In the foregoing admonition we stated what is to be thought concerning this sermon, according to the opinion of the Benedictine monks of St. Maur. They themselves confirmed the same in the introduction to this sermon, no. 22 and VI On Lent of the same Paris edition, saying that it suits Maximus rather than Ambrose. That I may pass over nothing which pertains to illustrating the truth, I shall add two most excellent codices, namely the Sangallensis, where it is sermon 60, and no. 20 of Holy Cross in Jerusalem, favoring St. Maximus. While I was consulting the Casinensian codices, this same sermon occurred to me in a most ancient manuscript no. 117, p. 219, whose codex is titled: Homiliary with the Lives of the saints, many of which are not published;
without the author's name, as likewise in the Urbevetan codex. We ought not, brethren, to be so much saddened that in these days of Lent the temptation of tribulation comes upon us, since we see that our Saviour also was tempted on account of that very Lent. Less therefore ought we servants to grieve, who have the example of the Lord. For where there is a devotion like Christ's, there is also a temptation like Christ's. For the condition of fasting imposes on us the condition of enduring. But we believe that, just as our Saviour prevailed over the devil when He was tempted, so we also can overcome our enemies when we are afflicted. For the fasts of Christ can be tempted, they cannot be overcome.
They have straits indeed in the observance, but they bestow prosperity and salvation. Let us see therefore by what art the Lord wearies out the other temptations; for when the Saviour stood upon the pinnacle of the temple, the devil said: If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down (Matt. 4), and the rest. Truly the cunning of diabolical fraud leans upon the argument of its own custom. For it ever strives to cast down the religious from higher things to lower, and hastens to lead them down from holy and venerable acts to earthly and miry things, that he who stands by purity of mind on the summit of the temple may throw himself into the depth of hell by the contagion of sin. For when he strives to cast down the Lord from the pinnacle of the temple, he certainly strives to remove Him from the perfect worship of religion;
for the pinnacle of the holy place is the perfection of the heavenly sacrament. Rightly moreover is the Lord said to stand upon the pinnacle of the temple, because it is written of Him: Who walketh upon the wings of the winds (Ps. 104). For the Lord in a certain way walks upon the wings of the winds, when He advances by the flight of an eager conversation upon our morals; for our wings are good morals, which raise us up from the lowly things of earth into the higher things of heaven, and by a certain flight of the mind lead us out of the dark Tartarus, and bring us to the pleasant places of paradise. Desiring to have the wings of which morals, the prophet says: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest (Ps. 55)?
Upon this pinnacle of the temple therefore the Saviour is said to stand, that is, to consist as it were in a certain temple of our faith; whence the Apostle says: You are the temple of the living God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you (2 Cor. 6). Standing therefore in this temple, and not withdrawing, the Lord rebukes the devil, saying: It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God (Deut. 6); that is, thou shalt not tempt Him whom thou thinkest to be driven to lower things as a man; but rather thou shalt know that He Himself is to be adored as God and Lord. In these days of fasting therefore we are tempted in likeness to the Saviour; likewise our enemies strive to disturb us also from the pinnacle of the temple, that is, from the observance of Lent.
For while they bring in terrors, while they prepare snares, they desire to lead us away from the citadel of religion. But it is said to them by the Lord: Thou shalt not tempt the holy men and the servants of God; for those whom thou thinkest to be trodden down as humble, thou shalt feel to be honored as valiant. For there are, as I have said, very many brethren whom our enemies lead away from the perfection of religion: who, while they fear a present evil, think God unmindful of our salvation, not knowing that God is unmindful of none: but we make Him unmindful of us then, when we sin. For when we do evil deeds, He turns away His face; when we speak wicked things, He stops His ear; and therefore God does not so much withdraw His goodness Himself, as our sins drive it away from us.
For the same Lord says through the prophet to those who were set in tribulations: Is My hand not able to deliver you (Isa. 59)? and the rest. You see therefore that between God and man sins make a separation. Take away therefore sins from the midst, and you have made God near to you. For how, brethren, can God forget us, who says in the Gospel that even the hairs of our head are numbered with Him (Matt. 10)? For if He remembers our hairs, much more does He remember our souls. For by number we recognize His care and solicitude about us; for no one numbers except what he wishes to guard more diligently: no one numbers, except one who fears lest he suffer loss without a count.
A shepherd, that he may keep his flock safe, frequently counts it over: in fine, the Lord, who is the good Shepherd, when one little sheep of a hundred sheep had strayed, running back to the number, carried it back to the flock on His own shoulders (Matt. 18). To such a degree therefore is he held under protection who is held in the number, that the straying one is brought back on His own shoulders, lest anything of the number be diminished. Do not therefore think, brethren, that He forgets even any least one. For God remembers all, recalls all, only so that oblivion be not brought to Him by our intervening sins.