This homily is preceded by a great and splendid array of manuscript codices, which have come together with wonderful consent to declare Saint Maximus its author. From the Vatican library we have had four codices before our eyes, namely 4954, page 25; 480, page 167; Vatican Palatine 435, page 146; Vatican of the Queen 25, page 84. We have also inspected three Cassinese codices, 206, page 162; 110; and 462; likewise two Vallicellan ones, B5, page 64, and A 16, page 48; and codex XII of Holy Cross in Jerusalem. To these we add the Lambach codex, page 120; two of Reichenau, XII and XXXIX; the Monza one, E III; also two Belgian ones, the Martinensian and the Cambronian; the Novara one, 42, page 24; and the Vercelli one, 81.
The Taurinensian codex lacks it, since it embraces only homilies and sermons of the season. In its place we substitute Alcuin, who inscribes the homily to Saint Maximus, as is clear from his Homiliary, page 31, Venice edition 1571. The Benedictine monks of the congregation of Saint Maur, transferring into the appendix of his sermons, no. 210, a certain sermon on the birthday of Saint Stephen, once attributed to Saint Augustine and into which this homily is inserted, said it was composed from the sayings of Caesarius. But since we have the consent of so many and so great codices, and the same reading in them all, will it not be more equitable to be judged that Maximus's homily was appropriated, and that whatever extraneous is found was stitched onto it by a more recent hand?
The editors followed the same codices: Gymnicus page 179, Galesinius homily 1 On the Saints page 142, Combefis tome I page 398, Cumdius tome I page 348, Raynaudus page 234, Margarinus in the Great Library tome VI page 50. Let the testimony of the Breviary of Esztergom stand as a crowning-piece, which on the eighth day of the birthday of Saint Stephen has this homily for the lessons of the second nocturn, named to Saint Maximus the bishop. The reading of the Acts of the Apostles which has been read to us today, most beloved brethren, though it has very much of admiration in its very appearance, yet contains no less of dignity in its mystery: 'Behold,' says the blessed Stephen, 'I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of the power of God' (Acts 7).
Consider more attentively, most beloved brethren, when the blessed martyr had seen our Lord Jesus Christ sitting at the right hand of God the Father, why he testified that he saw the Son of man, and not rather the Son of God; since surely he would seem about to render more honor to the Lord if he had said that he saw the Son of God rather than of man. But a sure reason demanded that it should be shown thus in heaven, and proclaimed in the world; for the whole scandal of the Jews was in this: why our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to the flesh is the Son of man, should be said to be also the Son of God.
Therefore Divine Scripture beautifully recorded that the Son of man stands at the right hand of God the Father, so that, for the confounding of the Jews' unbelief, he might be shown to that martyr in heaven, because he was denied to the faithless in the world; and that heavenly truth might give testimony to him to whom earthly impiety had withdrawn its faith. Whence, although according to the psalm which was read—'Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints' (Psalm 115)—yet if anything can differ among the martyrs, he seems to be preeminent who is first. For although Saint Stephen was ordained a deacon by the apostles, he preceded the apostles themselves by a blessed and triumphal death: and thus he who was inferior in order was made first in suffering;
And he who had been a disciple in rank began to be a master by his martyrdom, fulfilling that which the blessed prophet spoke in the psalm: 'What shall I render to the Lord for all the things that he hath rendered unto me?' (Psalm 116). For Stephen the martyr wished to be the first to render to the Lord what he had received from the Lord together with the whole human race; for the death which the Saviour deigned to suffer for all, this man was the first to give back to the Saviour. After this the Sacred Scripture adds, and says: 'Kneeling down, he cried out, saying, Lay not this sin to their charge.' See, most beloved brethren, the affection of the blessed man; see his great and admirable charity.
He was set in the midst of persecution, yet he made supplication for his persecutors; and in that hail of stones, when another might have forgotten even his own dearest ones, he commended his enemies to the Lord. For what did he say while he was being stoned? 'Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.' Thus he grieved more then for their sins than for his own wounds, more for their impiety than for his own death; and rightly more. For in their iniquity there were many things to be lamented, but in his death there was nothing that ought to be mourned; upon their impiety followed eternal death, but upon his death, everlasting life. Let us therefore, most beloved brethren, imitate in some measure the faith of so great a master, the charity of so illustrious a martyr;
Let us love our brethren in the Church with that same spirit with which he then loved his enemies. But what is worse, at times we not only do not love our enemies, we do not even keep whole faith toward our friends. Yet someone says: I cannot love my enemy, whom daily I endure as a most cruel foe. O whoever you are, you notice what a man has done to you, and you do not consider what you have done to God; for since you have committed against God far graver sins, why do you not forgive a man the little, that God may deign to forgive you the much? Recall what Truth itself has promised you in the Gospel, and what a sort of pledge it has in a manner made to you, or what a covenant it has entered into.
For 'if you forgive men their sins,' he says, 'your heavenly Father will also forgive you your sins. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father forgive you your debts' (Matthew 6). You see, brethren, that by God's grace it has been placed within our own power how we shall be judged by the Lord. 'If you forgive,' he says, 'it will be forgiven you.' I have often said, brethren, and I ought to say frequently: let no one deceive himself, let no one lead himself astray; whoever holds even one man in the world in hatred, whatever he offers to God in good works, he loses it all, because the apostle Paul does not lie when he says:
'If I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not charity, it profits me nothing' (1 Corinthians 13). This the blessed John also confirms, saying: 'Everyone who does not love his brother abides in death.' And again: 'He who hates his brother is a murderer' (1 John 3). In this place 'brother' must be understood to mean every man; we are all brothers in Christ. Let no one, therefore, presume upon his virginity without charity, no one rely upon his almsgiving, no one trust in his prayers; for as long as he keeps enmity in his heart, he will be able to appease the Lord toward himself neither by these nor by any other good works whatsoever.
But if he wishes to have God favorable to himself, let him not disdain to hear good counsel; let him hear not me, but his own Lord himself. 'If,' he says, 'you offer your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave there your gift before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to your brother, and then coming, offer your gift' (Matthew 5). Yet we have quarrels within, and turning deceits in our heart, we presume to approach the altar as though we had a good conscience, not fearing what is written: 'He who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself' (1 Corinthians 11). But someone says: it is a great labor to love enemies, to make supplication for persecutors.
Nor do we deny it, brethren; it is indeed no small labor in this world, but great will be the reward in that which is to come; for through the love of one man, your enemy, you become the friend of God—nay, not only a friend, but even a son, as the Lord himself says: 'Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven' (Luke 6). If some rich man in this world wished to make you his adopted son, how you would serve, what indignities even from his servants, what most harsh services, and sometimes even most shameful ones, you would endure, in order to attain to his perishable and fragile inheritance! What then another would endure for the sake of earthly substance, do you endure for the sake of eternal life.
For we are convicted by a most certain reasoning that for God's sake we are indeed able, but unwilling, to bear injuries. In short, if some powerful person does us an injury, or even curses us to our face, we dare not answer anything harsh—I will not say, return the like—and why? Lest from that powerful person we suffer things yet greater than those we have already endured. What the fear of man extorts from us, the love of Christ ought to have required. If, then, a powerful person rages against us, we keep silent and dare say nothing;
but if either an equal, or perhaps an inferior, does us even a slight affront, we rise up like a wild beast, without any patience and without any regard for God, and either avenge our injury on the spot, or at least prepare our mind to return a greater retaliation. What is this, that when a powerful person has inflicted an injury upon us, we have received it patiently; but when an inferior does, we are kindled with excessive fury? What we there feared in man, here we are unwilling to fear in God. Wherefore, brethren, let us, as much as we can, with God's help prepare our heart for patience, and in all evil men study to play the part of physicians, and let us hate not the men themselves, but their malice;
let us pray for the good, that they may ever ascend to better things; for the wicked, that they may quickly flee to the amendment of life through the lamentations of penance. And may he himself deign to grant this to us as we pray, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, unto the ages of ages. Amen.