Sermons 68

No one fails to see how much of ornament and value the hitherto unpublished writings of St. Maximus which we have brought forth, together with many others yet to be brought forth, will add to our collection. Among these this homily claims for itself a chief place, dug out of a most ancient codex once belonging to the monastery of Apannae, which seems to be a compendium, or a summary, of the foregoing homilies on the holy apostles Peter and Paul, whose illustrious merits it briefly embraces. From the title which is in the codex, 'Homily I on St. Peter,' it is argued that St. Maximus composed several other homilies in honour of the holy apostles. We have applied to this homily the same inscription as to the rest, since in it the distinctions of both Peter and Paul are celebrated together.

Let us exult in the Lord, brethren, because today is the birthday of the most blessed Peter and Paul, and let us rejoice with spiritual gladness at so great a solemnity of this day. For today that most blessed Peter, to whom, by the merit of his faith, that power of binding and loosing upon earth was handed over by the Lord, penetrated the serene heavens by the gibbet of the cross. Today that Paul, the vessel of election and the teacher of the nations, having given up his most glorious head, obtained an immortal crown. Now it must needs be that the merits of these most illustrious apostles were equal, whose glorious confession for Christ was equal in the unity of true faith.

For if Peter is said to be chosen to preach the grace of Christ to the Jews, Paul seems to have been ordained, before the other apostles, to instruct the Gentiles. Peter preaches the Gospel in Judea, where the seeds of faith had already been planted by our Lord Himself. But Paul sets before the Gentiles the venerable glory of the despised cross, which indeed seemed to them a disgrace. Peter led back the Jews, who had erred from the womb, to the path of true salvation. Paul illumines with heavenly wisdom the Gentiles, who had not known God. Peter softens the most stubborn neck of his brethren. Paul scatters the blind ignorance of the nations.

Let the most blessed apostles run therefore throughout the whole world, and to the nations, to kings, and to the sons of Israel let them preach the faith which they received from Christ the Lord, and confirm it by miracles. They were truly the salt of the earth, by which the souls of all believers are seasoned and are kept inviolate from eternal corruption. Throughout the whole earth these spiritual dispensers of eternal salvation pay out the price and pour forth the treasures of holiness, wholly equal in the merits of their works. For although Peter lived with Christ upon earth, yet the same Christ called Paul from heaven while he was a raging persecutor of those who believed in Him. The one received the Gospel from the same Christ while He was on earth.

But while He sat blessed at the right hand of the Father in heaven, Paul obtained from Him the grace of preaching. Nay more, even caught up to heaven, beneath heaven itself, he learned the Gospel—not merely what he had not heard—but he also heard secret words which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Peter, doubting lest he should sink, trod the untamable waves of the sea. But Paul was a night and a day in the deep of the sea, nor did the weight tossed by the sea-waves shrink from him, but the wave, as though not daring to violate a sacred deposit, gave him back alive; because the wave, serving as his handmaid, kept him unharmed and still reserved him as an inhabitant to the peoples. Therefore the most blessed Peter and Paul were equal in merits and equal in virtues.

What wonder, then, if on one day, in the same place, they endured also the impious sentence of death from one tyrant? For on one and the same day they suffered, that both together might come to Christ; in one place, lest Rome too should be lacking as a spectator of the triumph to either; under one and the same persecutor, that indeed a like cruelty might bind them both; so that those whose preaching of the faith had always been one and the same might also have one and the same cause and occasion of death; and that they who had received the same faith from Christ might also merit the palm of martyrdom for the same faith. (Ten lines are missing, the writing effaced, and nothing remains but the conclusion.)

If, therefore, we honour the martyrs, we venerate Christ also in the martyrs. But if we despise the saints, we mock Christ, who is in the saints, since the divine Truth itself says: 'He who despises you despises Me' (Luke 10:16). Here it ends. From the manuscript documents to be arranged in order, it will be established which authorship the writers have proved for this homily. Four Vatican codices, namely 1273 p. 85, 1297 p. 95, 1269 p. 84, and Vatican Ottobonianus 106 p. 208, unanimously bear the name of St. Maximus. Three Cassinese codices, examined by us as the foregoing Vatican ones, present a like inscription, namely 104 p. 153, 109 p. 234 verso, XCI p. 104. We can, moreover, bring forward four from the Laurentian library: 39 Plut.

XVII p. 170, 122 p. 153, and 174 p. 246 of the library formerly of the greater seat of the church of Florence, and II of Holy Cross of the Minorites, Plut. XXXIII. To these succeed two Vallicellan codices, 7 A and XV, the Vercelli 81, the Regensburg of St. Emmeram, the Reichenau XV, the Martinian, the Holy Cross in Jerusalem XII, and the Farfa B. Among the Maximian sermons Alcuin has the same at p. 331, and the Ballerini in the aforementioned preface, p. 387, judged it to be attributed to him, since they had formerly found the homily inscribed to St. Leo the Great, with the above-listed codices agreeing, and the editions of Gymnicus p. 221, Galesinius p. 56, Combefis vol. VI p. 626, Cumdius vol. IV p. 481, Raynaud p. 231, and Margarin's Bibliotheca Maxima Patrum vol. VI p. 37.

These things having been examined, it can be doubtful to no one that this homily is to be ascribed to Maximus. It is holy, brethren, and pleasing to God, that men should venerate with special devotion the birthday of blessed Lawrence, by whose radiant flames the victorious Church of Christ glitters even to this day throughout the whole world; who, while discharging the office of the diaconate in the see of the most glorious patriarch, by the purity of an innocent life and by the triumph of a most valiant death, joined himself to the apostolic fellowship. And not undeservedly do we proclaim him well-nigh the equal of the apostles; to whom chastity of soul gave the Levitical ministry, and fullness of faith conferred the dignity of martyrdom.

Whom the venerable Xystus, bishop of the city of Rome, when he was overcoming the impiety of the raging world through torments and was already near to the heavenly kingdoms, and saw him most saddened at his fatherly death, is related to have thus addressed in the spirit of foreknowledge: 'Do not, my son,' he said, 'be sorrowful; after three days you shall follow me.' Whence it appears, dearly beloved, that blessed Lawrence had no sorrow over the victory of the high priest, but grieved because he did not himself vanquish the world together with his priest. 'Do not,' he said, 'my son, be sorrowful,' as though left behind in the world; 'for you shall not see me,' and your death shall deprive your life of such an end;

let no anxiety disturb you about my departure, over which I rejoice; for soon you too shall have joy from your own passion. Truly singular is the glory of blessed Lawrence, who obtained so much grace from his God that a martyr should prophesy to him of his martyrdom—whom, by the prerogative of his merits, victory gladdened before the battle could terrify him. Therefore, when he learned from the mouth of the priest and martyr that he too was in every way to be taken up, he gathered the crowds of the poor and, with religious liberality, distributed the ecclesiastical wealth. How profound the counsel of the spiritual man, and how heavenly, both that he might provide for the needy, and that, the multitude consuming what he had given, there might not be found what the persecutor might seize; following, without doubt, that saying:

'He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor: his justice remaineth for ever' (Ps. 111). It was of mercy that he gave sustenance to the poor; but of justice that, as a most prudent man, he took care lest the sacrilegious wretch should seize the substance of the saints for greedy and empty ends. 'His justice,' he says, 'remaineth for ever.' How shall this justice not remain for ever, which he both fulfilled by a holy work and consecrated by a most glorious martyrdom? By this grief, then, the heathen fury, kindled, at once prepares a red-hot gridiron, upon which he might tear Lawrence limb by limb to be burned, that he might avenge the flames of his indignation with impious fires. Truly the most valiant martyr burns in all his entrails and is scorched;

but pondering with faithful mind the kingdom of heaven and the promises of God, he exults in the refreshment of a victorious conscience, nor is he bent by the punishing fire, in whose breast the insuperable flame of the Holy Spirit was glowing. But could he yield to the momentary burning of the body, whose faith was extinguishing the eternal ardour of hell? So, the ministers of the flames being overcome, all the fire of worldly madness cooled; and to this the diabolical intent proceeded, that both the faithful man ascended in glory to his God, and the cruelty of the persecutors, confounded with its own fires, grew numb.