With the Turin codex, which numbers this sermon in the seventh place among the Maximian homilies, there agrees not only codex 99 of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, but also Combefis, who published the same under the name of Maximus in vol. II, p. 142. Their titles, however, differ; for the Turin codex has: 'Likewise concerning the same Epiphany, and concerning the Baptism of Christ'; whereas the codex of Santa Croce reads: 'On the Holy Epiphany,' as does Combefis also. The title of the Turin manuscript will seem to some more precise, since in this sermon St. Maximus does indeed write something concerning the manifestation of Christ and concerning His baptism. But since that twofold mystery is expressed by the one name of Epiphany, and is celebrated on the same day, the inscription 'On the Holy Epiphany' is not to be rejected.
In the Vatican codex 1276, folio 105, on the reverse side, this same sermon is read with a title written indeed in another hand: 'A sermon of St. Ambrose on the octave of the Epiphany.' But I do not see why, on account of the title of one codex alone, written in another hand, the sermon should be ascribed to Ambrose, since both the character of the style and all the other manuscript codices show that Maximus was its author. The Gospel Scripture relates, as we lately heard read, that the Lord came to the Jordan for the sake of baptism, and willed to be consecrated by heavenly mysteries in that same river. At this we ought not to marvel—why the Lord and Master Himself performed this act of baptism—for He Himself says: 'He who shall do and teach, he shall be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven' (Matt. v).
He willed therefore first to do what He was commanding all to do, so that as a good master He might instil His teaching not so much by words as practise it by deeds, and might confirm us unto the end alike by gesture and by understanding. That all this was done on this present day is manifest. That it is so true, we can gather by reason itself. For reason requires that after the day of the Lord's birth—albeit with years intervening—this festival should nonetheless follow at the same season; which festival too I think ought to be called a nativity feast. For then He was born to men, today He is reborn in the sacraments; then He was brought forth through the Virgin, today He is begotten through the mystery.
For the Lord so disposed that the desires of men should not lie far apart from one another, so that at the one season, Him whom they rejoiced to have been born on earth they might joyfully hail as sanctified in heaven; that those who, by the announcement of angels, possessed the Son of God in the Virgin's childbearing, might retain Him by the testimony of the heavens, and that men might be assured that He whom the Virgin had borne was that same Son of God whom the Godhead acknowledged. For new childbirths deserve new homage. There, when He is born according to the man, His mother Mary cherishes Him in her bosom. Here, when He is begotten according to the mystery, God the Father embraces Him with His voice. For He says: 'This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased' (Matt. III). The mother therefore soothes her offspring in her soft lap, the Father attends His Son with pious testimony.
The mother, I say, rather offers Him to be adored, the Father manifests Him to the nations to be worshipped. He is held in the mother's bosom when He is born, but the Father continually supplies Him the cherishing of His own bosom. For we read that He rests without ceasing in the Father's lap, as the Evangelist says: 'No man hath seen God at any time, save the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father' (John I). Gladly therefore does the Lord rest in the bosom of the wounded, whence too He gladly chose the bosom of John the Evangelist, that He might recline upon it. The bosom, then, in which Christ rests is not prepared by the lap of a body, nor arranged by the compass of garments, but is gathered together out of heavenly virtues.
For the bosom of Christ was, in John the Evangelist, faith; in God the Father, divinity; in Mary His mother, virginity. There is the bosom of Christ, where is the dwelling-place of virtues. There He reclines His head, where He finds the abode of heavenly precepts. For therefore He says to sinners and unbelievers: 'The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head' (Luke IX). And so the Lord Jesus came today to baptism, and willed His holy body to be washed with water. Someone will perhaps say: He who is holy, why did He will to be baptized? Hear then: Christ is baptized, not that He might be sanctified by the waters, but that He Himself might sanctify the waters, and by His own purification purify the streams which He touches.
For the consecration of Christ is a greater consecration than that of the element. For when the Saviour is washed, then already in our baptism all water is cleansed, and the font is purified, so that to the peoples who should afterward follow the grace of the laver might be ministered. Christ therefore goes ahead through baptism, so that Christian peoples may confidently follow after Him. Understand then the mystery. For thus too the pillar of fire went ahead through the Red Sea, so that the sons of Israel might follow the path unafraid; and it passed first through the waters, that it might prepare a way of travel for those coming after it. Which deed, as the Apostle says (1 Cor. x), was the mystery of baptism, where the cloud covered the men and the wave bore them up.
But all these things Christ the Lord wrought, the same who works now also, who, just as He then went before the sons of Israel through the sea in the pillar of fire, so even then went before Christian peoples through baptism in the pillar of His own body. That, I say, is the pillar which then furnished light to the eyes of those following, and now supplies light to the hearts of believers. Then in the flowings of the waves He made firm a path; now in the laver He strengthens my footsteps: and by that faith, just like the sons of Israel, whoever shall have walked undaunted will not fear the persecuting Egyptian.