Were not the perfect connection of this homily with the preceding one to shine forth, its author might be held doubtful, since it is supported by very few manuscript testimonies. But from this indeed it will be judged that the chance collection of works of this kind was patched together by the copyists, since they omitted many works of the same writer which, with greater diligence, they might have obtained. I therefore bring forward only four codices which have handed down this homily inscribed to Maximus to posterity, and they are: two of Holy Cross in Jerusalem, 90 homily 53, and 99 homily 57, bearing the title 'Likewise what follows'; a third, the Laurentian, Plut. XIV page 296, with the same heading; a fourth, the Turin codex, which has for its title 'Likewise also concerning Easter, sermon XXXII.' Yet the more approved to St.
the more approved homily is restored to St. Maximus by the Benedictine monks of the congregation of St. Maurus, who, removing it from the sermons of Augustine, to whom it was once attributed, and transferring it to the appendix, judged it to be a work of St. Maximus. Into the same opinion came the editors Gymnicus page 159, Galesinius page 135, Cundius vol. II page 1447, Raynaudus page 220, Margarinus in the Bibliotheca Maxima vol. VI page 27. Sufficiently clear, therefore, is the false supposition of those who attributed it to St. Ambrose, as also of those who attributed it to St. Leo the Great. This homily exhibits something peculiar, namely the discipline of the Church at that time, of solemnly administering baptism to adults on Holy Saturday. To these, then, regenerated unto grace, St. — held his discourse.
the bishop of Turin, recalling to them who they had been and who they now are through the benefit of regeneration, most lovingly admonishes them to show themselves new men by the newness of a holier life. — Your holiness retains, brethren, that I very recently preached this: that man is reformed into a younger age through righteousness, and, though wearied with old age, is again reborn into a child by the ways of innocence; so that, by the intervening mystery, from old folk we may see infants once more. For it is a certain renewal to cease to be what you were, to take up what you were not before; a renewal, I say, whence also they are called neophytes, because by a certain newness they have cast off the stains of their old estate and taken up the grace of simplicity, as the Apostle says:
'Putting off the old man with his deeds, put on the new, who is created according to God' (Col. III). Whence holy David also says: 'Your youth shall be renewed like the eagle's' (Ps. CII); understanding that through the grace of baptism the fading things of our life can revive, and that which in us had collapsed through the old age of sins can be renewed by a certain youthfulness. And that you may understand that the prophet speaks of the grace of baptism, he compared that renewal to the eagle, a bird which by the continual changing of its plumage is said to lead a long life, and, when its old feathers have already grown weak, to grow young again by a fresh succession of quills: so that, the spoils of its former state laid aside, it clothes itself with a renewed birth of its garments;
whence we understand that it is not the eagle's limbs that feel old age, but its feathers. In new plumage, therefore, it clothes itself, and as the feathers sprout, the aged mother is renewed once more into a nestling. For it is to be likened to a fledgling, when, with its feathers gleaming, it must again practise its untried flight, and — its wings once exercised in rowing — like a young bird within the nest to hold them back, sluggish; for although it has knowledge of flying from habit, yet it lacks confidence because of the sparseness of its feathers. Of the grace of baptism, therefore, the holy Psalmist prophesied this.
For our neophytes, lately baptised, like eagles that have laid aside the spoils of their old estate, have taken up the new garments of holiness, and, their old stains having grown weak like light feathers, are adorned with the renewed grace of immortality: so that in these old folk the fading sins have grown old, but life has not grown old, like the eagle into a nestling, as they are called back into infancy. They have knowledge of the world from their former way of life, but they have the security of righteousness from their restoration. Let us therefore see yet more diligently what holy David says; for he does not say, 'It shall be renewed like the eagles',' but 'your youth like the eagle's.'
He asserts, therefore, that the youth of one eagle is to be renewed in us; and this one and only eagle I should rightly call Christ the Lord, whose youth was renewed then when he rose from the dead: for, the spoils of mortal corruption laid aside, he bloomed again by the renewed assumption of his flesh, as he himself says through the prophet: 'And my flesh has flourished again, and of my own will I will confess to him' (Ps. LXXII). 'My flesh has flourished again,' he says. See what word he used: he does not say 'flourished,' but 'flourished again'; for nothing flourishes again except what has flourished before. And the flesh of the Lord flourished when first it came forth from the inviolate womb of the Virgin Mary, as Isaiah says: 'There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root' (Isa. XI).
And it flourished again when, the flower of his body having been cut down by the Jews, it sprang up again from the tomb in the renewed glory of the resurrection, and after the manner of a flower diffused to all men alike both the fragrance and the brightness of immortality: bearing about the fragrance in the sweetness of good works, showing forth the brightness in the incorruption of his everlasting Godhead.