Before the preface of this homily was published by Mabillon, having been drawn from the Codex of Saint-Gall, it had already been edited by Gymnicus and by later editors together with the homily to which the title was given: On the Cross and Burial of the Lord—namely that part which begins with these words, 'Let us consider concerning this very body of the Lord,' and concludes with these others, 'This raised up the salvation of all the more swiftly.' Then Gymnicus himself and other compilers constitute another homily, distinguished by a different heading, On the Passion and Burial of the Lord, of which this is the beginning: 'Perhaps someone may say concerning the preaching of the earlier Sunday,' and whose ending is: 'Why do you seek the living among the dead?'
But we discover that the copyists and all the editors erred, from four manuscripts of excellent repute, namely the Vatican 6452, the Lateran, and two of Monte Cassino, which make one homily out of the two parts already indicated. And what confirmed us far more in this opinion was that same homily, to which a part of another was joined; since the whole is about the Cross of the Lord, and the fragment added to it is recognized as wholly foreign. But if there be struck out from the homily On the Passion and Burial of the Lord its beginning, up to those words 'the womb brought forth,' we obtain a manifest connection with the preceding, in which the comparison of the Virgin's womb with the tomb that received the body of Christ the Lord was begun.
Nor is it anything new, as we have already said elsewhere, that the ancient monks, who from the shipwreck of antiquity preserved the precious writings of the Fathers, made two or three lessons out of one homily or sermon, with certain additions for their own use. These things being brought to light, it must be inquired whether the earlier part of this homily, which is presented under this title of the Saint-Gall Codex, 'Here begins the preface On the Body of Christ,' fits it and is, as it were, the head of the same. We say, therefore, that that exordium appears to have been taken up by Maximus from the circumstance of place and time, and it accords with a discourse delivered in an assembly of bishops, whom the presiding prelate had beforehand addressed, as the custom was.
Maximus himself, having first commended the address of the presiding bishop and mentioned the subject of the same, sets about to establish his own sermon concerning the burial of the body of Christ: 'Let us consider, then, concerning the body of the Lord, after it is taken down from the cross, what takes place.' Mabillon brought forth into the light nothing but the preface, and part of the homily beginning 'Let us consider' and ending 'This raised up the salvation of all the more swiftly,' since the other part of the Saint-Gall Codex, 'Perhaps someone may say,' etc.—which is found in it under the title On the Sepulchre of Christ—was already made known to him, published in all the editions. We bring forth the whole homily, which we judge it most probable that Maximus delivered in the Council of Milan under Saint Eusebius.
Having vindicated the integrity of this homily, we undertake to vindicate the holy bishop of Turin from those codices which ascribed it to Saints Ambrose, Augustine, and Gregory the Great. Three codices came before us attributing it to Ambrose, namely the Vatican Laurentian X Plut. XIV, and codex 1 of the left-hand part, formerly of Santa Croce Minore, now in the Laurentian. But since the Benedictine monks of the Congregation of Saint Maur, in the preface to the sermons of Saint Ambrose (vol. II, Paris edition of 1690), citing the testimony of Gennadius, by which it is established that Maximus wrote on the sepulchre of Christ, adjudged that homily, treating of this matter, to be Maximus's, no such codices trouble us at all.
The Benedictine monks themselves, moreover, since they brought this same homily into the appendix of the sermons of Saint Augustine, no. 248, p. 288 of the Antwerp edition of the year 1700, and declared that opinion concerning it had been varied, and said that they were more inclined toward Maximus than toward the other Fathers—we hold that the authority of the opposing codices, in which the name of Augustine is read, is overthrown. But as to the fact that in Vatican codex 1270, p. 31 on the reverse, the homily is credited to Saint Gregory the Great, this is a manifest blunder of the copyist: for in no codices, nor in printed books, has anyone else ever dreamed up Gregory the Great as the author of this homily.
But lest we seem to be trifling with conjectures in a matter of such great moment, there are at hand for us four most approved codices, whose votes concur in favor of Maximus. The first is the Turin codex, which divides the homily into two discourses, so that it makes the first that one which begins 'Perhaps someone may say,' and begins the second from those words 'Yesterday, enough of joy,' etc., with the title in the former, On the Sepulchre of the Lord, and in the second, Likewise on the same—and this in inverted order through the drowsiness of the copyist. The second codex is the Saint-Gall, homily 68, with the inscription affixed: Preface on the Body of Christ. The third codex, 99 of Santa Croce in Jerusalem, no. 51, has the earlier part of the homily under the title On the Body of Christ, and the other under this other title:
On the Sepulchre of the Lord Savior. The fourth, finally, is the Lateran codex, p. 212, which to the heading On the Body of Christ adds: Sermon of Saint Maximus the bishop, and begins: 'Let us consider concerning the body of the Lord,' etc. Since, then, the homily is supported by these chief testimonies, and since in its favor Mabillon, Ceillier in volume XIV of his History, and the Benedictine monks in three editions of the works of Ambrose and Augustine have pronounced their verdict, we have pursued a just cause in vindicating it for Saint Maximus. 'I believe, most beloved brethren, that yesterday you received enough of joy, both from the discourses
of our lord and brother, the present bishop, who discoursed on divine matters with such eloquence that his preaching was full of the grace of the priesthood, the eloquence of the orator, and the training of the teacher. Nor is it any wonder if he who holds the honor of primacy in the pontificate should have also in preaching the eloquence of primacy: so that the mighty works of God, which he draws forth from the secret of his holy breast, he commends by the discourse of eloquent speech. And therefore I know that my littleness will please your ears less than usual. For who is content to drink from a rivulet, when he can draw from the fountains? For the earth does not at all take in a thin dew of waters, after a generous shower of rains has poured into it. So then your beloved company, flooded by the
eloquence of the holy priest, will not endure the base weariness of my discourse. For however learned, however skilled an orator may be, he will seem tongue-tied if he begins to speak in the presence of a better. Yet nevertheless this confusion has its own consolation. For there is nothing of blushing that the least priest should displease in comparison with the highest priest, especially since the distinguished fellowship of the blessed can help me. For if David proclaims that one man can become holy by the company of another holy man, saying, 'With the holy one you shall be holy' (Psalm XVII), who then would not suppose that I, however unskilled, however a sinner, can become a preacher by the power of the Lord, in the fellowship of so great masters?
Therefore, since our most blessed brother has pursued the praises of the holy apostles with great eloquence, we too ought to preach the burial of the same Lord: so that, since we seem to be members of one body, provided for by like services, the whole body may also be adorned by like preachings. Let us consider, then, concerning the body of the Lord, after it is taken down from the cross, what takes place. Joseph of Arimathea received it, a just man, as the evangelist says, and buried it in his own new tomb, in which no one had yet been laid. Blessed, then, is the body of Christ the Lord, which, when it is born, is brought forth from the womb of a virgin; when it departs, is entrusted to the tomb of a just man. Blessed indeed the body, which virginity bore, and justice guarded.
Joseph's tomb guarded it incorrupt, just as Mary's womb kept it inviolate. For here it is not ploughed by the defilement of man, there it is not harmed by the corruption of death: a new womb conceived it. The Lord's, then, both is the virgin womb, and the burial is virgin; nay rather, I would call that very burial a womb, for the likeness is not slight. For as the Lord came forth alive from His mother's womb, so also He rose alive from Joseph's burial-place; and as He was then born from the womb to preach, so now He is reborn from the sepulchre to proclaim the good news. Save that this nativity is more glorious than that. For that begot a mortal body, this brought forth an immortal one:
after that nativity there is a descent to the lower regions, after this a return to the heavens. This nativity is plainly more holy than that. For that held the Lord of the whole world enclosed in the womb for nine months, but this guarded Him in the lap of the tomb for only three days; that brought forth the hope of all more slowly, this raised up the salvation of all the more swiftly. What comparison is there of the womb and the tomb, since the one brought forth a son from its inmost bowels, but the other merely furnished a place for burial? Yet I say that Joseph's affection was no less than Mary's. For she conceived the Lord in her womb, he in his heart; she furnished to the Savior the secret place of her members, he did not deny the secret place of his body;
she wrapped the Lord in swaddling-clothes when He was born, he in linen cloths when He departed; she anointed the blessed body with oil, he honored it with spices. Their services, then, agree with one another, and their affection agrees; whence it is necessary that their merit too should agree—save that an angel admonished Mary to her service, whereas justice alone persuaded Joseph. Joseph placed the Lord in his own sepulchre. We read in the prophet: 'Their throat is an open sepulchre' (Psalm V). If, then, the throat of men is an open sepulchre, see whether perhaps, according to this likeness, Joseph placed the Lord not so much in an earthly burial as he set Him in the monument of his own breast, and undertook to guard Him, not so much by the frail memory of the elements as by the holy memory of the virtues.
This is the faithful memory of the virtues, which, holding Christ within itself, does not suffer Him to be harmed by the corruption of heretics; concerning which memory the Lord says in the sacred writings: 'As often as you do this, do it in remembrance of Me, until I come' (Luke XXII). For as often as we speak of Christ, so often do we commend Him to the memory of our sacred mouth. 'Their throat, then, is an open sepulchre.' Rightly indeed does the prophet say it; for the sepulchre of Christ is the blessed open throat of the evangelists, through which they laid Him up in the eternal treasury of the Scriptures. And it is called an open sepulchre for this reason, that whoever wishes to arrive at the mystery of Christ does not enter into it except through the secret of the evangelical Scripture.
For in the sacred Letters, as it were in a certain new vessel, the Lord must be laid up. Whoever, therefore, desires to see Him, there both finds the sacrament of His Passion, and recognizes the glory of the resurrection. The throat of the saints, then, is open; whence the Apostle says to the Corinthians: 'Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians' (2 Cor. VI [text has I Cor. VI])—inviting them ever to enter through the open door of his preaching the hidden mysteries of Christ. In this memory of the breast, therefore, the Lord is placed by Joseph, that He may rest in the seat of justice, and that the Son of Man may have where to lay His head. Let us consider, then, why the Savior is placed in another's sepulchre, and has not His own burial-place.
For this reason He is placed in another's sepulchre, because He was dying for the salvation of others; for that death was not brought upon Him, but was borne for us; that death did not befall Him, but profits us. Why, then, should He have a burial-place of His own, who had not in Himself His own death? Why a tomb on earth for Him, whose seat remained in heaven? Why a burial for Him who, in the span of only three days' time, lay not so much dead in the sepulchre as He rested reposing, as it were, in a bed? For the very brevity of the time declares that it was sleep rather than death. Now the sepulchre is the necessary dwelling of death; the dwelling of death, therefore, was not necessary for Christ, who is life, nor had He, ever living, any need of the abode of the dead.
But rightly did we lay up this life in our own sepulchre, that with Him who gives life we might rise from the dead our own death. Whence also that Mary Magdalene, who was seeking the Lord in the sepulchre among the other dead, is reproved and it is said to her: 'Why do you seek the living among the dead?' (Luke XXIV). This is to say: Why do you seek among those below the one who, it is now established, has returned to those above? Whom, not yet understanding nor recognizing Him, she answered: 'Sir, if you have taken Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.' For she supposed Him, as the Scripture says, to be the gardener. The holy and simple woman, therefore, was seeking Christ from Christ, and by the devotion of her mind she prophesies and knows it not: for she says to the Lord concerning Himself:
'If you have taken Him away, tell me.' Rightly she asks, 'If you have taken Him away'; for He Himself took up your body, He who raised it; He took up the body, who gathered it as it lay and slept by His own breathing-in of the Spirit; He took up the body, who, bearing it by the power of His Divinity, carries it to the heavens; and therefore the woman wisely asks and inquires: 'If you have taken Him away, tell me where you have laid Him?' That is, if, taking Him from the sepulchre, you have transferred Him to paradise. For she had heard Him saying to the thief, 'Today you shall be with Me in paradise' (Luke XXIII). Or surely from the lower regions you have set Him at the right hand of the Father, as the Apostle says: 'Seek the things that are above, where Christ is at the right hand of God' (Col. III).
Blessed, therefore, is he who so seeks Christ the Lord that he believes Him both set in paradise and placed among the heavenly ones. For to him who seeks Him either in the lower regions or in the tombs, it is said: 'Why do you seek the living among the dead?'