From the Anecdota of Muratori, tome IV, page 109, we publish this sermon, mutilated as it lies in the Ambrosian codex, and also a fragment, following the same Muratori. When the Only-Begotten of Almighty God willed to manifest to men who and how great He was, and had proposed to open to mortals the fountain of His goodness, He thus says: 'All things are delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son but the Father, neither does anyone know the Father but the Son, and to whom the Son will reveal Him' (Matt. 11). This eternal knowledge of the Father and the Son, dearest ones, shows without doubt that the substance is one and undivided.
Attend now more carefully, brethren, what and how great is, in our Lord and Redeemer, the power of the divine nature, and the wisdom of heavenly doctrine, and the incomprehensible benignity of His most merciful breast. For after He had, as the evangelical word testifies, professed that all things had been delivered to Him by God His Father, and etc. (A page is missing. A fragment follows.) ..... [He makes] the simple out of the deceitful, the peaceable out of the wrathful, the humble out of the proud. Christ therefore refreshes, nay rather remakes us, when either by more severe admonitions He forestalls crimes about to be committed, or by the gift of His indulgence He remits those perpetrated. 'Take,' He says, 'My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek and humble of heart' (Matt. 11).
Truly Christ is meek, because for this reason He descended from heaven, that through His reproaches and injuries He might ever bestow indulgence on sinning mortals. And truly He is humble, who, that He might be able to die for the dead, deigned to associate to Himself a carnal nature. 'I am meek,' He says, 'and humble of heart.' The Lord professes Himself to be humble of heart, because that humility is truly holy which proceeds from the purity of a religious mind, not that which descends from a vicious breast with a trembling conscience. 'Learn,' He says, 'of Me, for I am meek and humble of heart.' How well does such a teacher teach, who sets before His disciples in Himself the examples of holy doctrine to be imitated.
But you, dearest ones, look not to human frailty, but ever to Him who did what He spoke, and did what He had spoken. 'Take,' He says, 'My yoke upon you, for My yoke is sweet, and My burden light.' The yoke of Christ, brethren, dissolves all the fastenings of the diabolical yoke. The yoke of Christ does not chafe the neck, but adorns it. The yoke of Christ does not press down our heads, but holds them up. The yoke of Christ, with the ploughshare of faith cutting furrows, cuts down the grasses and thorns of all vices. The yoke of Christ, with the concordant bonds of charity, joins God and men in eternal fellowship. What also shall I say of the Lord's burden, which indeed is of such a kind that it turns away from our necks the weight of all sins?
For the burden of Christ is chastity, the burden of Christ is humility, the burden of Christ is patience, the burden of Christ is contempt of the world, and, for the confession of His name, the blessed torments of martyrdom. These most salutary burdens of life the Savior imposes on us, brethren, lest we be overwhelmed by the deadly weights of this world. And therefore let us with more devoted zeal submit our heads to the evangelical yoke, and let us put our shoulders under the delightful burdens of holy conversation, so far that our almighty God may deign, as truly good and truly meek, to rescue and free us from the most hard yoke of diabolical captivity and from the burden of wretched servitude.