In the ancient codices of Santa Croce in Jerusalem, number 40 in the ninth century and number 84 in the tenth, and moreover in the Ambrosian and the Laurentian, Plut. XIV number 10, this sermon bears both the title which we give and the name of Maximus. For this reason we judge its author to have been not Ambrose but Maximus. Often, brethren, had I been minded within myself to withdraw from you the words of the Sunday preaching, and not to bestow so often the sacraments of heavenly discourses—since it profits nothing to offer food to one who refuses it, and to hold out drink to one who is not at all thirsty, when he draws in what you offer not so willingly as he fastidiously renders it back as though it were turbid; and so it comes about that the purity of the cup is spoiled, and the fastidious drinker finds occasions for his fault.
So then, to press upon your charity the preaching of the Lord's cup is perhaps superfluous, when your soul, with its inward parts closed, draws it in not so thirstily as it pours it out heedlessly. For he pours out the Lord's commandment who receives it with his ear but does not retain it in his heart. Carrying it, as it were, on the surface of the body, and not at all transmitting it to the inner parts, while he forgets what he has heard, he pours out the sequence of the preaching, and so returns home empty who had gone out from the church laden. For tell me, who of you, when he has returned to his lodging, says: 'Today we heard the bishop discoursing on almsgiving; he preached a useful thing; we ought to have mercy on the poor.'
'He also treated of the execrable worship of idols; let us inquire lest, without our knowing, there be an idol in our possession. He admonished too that the catechumen ought to hasten to the grace of God; let us offer this to our little household, that whoever is faithful may receive the faith, lest perhaps the account of their salvation be required of us, since their life depends on our decision.' No one thinks about the things of God, no one speaks about the day of judgment, as if we were either going to live forever or to die once for all. Believe me, we so live in this world that we die in the body; we so die that we live for the rendering of an account. Meanwhile a man dies, but the cause of his acts does not die: and while the cause lives, it is necessary that the person of his cause not be lacking, as the prophet says:
'Behold the man and his works.' I had wished, therefore, to withdraw from you the words of the Sunday preaching—not that I would do this in anger, but that I might keep the Gospel sentence. For the Lord says: 'To him who has, it shall be given; and from him who has not, even that which he has shall be taken away' (Matthew 25; Mark 4). To him who has, then, he ordered it to be given; and to him who has not, not only that it not be given, but even that what he has be taken away. Which sentence perhaps seems to you superfluous; but I say that the Lord commanded rightly and wisely. To him who has, then, it is ordered to be given. He plainly merits to receive, who has so labored that by the proper solicitude of his soul he might acquire spiritual riches:
So suppose someone has begun, by a firm resolve of continence, to guard the virtue of chastity: he merits to hear what the reward of chastity shall be, so that, adding to the observance of virtue the glory of recompense, he may more easily wear down the combat which he began. Another, ready for mercy, ought to hear that God will have mercy on him; and he who has repaid this earthly substance with heavenly riches, it is necessary that, listening to the returns of heavenly rewards, he pursue the work of the Lord more promptly and more gladly, and add to the good of mercy an increase of bounty. Therefore the Lord says: 'To him who has, it shall be given'—that is, he who has been rich in good works, let him be the more enriched by the Gospel preaching.
But if you preach to a fornicator and say that he ought to remain a virgin; and to a miser, that he ought to sell all that is his and give it away—it is folly to him. He thinks this preaching ridiculous, as the Apostle says: 'But the natural man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit' (1 Corinthians 2): for it is folly to him. For to preach to such people what is perfect is like wishing to clothe a beggar buried in rags with all-silk garments, or to delight a starving peasant with a dainty cake: it is necessary that by both this offering be refused. For the all-silk garment displeases the one who rather desires clothing necessary against the cold; and to this one the cake is bitter, while he rather seeks food that gives fullness.
From such persons, therefore, rather ought to be taken away the things that are theirs, as the Gospel says: 'Even that which he has shall be taken away from him' (Matthew 25): that is, the fornicator is to be compelled to cast off the rags of his corruption, the miser is to be forced to lay out the bread of his greed. But I fear, brethren, lest this Gospel reading fit very many of you, which says: 'We have sung to you, and you have not danced; we have lamented, and you have not wept' (Luke 7). We announce to you the joy of the heavenly kingdom, and your hearts do not at all exult with any stirring of gladness. We have preached the sad judgment, and your senses do not burst forth into tears unto repentance.
For it is a kind of unbelief in divine matters neither to rejoice in prosperity nor to weep in adversity. The Lord, therefore, requires of you a dance—not, to be sure, the sinuous mobility of the body, but the sanctity of a faith that raises itself up. For just as one who dances bodily is now suspended in the air, now cast to greater heights, now with alternate leaps ranges over diverse places; so also one who dances spiritually, with faith intervening, is now raised into the sublimity of the air, now lifted to the higher regions of the stars, now with diverse leaps of thoughts ranges over paradise and heaven.
And just as one who dances bodily, exercising himself with the mobility of his limbs, acquires for himself a circle of dancing, so also one who dances spiritually, moving himself with the alacrity of faith, takes to himself the circle of the whole world. But let men dance, as is the custom, at their vows—that is, especially at weddings it is fitting to dance or to sing; whence we too have votive nuptials, at which we ought to dance or to sing. For our vows are celebrated when the Church is joined to Christ, as John says: 'He who has the bride is the bridegroom' (John 3). On account of these nuptials, therefore, it is fitting for us to dance. Indeed David, at once king and prophet, though he sang many things, is also said to have danced before the ark of the covenant (2 Kings 6).
For, lifted up with joy, he broke forth into dancing. For he foresaw in the Spirit that Mary, from his own seed, would be espoused to the bridal chamber of Christ. Whence he says: 'And he himself, as a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber' (Psalm 18). Therefore he, beyond the other authors of the prophecies, sang the more, because, gladder than all, he was uniting his descendants through these joys, and, inviting them to their proper vows more sweetly than usual, he taught us what we ought to do at those nuptials, since he danced with such exultation before the ark, before the nuptials. Therefore the prophet David danced before the ark. And what shall we call the ark but holy Mary? For the ark carried within it the tablets of the covenant, while Mary bore the heir of that very covenant.
The one held within itself the Law, the other the Gospel. The one had the voice of God; this one the true Word. Yet the ark shone within and without with the gleam of gold; but holy Mary too shone brightly within and without with the splendor of virginity. The one was adorned with earthly gold, the other with heavenly.