In the Codex Sangallensis, numbers 91 and 92, two sermons on Zacchaeus, which we publish in print as numbers 99 and 100, are inscribed with the name of Saint Maximus. Martène and Durand edited them in the place indicated. Often, most beloved brethren, had I wished to preach on the parable of this Gospel passage, and to run through the grace granted to the rich Zacchaeus with a discourse of plainer eloquence; and even to dwell more copiously upon his praise, since he himself proved liberal toward his own salvation. For who would not praise a man who was able to bestow his own riches upon himself, and to acquire for himself an everlasting dominion in exchange for the lordship of temporal wealth? To bestow, I say, his own riches upon himself: for what we possess is another's, when we do not fittingly use it for salvation.
For even that which seems to be yours will not be yours, if, when I depart from the world, it is kept back in the world without benefit to me. I had wished, therefore, to preach the riches and the grace of Zacchaeus—of one truly rich, and always rich, because he merited to be richer toward Christ than toward the world. And the substance of his faith was more abundant than his temporal treasure. Praiseworthy, then, is Zacchaeus, for the rich are shut out from the glory of the heavenly kingdom, as the Lord says: 'It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven' (Matthew 19). This man hastened to enter the kingdom through those very riches, and to pass along that narrow way and the tiny cavern of the needle with the twisting bulk of his limbs; and what to others was set as a cause of ruin profited this man unto salvation.
But let it be no wonder that I have described in a man the misshapen limbs of a camel; for in a man the deformity of a camel is not in the ugliness of the body but of the mind, nor in the sluggishness of bearing but in the cowardice of the heart. For just as the camel is faulty through the inequality of its limbs, so also a man is deformed through the roughness of his sins. This is what the Lord signifies by saying: 'It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.' That is, it is difficult for a sinner to pass through that steep and narrow way of the heavenly life, unless he be stripped bare and made thin by shedding the crookedness of his transgressions.
For there will be great need to chastise and to raise up his conduct to loftiness, when one wishes to pass over from a faulty and sluggish mass to that supernal substance of purity; and unless he does so, being so burdened, even so small an animal will strike against the narrow heavenly gate. Zacchaeus, then, is to be praised, whom his riches were in no way able to loose from the royal threshold. Nay rather, he is to be praised because his riches led him to the threshold of the kingdom. From this we understand that, for attaining the glory of Christ, riches are no hindrance but a help—provided, however, that he who possesses them does not pour them out for wantonness, but distributes them unto salvation. For there is no fault in one's means; for riches to the foolish are the mold of wickedness, but to the wise the aids of virtue;