This sermon is anonymous in the Vatican codices 539, 1269, 4951, and in the Reginensis 535. It is read as inscribed to St. Ambrose in Gillot, number 67. We wish it to be ascribed to St. Maximus, because not only in the excellent Ambrosian codex is it adorned with his name, but also in two ancient and most excellent codices of Holy Cross in Jerusalem, 90 sermon 1 and 99 sermon 31, and in the codex of the library formerly of the Minorite Friars in the Laurentian collection, IV of Pluteus XVII, in which last the inscription is of this kind: 'On the holy apostles Peter and Paul, a sermon of St. Maximus the bishop.'
As we celebrate today the birthday of the most blessed apostles Peter and Paul, dearest brethren, we ought to refresh ourselves with various feasts, and to celebrate so great a festival with great joy. For who would not celebrate the solemnity of such men with great joy? Who indeed on the solemnity of such men would not make great preparations for himself, so that the more he spends, the more he affirms that he loves the apostles? Yet there is no need of our own expense for our refreshment. For on his birthday St. Peter himself refreshes us; for his vessel, filled with all abundance, is that which was brought down to him from heaven when he was hungry. Therefore he who hungers like Peter is himself refreshed with Peter.
Why then should we prepare our own meal, when we are fattened by the apostolic dish? Why should we seek out earthly feasts for ourselves, when we have heavenly abundance? For St. Luke says in the Acts of the Apostles (chapters 10, 11, etc.) that after prayer, while Peter was hungry about the sixth hour, heaven being opened, a certain shining vessel, like a linen sheet, was let down, in which were all the four-footed beasts of the earth and the birds of the heaven; and that the Lord said to him: 'Peter, arise, kill and eat' (Acts 10). Behold Peter, who says elsewhere: 'Gold and silver I have not' (Acts 3), now the little vessel of his banquet is more splendid than silver: so that he who for Christ's sake had refused the appearance of silver, through Christ was enriched with the brightness of silver.
Therefore, as Peter is about to dine, the preparations of cooks are lacking, the attendance of servants is lacking; but what is better, the divine ministries are not lacking, and by a more profitable exchange for the holy man, what is lacking on earth abounds in the heavens; for that Peter may refresh himself, no storeroom is anxiously unlocked, but heaven itself is straightway opened. We read in the Scriptures (1 Kings 17) that holy Elijah in the desert was fed by ravens ministering to him; how much better is it with Peter, to whom not a small morsel is offered by an earthly bird, but a whole banquet is furnished by a multitude of angels! Therefore after prayer Peter hungers. It is to be wondered at why hunger should follow the holy man
after prayer, since hunger is usually driven away by prayer, and a hungering soul is fed by nothing but observances. But I think that Peter after prayer hungered not for the persons of men, but for their salvation; nor was he vexed by bodily starvation, but he laboured under the want of believers. For when the perfidious and ungrateful Jewish people, though he preached, did not believe in Christ, Peter in a certain manner endured a hunger of his office. For he suffers hunger who obtains little of the fruit of his labour. Into the upper room, therefore, he ascended in haste for prayer. Well does it say that Peter ascended into the upper room for prayer, because every holy man, when he prays, leaving lowly things, or
earthly things, is lifted up into the height of the mind, and, suspended on high, is caught up into the sublime, and by holy meditation is made near to heaven. And there, to him hungering — that is, meditating in the loftier place of his heart for the salvation of the Jewish people — is offered a vessel full of animals of various kinds, as if the Divinity said to him: 'You alone hunger for the Jews; behold, however, I present to your faith the diversity of all the nations.' For indeed the diverse animals gathered in one vessel demonstrate the congregation of diverse nations gathered in one Church: which Church, in that splendid vessel, while it has no spot or wrinkle, shines with the brightness of the linen. In which the first soul offered to God from among the Gentiles is Cornelius the centurion.
From this his little vessel, therefore, Peter refreshes us today; for when we see the throngs of the Gentiles running to the faith of Christianity, we rejoice together with the apostles. For those whose birthday we honour today are not dead, but reborn they plainly live, because they have been made partakers of Christ, who is the life of all. For although their bodies have fallen by suffering, yet the order of living is not interrupted; for indeed they both give thanks to God and render praises to the Saviour; except that, the burden of their limbs being loosed, they cleave the more to Christ; as Paul the apostle says: 'To be dissolved and to be with Christ — how much better!' (Philippians 1). Therefore that is not to be called death by whose intervention we are freed from the persecutor and are bound to Christ.
It is plainly not to be called death, which, joining the dead man to Christ, makes gain for the one who departs, as the blessed Apostle says: 'For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain' (ibid.). But that is the true death which binds even a living man by the death of his sins; because although he seems to live, yet by his crimes he seems condemned to death, as the Apostle says of that self-indulgent widow: 'But she that lives in pleasure is dead' (1 Timothy 5).