I remember having once pointed out that the titles of homilies and sermons were sometimes composed at the discretion of the copyists. This indeed can be confirmed in a great degree by those manuscript codices, by whose help this homily of Maximus has been preserved for us. For he who transcribed it into the Vatican codex 1629 prefixed to it this title: 'On the birthday of many martyrs.' He who copied it into the other Vatican 1273: 'On the birthday of a single martyr.' He who copied it into the Ratisbon codex of St. Emmeram: 'Concerning the holy martyrs.' He who copied it into the two Cassinese, 169 and 111: 'On the nativity of the holy martyrs.' And finally he who copied it into the Martin codex: 'On the birthday of the holy Turinese martyrs Octavius, Adventius, and Solutor.'
In the old Esztergom Breviary the same homily bears this inscription: 'A homily of St. Maximus the bishop for the common of many martyrs.' Nor is the variety among the editors in describing the title almost any less. In Gymnicus, Galesinius, and Raynaud it reads thus: 'By the same author, concerning the martyrs'; but in Cumdius and Margarinus: 'Concerning the holy martyrs.' To these two, whom the Cassinese codices support, we have assented. For there is nothing in this homily of Maximus so proper to the holy Turinese martyrs that it might not seem able aptly to apply to most other martyrs as well.
Since, moreover, the constancy of the codices and editors in establishing Maximus as the author is remarkable, and there is nothing in the homily which departs from the tenor of that same holy bishop's speech, the authority of the curators of the first Parisian and the Roman editions of the works of St. Ambrose, who ascribe it to that same St. Ambrose, is truly to be reckoned as nothing. The examples of the holy martyrs ought to suffice us for the advancement of our salvation, who, for the sake of obtaining the heavenly crown, subjected themselves to all the Lord's commands; and so bound themselves to all the laws of the Savior that, by reason of their former life, they deserved to attain to this glory of martyrdom.
For they did not fulfill the Lord's precept only at that time in which they endured the punishment of confession; but it was necessary that they should first have lived according to the Gospel of Christ, so that they might attain to the sufferings of Christ. For it is necessary that the beginnings should have been good, whose end that followed is the best; and that these were martyrs not only when they suffered, but were also martyrs of Christ while they lived. For 'martyr' in Latin is called 'witness'; and as often as we do the command of Christ by good deeds, so often do we bear witness to Christ. Hence too the cross of the Lord is called not only that which is constructed at the time of passion by fastening to the wood, but also that which is fitted together throughout the whole course of life by the virtues of all the disciplines;
of which the Savior seems to me to speak: 'Whoever wishes to come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me' (Luke 9). Were all the martyrs who followed the Lord crucified? Were all the virgins who, according to the Apocalypse (chap. 14), follow the Lamb of God, crucified in order to follow? Had the apostle Paul been crucified when he says: 'But far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world' (Gal. 6:14)? He says this that you may understand the cross to be not the gibbet of wood, but the purpose of life and virtue. The whole life, therefore, of a Christian man, if he live according to the Gospel, is a cross and a martyrdom.
But this is what is found difficult in us, that all our acts should be directed according to the Gospel; and therefore, as often as we wallow in pleasures, we lose the Savior's cross. For Christ is chastity, peace, truth, meekness. How then can one who is corrupt bear witness to chastity? Or how can one whose mind is always in strife preach peace? By what means also will the inconstant man preserve truth or meekness? How, I say, can we attain to the glory of martyrdom, when the Lord says: 'Do not possess gold' (Matt. 10)? Now he says this to those who have it; whence, if he forbids those who have gold to possess it, what punishment condemns the covetousness of those who do not have it?
And if those who possess their own are commanded to give it up, how gravely are they struck who plunder what belongs to others? For there are very many, brethren, who, though they were born in a humble station and have obtained no riches from their parents, are so tossed about by the greed of avarice that they think themselves born without cause unless by some means they possess gold; for esteeming, as the prophet says (Wisd. 15), the life of men to be constituted for gain, they do not hesitate to acquire from any source, even from evil; and thus such men, while they seek the gain of gold, find the loss of salvation. Let us ask, brethren, how many there are who are not steeped in this? Very few wise men defend themselves from this pestilence. If you consider the merchant,
he is first in fault on account of avarice. If you look at military service alone; greed is the whole cause of his soldiering. If you scrutinize the individual offices, you will find that men are not led to service by honesty, but are provoked to it as to a business, as it were by plunder. Almost all, therefore, are eager for gains and dealings; and when they rise at first dawn, they think of nothing except how to get something from any source. But if either honesty has convicted them, or the authority of the judge has repelled them, when they plunder others' goods, they complain that they have suffered a loss. 'Without cause,' they say, 'do we serve as soldiers, without cause do we labor; today I could bring nothing home, the iniquity of the judge did not permit me to do wrong.'
Avarice, therefore, agitates almost all men, and permits none of them to be at rest. For those who have nothing are tormented by desire; those who possess riches are tortured by anxiety; nor is it even well with those who brood over hidden gold, nay, it is heavier for them. For they are always anxious, sad, worried, lest a slave carry it off, lest a thief dig it up; and therefore, thrusting it back, they hide it in darkness so that it may escape everyone's notice, never bringing anything forth from it for use, lest by opening the hiding-place there be occasion for betrayal. But they keep it and do not use it, they keep it, I say; I would therefore call such men keepers, not owners, attending diligently to what is another's, not fittingly spending what is their own.
What then, brethren, do you suppose it is to have gold — is it riches? I would rather say it is the greater riches not to have gold: for more precious is the mind of him who despises gold than of him who craves gold; the greater riches, plainly, are not to have gold, but to stand above those who have gold. For he who abounds in his own goods does not seek the treasures of the world; for good things are his own — honesty, sobriety, mercy, chastity: all which good things are more precious than gold; so that you may know how much baser are metals than these: talents of gold can be bought, vessels of silver can be procured; but honesty is not bought, but acquired; because it stands not by price, but by virtue. You therefore, who possess gold, if it please you, let us compare goods with one another.
When you set out abroad, your treasures of necessity remain at home; and with them placed far from you, you are always fearful, always uncertain, lest when you return home you should not have what you had. Thus, while you always dread their loss, before your own conscience you are naked and poor. But I, wherever I go, my riches follow me, nor can my goods be separated from me, since they are retained not in an earthly cave, but in the treasure of the breast. You, when you depart from the world by leaving it behind, have lost your riches; but I, when it befalls me to migrate from this world, carry my riches with me to paradise; your riches, after death, fire and darkness shall follow, after the example of that purple-clad rich man;