Although we can bring forward only two codices to prove this as a homily of St Maximus — namely the Turin one, with the title 'Likewise, concerning the same, and Mary Magdalene,' and Santa Croce in Jerusalem 99, homily 61, whose title is 'Here begins, On Mary Magdalene' — nevertheless we do not doubt that there will be no one who would think us worthy of reproach for judging him to have been the author of it, when he understands that the most learned Maurists hold the same opinion. If, then, one wishes, let him consult these in the appendix of the sermons of St Augustine, no. 153, and in the preface to the Ambrosian sermons. This is to be noted: that in codex 172, page 6, of the library formerly of the officials of the Metropolitan Church of Florence, now Laurentian, the title of the homily is this:
'A Sermon for the Third Feria in Easter, of blessed Augustine the bishop'; in the Vatican codex 1270, page 58 on the reverse, only these words are read: 'As above,' whose preceding [title] is 'On the Resurrection of the Lord,' ascribed to St Gregory the Pope; but in the Orvieto codex, page 123 on the reverse, without a name: 'On the Resurrection of the Lord, on the fifth feria.' Since here Maximus has his sermon chiefly on the resurrection of the Lord, we prefer the title of the manuscript codices to the inscription of the editors, 'On the Burial of the Lord, and Mary Magdalene.' So Gymnicus, page 122, Galesinius, page 124, Combefis, tome V, page 585, Cumdius, tome II, page 1585, Raynaudus, page 214, and Margarinus in the Bibliotheca Maxima, tome VI, page 21, by whom it is attributed to St Maximus.
It still clings to our minds, brethren, that a very few days ago we preached this: that Mary Magdalene was not lightly reproved, because after the resurrection she sought the Lord in the tomb, and, not remembering his words in which he had said that he would rise again from the dead on the third day, she supposed him to be detained by the laws of hell. For she is chided not lightly, because she did not call to mind the promise of the resurrection, but scrutinized the token of death. For a faith that is lowly and unknowing seeks what it knows not, forgets what it is taught; it is indeed swift to devotion, but not perfect for believing; it is anxious about the injury done to the Lord's flesh, but uncertain about the glory of the resurrection;
she weeps indeed for love of Christ, but mourns in despair for the body not found; she thinks him perished whom it was already certain was reigning; she scrutinizes in the tomb him whom she ought rather to invoke from heaven. Holy Mary is therefore rebuked as too slow to believe, and, though she had recognized the Lord late, it is said to her by the Saviour: 'Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to the Father.' 'Touch me not' is a word of rebuke; that is: Touch me not with thy hands, since thou dost not retain my resurrection, forgetful in thy mind. That is: Touch me not with thy hands, since thou touchest not by the perfection of faith. Thou canst not hold me with bodily embraces, since she is forbidden the touch who has lost the hearing;
'Touch me not,' he says, 'for I am not yet ascended to the Father' (John 20). Let us see how Christ had not yet ascended to the Father, when he himself says: 'For the Father is in me, and I in the Father' (John 14) — from whom, through the indivisible substance of the divinity, he was never separated; for while the one abides in the one, it signifies that the Father and the Son are ever together; or does the Son say that he ascends thither where he dwells before he ascends? For the same Lord said: 'No man hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man, who is in heaven' (John 3). If therefore, when the Saviour descended, he is in heaven, much more, before he ascends, he is in heaven. But see lest perhaps this saying pertain to the rebuke of Mary.
To her who a little before, seeking the Lord among the tombs, it is said: 'Why do you seek the living among the dead?' Now let this be added: 'Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.' That is: why do you desire to touch me, you who, while you seek me among the graves, do not yet believe that I have ascended to the Father? — you who, while you search for me among the regions below, distrust that I have returned to the things of heaven; while you seek me among the dead, do not hope that I live with God my Father. 'I have not yet ascended,' he says, 'to the Father'; that is, for you I have not yet ascended to the Father, because in your faith I am still held in the tomb. For as far as it lies in you, I still linger among lowly things, I still cleave to earthly things, because your faith has not yet raised me to heaven.
Why then do you hasten to touch me as the Son of God, when you do not follow me with the devotion of your mind as I return to the Father? Whoever therefore wishes to touch the Lord and Saviour ought first by his faith to set him at the right hand of the Godhead, and by the belief of his heart to place him among the things of heaven, rather than to seek him among the dead. But the Lord has ascended to the Father for that one who believes he is ever in the Father. He ascended to the Father for the blessed apostles, to whom he says: 'He who sees me, sees the Father also' (John XIV). He ascended for John the Evangelist, who sought him with the Father and found him; and therefore he says: 'And the Word was with God, and the Word was God' (John I).
He ascended also for the blessed Paul, who, not content to know for himself what he knew, taught us also how we should seek the Saviour in the things of heaven: 'Seek the things that are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God' (Col. III). And that he might altogether draw us away from this lowly and earthly seeking of Mary, he adds, saying: 'Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things upon the earth.' Therefore we ought no longer to seek the Saviour upon the earth, nor on the earth, nor according to the flesh, if we wish to find and touch him, but according to the glory of the divine majesty; so that we may say with the apostle Paul: 'But now we no longer know Christ according to the flesh' (2 Cor. V).
Therefore blessed Stephen too, by his faith, did not seek Christ upon the earth, but recognised him standing at the right hand of God: there he found him, where with the devotion of his mind he had sought him. And not only does Stephen see Christ in heaven, but he also touches him by his martyrdom; for he touches the Lord when, praying for his enemies, holding him fast by his faith, he says: 'Lord, lay not this sin to their charge' (Acts VII). Understand then how great is the glory of devotion. Mary, though set beside the Lord, is not counted worthy to touch him; Stephen, placed on the earth, touches Christ in heaven; she, among the angels, does not see the Saviour present; Stephen, within the heavens, beholds the Lord though absent.