So many are the marks of the genuineness of this homily that by the fullest consensus of all editors it has been attributed to St. Maximus. For it is written both copiously and ornately, so that it plainly shows that it had no other author than that holy bishop; and this same thing is confirmed by the faith of almost all the manuscript codices. In these codices, however, its inscription is not the same. For in the Vatican 4951 and in the Vatican Palatine 176 it is inscribed: On the Epiphany of the Lord. In another, Vatican 1268: Likewise from what is above, on the Epiphany. In the Vatican Palatine 257: A sermon of St. Maximus on the Octave of the Lord. In the Vatican Reginensis 125: On the Octave of the Epiphany. But this matters little. The homily is certainly on the Epiphany. Wherefore we have judged that it ought to be thus inscribed.
On this festival, most beloved, as we are instructed by the account of the fathers' tradition, we ought to rejoice with a manifold festivity. For they say that today Christ our Lord was either adored by the Gentiles under the guidance of a star, or, invited to a wedding, turned water into wine, or, receiving baptism from John, consecrated the streams of the Jordan and at the same time purified his Baptist. But what was chiefly done on this day, let him know who did it; yet we ought to believe and not to doubt that, whatever it was, it was done for us. For in that the Chaldeans, incited by the rays of a more shining star, adored him, the hope of adoring the true God was given to the Gentiles.
That water was by a new arrangement changed into wine has given us a foretaste of the sacrament of a new cup. And that the Lamb of God was baptized has consecrated for us the saving gift of regenerating baptism. It is fitting, therefore, brethren, in honor of our Savior, whose nativity we lately kept with due exultation, that we also celebrate this birthday of His mighty works with all devotion. And how rightly are these three mysteries proclaimed to us as accomplished on one day, we who confess the secret of the ineffable Trinity under one name of God. Through these miracles, then, Christ the Lord, our Redeemer, willed to reveal Himself to the eyes of mortals, so that His invisible divinity, which lay hidden in the man, might not lie hidden in the work:
so that, while the tempter did not detect the Word of the almighty Father in the flesh, all everywhere who should believe the Word and the flesh in the Son of God might be saved. Indeed the devil saw an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes; but he did not know that this was He who, when the darkness was removed in the beginning, clothed the world with light. He saw Him sucking the breasts of a mortal mother; but he did not know that this was He who made the hungering Hebrew people grow fat with angelic bread, as it were with heavenly milk. He saw a little one resting in a narrow cradle; but he could not see that this was He whom the world does not contain.
How greatly, then, did the enemy waver in this humility of Christ, torn and stupefied by uncertainty, when through the Chaldeans, the chief ministers indeed of his own tyranny, he saw a new little infant honored with royal gifts as though the king of a new empire? Or how should he not be astounded, when troubled he beheld his own magi adoring a child whom he himself did not know? With what languor was he tormented, when he at once despised His cradle upon earth and marveled at His star in heaven? Yet the Only-begotten of the Most High so humbly entered the world that He nonetheless bore the undoubted tokens of His divinity; for He was born of a woman, but born of a virgin;
He lay in a manger, yet He shone red in a star, so that both His earthly mother and the heavenly sign might show that He was man and God. With what rays, with how great a light do we believe that star of the Lord then shone among the constellations? How far did it surpass in splendor, which so greatly went before in its office; which, like a very eye of the whole world, renewed the ancient aspect of the darkened world? Behold, brethren, one star drew the Chaldeans to seek the King of kings; but the Jewish people not even a pillar of fire could once turn to the obedience of their God. Nor indeed let this great perfidy of the Jews move anyone, that neither the star of a new brightness nor the virgin giving birth compelled those same men to receive Christ;
they who did not even then believe in their God, when heaven fed them through the parched deserts, God Himself accompanying, and the rock gave them drink. But let us now come to that chief miracle of Christ, whereby, as a proof of His deity, He turned water into wine. Invited, therefore, as it is read, the Lord went to the wedding; but that the Son of the Virgin should deign to do this belongs to the reason of our instruction: so that, taught by this example, we may not deny Him to be the author of lawful marriages. The Son of God goes, then, to the wedding, so that what He long ago established by His power He might then sanctify by the blessing of His presence. He goes to a wedding of the old ordinance, about to make for Himself a new bride of perpetual virginity out of the assembly of the nations.
He goes to a wedding, He whom no wedding brought forth. He goes to a wedding, not indeed to delight in feasting, but to make Himself more marvelously known. He goes to a wedding, not to take cups, but to give them; for when the wine had failed those who were marrying, the most blessed Mary said to Him: They have no wine. To whom Jesus replied as though displeased: What is it to me and to thee, woman? Who can doubt that these are the words of one displeased? But for this reason, as I think, because His mother so rashly suggested to Him the lack of a carnal cup, He who had come to offer to the nations of the whole world the new cup of eternal salvation. For that which He says, My hour has not yet come;
He was doubtless promising that most glorious hour of His passion, or that wine of our redemption, which He would pour out for the life of all. For what Mary was asking was a matter of temporal grace; what Christ was preparing was of eternal joy. Yet it did not irk the most kindly Lord, while great things were coming, to grant small ones; and therefore the venerable Mary, truly as the mother of the Lord, foreknowing in spirit the things to come, and foreseeing the Lord's will, carefully admonished the servants, saying: Whatsoever He shall say to you, do it. The holy mother knew assuredly that that rebuke of the Lord her Son did not put forth the offense of one who was angry, but bore the mystery of mercy.
Then the Lord, relieving [others read: revealing] the shame of His chidden mother, and now opening His own majesty, said to the waiting servants: Fill the water-jars with water. Without delay the obedient servant rendered his service: and behold, suddenly those waters began marvelously to take on strength, to acquire color, to yield fragrance, to conceive flavor, and all together to change their nature. This transmutation of the waters from their own into an alien creature bore witness to the power of the Creator present. Nor indeed could anyone convert waters to other uses, save He who made them out of nothing.
The servant, therefore, stood amazed and astounded, he who had poured in waters and was drawing out wine, rejoicing exceedingly that he had carried in his own vessels those things through which the glory of God was revealed. For no one spoke anything at the time: nothing was added to the water-jars besides water: no art was employed: and so great a miracle, amid the fearful silences of the bystanders, the will alone of the silent Lord brought to pass. Nor is it to be doubted, dearly beloved, that He Himself changed the waters into wine, who from the beginning congealed them into snows, hardened them into ice, turned them into blood for the Egyptians, and for the thirsting Hebrews commanded the dry rock to flow, which nourished the multitude of countless peoples with the dripping of a new fountain, in place of maternal breasts.
At which should you first be amazed, at which should you marvel, wine from water, or water from the rock? But let no unbelief trouble you, whoever you are who hesitate amid these things, since it is not doubtful that the elements of created things depend upon the beck of the Creator: or why should we not believe that by the Lord's power wine could be made from water, when for us, by God's working, water rises up into wine from the bosom of the earth through the ministry of the vines, by the fostering of the rains? This, it says, did Jesus do as the beginning of signs in Cana of Galilee, and He manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him. The disciples believed, not indeed in that which they saw being done, but in that which the carnal sight cannot see. They believed, not that Christ Jesus was the son of the Virgin, for that was known;
but that this same One was the Only-begotten of the Most High, which was proved in the work. Whence let us also, brethren, believe with all our heart that He is the Son of God whom we confess to be the Son of man. Let us believe Him to be both a partaker of our nature and coequal with the paternal substance: since He both attended the wedding as man, and changed the waters into wine as God; so that by the merit of this faith our Lord may also mercifully deign to give us to drink of that sober wine of His grace.