matter, but a tear always betrays the whole feeling.

And therefore Peter no longer uses the speech by which he had deceived, by which he had sinned, by which he had lost his faith, lest through that he be not believed unto confessing which he had used unto denying; and by this he prefers both to weep his cause rather than to plead it, and to confess by tears what he had denied by his voice. But I find yet another reason why Peter kept silence: lest so quick a petition for pardon by its shamelessness should offend more than obtain; for he is wont to earn indulgence more quickly who entreats more bashfully. In every fault, therefore, one must first weep, and so pray. We now know by this example how we should heal our sins. Behold, the apostle did us no harm by that which he denied, and profited us very much by that which he amended.

Finally, let us imitate him speaking elsewhere: for when he was questioned a third time by the Lord, 'Simon, lovest thou me?' he answered a third time, 'Lord, thou knowest that I love thee'; the Lord said, 'Feed my sheep' (John 21). And this a third time — which saying indeed he made to make up for his former error; for he who had thrice denied the Lord thrice confesses him; and as often as he had contracted guilt by transgressing, so often does he acquire grace by loving. See therefore how greatly weeping profited Peter: before he wept, he had fallen; after he wept, he was chosen; and he who before his tears stood forth a transgressor, after his tears was taken up as a shepherd, and received others to be governed, who before had not governed himself.