This homily also we have brought out from the Turin codex, as we noted in the earlier admonition. Its inscription there is this: Likewise on the Epiphany of the Lord, homily 9. It is written with such weight of thought and such clarity and brilliance of speech that it deserves to be reckoned among the more excellent of Maximus's little works. Recently, most beloved brethren, we celebrated the sacrament of this same redemption of ours, whereby God clothed man with his infirmities. Today, however, we keep that whereby he declared himself in man by his powers (miracles);
in that on this day, whether it be that in heaven a star gave tidings of his rising, or that in Cana of Galilee at a wedding banquet he turned water into wine, or that in the waters of the Jordan he consecrated the waters by his baptism for the restoration of the human race, in each of these are contained the mysteries and joys of our salvation. For unto us he was born of the Virgin, which the star showed forth. Unto us the laver of baptism has been granted, which he consecrated in the bed of the Jordan. Us too he foreshowed to be changed for the better by the miracle of his work, when he turned water into wine. Therefore, brethren, in the keeping of purity let us celebrate the baptism of Christ, because this regeneration of Christ is the confirmation of our faith.
For he implanted in us the baptism of his gift by the example of a second nativity; and what he willed us to do, he himself first did. We read that the Jews had various baptisms under the law, but none of these could confer a general medicine against the evil of transgression. And therefore, for the absolution of the whole world, they needed the water of regeneration to be sanctified from heaven. And because throughout the whole world the sacrament of baptism was needful for the human race, he gave a blessing to all waters, when with singular and unique devotion he descended into the bed of the Jordan. Then the wave did not so much wash Christ the Lord, as it was itself washed. For thee therefore Christ came by being born, for thee he warred by living, for thee he strove by dying.
Him whom thou seest to have died for thee, understand also to have been baptized for thee. Such was he altogether even before baptism, and therefore his forerunner and baptizer thus addresses him when he came to be baptized by him: Lord, I ought to be baptized by thee, and comest thou to me (Matt. 3)? What could be more evident concerning the purity of Christ not yet baptized? What stronger? I ought to be baptized by thee; that is, thou who art the fountain of innocence, who, needing nothing, knowest how to give, knowest not how to receive. I, he says, ought to be baptized by thee, because thou both showest forth with thyself and possessest in thyself the gifts of purity and the sacraments of baptism; and what I shall give by thy bounty through grace, thou obtainest by nature. At his touch the members (waters) are cleansed, and the streams are enriched.
The blessed wave marvels that its own Lord descends into it, in a single moment conceiving eternal remedies, and bringing forth God by a new fruitfulness of regeneration; giving back what it had received, and receiving what it did not have. Amid these things it would be a marvel that the Lord submitted himself to the blessing of a servant, had he not submitted himself also to the cross and to death. And he indeed taught beforehand, by the very dignity of the price, that man was precious to him: so that from this too we may understand how great, in his own esteem, our God reckons the causes of human sins, on account of which he sent to earth not an angel, not an archangel, but God.
But the Magi themselves, who came by the guidance of the star to venerate that heavenly child's cradle, what else did they express in those gifts but our faith? For in the fact that three things are offered, the Trinity is understood; but in the fact that they are three and each offers his own single gift, the unity in the Trinity is declared. By the gold a king is shown, God is discerned in the frankincense, by the myrrh which is fit for embalming bodies the burial of the man who is to be crucified is foretold. According to this, beloved, let us too imitate the person of the Magi with spiritual services; for let us seek Christ so long, until we merit to find him. Let the light of faith afford us guidance like a star of heaven.
Let this show him to us no longer wailing in the manger, but reigning in the highest citadel of heaven, and to be adored no longer in his mother's bosom, but on the throne of the Father; no longer to be judged in majesty, but to come with majesty to judgment. Thus, as by a perfect confession of three gifts, let there be believed by us one Godhead, distinguished without separation of confusion, Father and Son and Holy Spirit. (Very much is wanting; for a leaf is lacking. Maximus continues:) Thus, therefore, the worship of God is to be ordered in the hearts of the faithful, that there be admitted neither separation in the unity, nor commingling in the Trinity. The end, etc.