No smaller is the number of manuscript codices than that just described, in which St. Maximus is declared the author of this homily. For honour's sake we set forth in praise two Vatican codices, 4951 page 100, and 6451 page 17; then two codices of Holy Cross in Jerusalem, 90 homily 52, and 99 homily 56, with the title 'Likewise what follows concerning holy Easter'; the Turin codex, where sermon 29 is inscribed 'Likewise also concerning Easter'; the Laurentian, Plut. XIV page 195; the Vercelli 85; the Reichenau XV; the Ambrosian; the Cistercian of Monte Amiata; the Marchiennes homily 59, all of which name it a homily on Easter, or at Eastertide. The editors are added, with the title 'On the same solemnity,' namely Easter: so Gymnicus page 157, Galesinius page 135, Cundius vol.
III, page 1447; Combefis vol. III page 85; Raynaudus page 220; Margarinus in the Bibliotheca Maxima vol. VI page 27. We here omit the third homily among the printed books, and shall place it first among the sermons on Easter. Since, therefore, we hold this homily fortified by so many and so authentic testimonies, we contradict the Sixtine edition of St. Ambrose, which under number 55 placed it among the sermons of this holy doctor. — A great, brethren, and wondrous gift has God granted to us: this saving day of Easter, on which the Lord, rising again, bestowed resurrection upon all; and ascending from the depths to higher things, he also raised us in his own body from the lower to the upper realms.
For according to the Apostle we Christians are all the body of Christ and his members (1 Cor. XII); therefore, when Christ rose again, all his members necessarily rose with him. For when he passes from the lower regions to those above, he made us pass from death to life. For 'Pascha' in Hebrew is called a passing-over, or a going-forth, namely because through this mystery one passes from worse things to better. A good passing-over it is to pass from sins to righteousness, from vices to virtues, from old age to infancy — infancy, I mean, not of age, but of simplicity; for even ages have their own merits: for at first, set in our decline, we were in the old age of sins; when Christ rose again, we were renewed in the innocence of little children.
Christian simplicity too has its own infancy; for just as an infant knows not how to be angry, knows not how to defraud, dares not to strike back, so also the infancy of Christianity is not angry at those who hurt it, does not resist those who despoil it, does not fight back against those who beat it. In short, as the Lord commanded, it even prays for its enemies; to those who take away its tunic it leaves the cloak also; to those who strike it, it offers the other cheek as well — save that in this the infancy of Christ is better than that of nature; for the one knows not how to sin, the other despises to; the one is harmless through weakness, the other is innocent through virtue. And therefore it is to be ascribed more to praise not so much to be unable to do evil as to be unwilling. Therefore, as we said, there are certain ages of merits;
for the old age of character is found in children, and the innocence of infants is found in the old. In short, that in the young there is a certain old age of honour, the prophet says: 'For venerable old age is not that of length of days, nor counted by the number of years; for the understanding of a man is his grey hairs' (Wisd. IV). But to the apostles, already elders and advanced in age, the Lord says: 'Unless you be converted and become as this little child, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven' (Matt. XVI). He therefore calls them back to the fount of their origin, and compels them to return backward to infancy — namely, that those who had grown old with frail body might be reborn in the ways of innocence, as the Saviour says:
'Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of God' (John III). It is said therefore to the apostles: 'Unless you be converted and become as this little child.' He does not say 'as these little children,' but 'as this little child'; he chooses one, he sets forth one. Let us see, then, who that great one is who is set before the disciples to be imitated. I do not think him to be of the common people, not of the crowd, not of the multitude of the rest — especially him who through the apostles gave to the whole world the example of holiness; I do not think him, I say, to be of the common sort, but of heaven. For he is himself the child from heaven, of whom the prophet Isaiah says: 'A child is born to us, a son is given to us' (Isa. IX).
He plainly is the child who, like an innocent one, when he was reviled, did not revile in return; when he was struck, did not strike back; nay rather, in his very Passion he prayed for his enemies, saying: 'Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do' (Luke XXIII). Thus the simplicity which nature bestows upon infants, the Lord heaped up with the goodness of his mercy. This, then, is the child who is set before little ones to be imitated and followed; for he himself says: 'Take up your cross, and follow me' (Matt. XVI).