Perhaps it will be doubted whether this homily, once confounded with the Ambrosian sermons—as the Paris edition of 1569 teaches—should be assigned to Saint Maximus: seeing that only one or another manuscript is found as its supporter. Now these are of this kind: the manuscript no. 99 of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, and the Vatican manuscript 1268, page 144. It exists also in the Laurentian codex, Pluteus XIV, no. 10, page 281, where it lacks the author's name. But Gennadius, by his testimony, claims full credit for himself, who among the chief indications expressed its title thus: «On carnal enemies not to be feared, and on the giving of thanks to God after food.» The three manuscripts mentioned present a superscription conceived in almost the same words; for the manuscript of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme has:
«On enemies rather spiritual than carnal to be feared, and on the giving of thanks to God after food.» The two remaining ones, the Vatican and the Laurentian, agree: «On enemies rather spiritual to be feared, and on thanks to be given to God after food,» omitting only the words «than carnal.» The Benedictine monks of the Congregation of Saint Maur seem to have made much of the authority of Gennadius, and therefore they deleted this homily from the register of Saint Ambrose's sermons and assigned it to Saint Maximus, noting that in the old editions of Ambrose it bears the title: «Sermon on the seventh chapter of Job,» etc. But the later editors—Gymnicus, page 267, Galesinius, page 171, Raynaudus, page 240, and Margarinus in the Bibliotheca Maxima, volume VI, page—
—45, retained the same inscription of Gennadius. I have often admonished you, brethren, that, while it is permitted and while there is time, you should by every means take thought for your salvation and, in this brief life, provide for yourselves an eternal life. For every wise man understands that this life of men was given not for rest, but for labor—that is, that here one should labor and hereafter rest. But here there is no rest; for this life is so filled with such great evils that, by comparison with it, death is thought to be from a remedy, not a punishment; for God made it brief for this very reason, that its troubles, since they could not be ended by prosperity, might be ended by the shortness of time. Finally, holy Job says: «The life of man upon the earth is a trial» (Job 7);
that is, either because men in this life experience all evils—for «piraterium» can in Latin be called «trial» (experiment); or certainly «piraterium,» because in this life the devil rages against men like a pirate; for «piraterium» is the dwelling of pirates. So long, therefore, are we in a pirates' den, as long as, placed in this flesh, we lie subject to the temptations of the spiritual robbers; although in this very life we also have carnal pirates, who are the barbarians. Yet I fear less those who, even if they carry off patrimonies, cannot carry off righteousness; if they take away gold, they surely cannot take away Christ; if they plunder silver, they cannot plunder the Saviour.
Who, then, does not hasten to have Christ for himself, whom neither the traitor can wrest from him, nor the enemy carry off, nor captivity separate? For he who has Christ does not dread man as an enemy. For what will he do to the wise man? Will he drive off his flocks? This too the pestilence of disease is wont to do. Will he plunder his herds? This is a loss the wise man has already learned to endure by bearing with cattle-rustlers. Perhaps that very thing brings him not weariness, but removal of weariness; for it inflicts upon him that which a fever would bring with greater trouble, especially since the Lord says: «Fear not those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul» (Matthew 10). Those spiritual pirates, therefore, are more to be feared, who are wont to despoil not only the bodies of men, but also their souls;
who strive to carry off not so much the gold of the world as the gold of faith; who plunder not so much the substance of the age as the wisdom of Christ. For these spiritual enemies send in upon us these carnal ones, that we may be tested, placed in tribulation, how confident we are in God, so that we may seek a remedy from Him alone. For there are some who, placed in tribulation, say that enemies who conquer by evil arts ought to be overcome by those same arts—despairing of God, demanding victory from demons; wretched men, they know not what they do, nor what they say. For while they fear for their possessions, they have forgotten religion and faith; and while they perhaps do not lose their possessions, yet, what is more, they have lost their own souls. The holy Job says:
«If we receive good things from the hand of the Lord, why shall we not endure the evil?» (Job 2). That is, if we rejoice at the coming of good things, why should we not also be strengthened at the befalling of adversities? To endure adversities is, for the wise man, an exercise of virtue; for the foolish man, an occasion of transgression. I have often said that in this brief life you should provide for yourselves an eternal life, and I grieve as to why you disdain to do this. For when we say that one must fast, apart from a few, no one fasts; when almsgiving must be done, the greater greed constrains you. But what it is to pray and to give thanks to God, I think most of you are ignorant; you who, rising at first dawn, think of nothing but breakfast;
when they have breakfasted, they give themselves to sleep, never rendering thanks to the Godhead, which gave them both breakfast for refreshment and sleep for rest. Assuredly, you, O Christian, if you are worthy, ought to remember whose bread you eat, and to speak His praise. Tell me now: if you bestow anything of your own upon anyone, do you not expect that he give you thanks, and finally bless the one from whom kindness has been shown him? And if perchance he does not give thanks, how is he marked out by you as ungrateful? So, then, God who feeds us likewise expects of us that for the food supplied by Him we render thanks, and that, filled with His gifts, we speak His praises. For this is the requital of divine benefits: that when we have been refreshed, we should confess ourselves to have well received.
But if, receiving divine gifts, we are silent and unmindful, we shall, as ungrateful and unworthy, be defrauded of their supply; so that God, whom we did not acknowledge in His benefits, we may seek amid the evils that press upon us, and be goaded by adversities to entreat what in prosperity we did not give thanks for so as to enjoy—as now it happens, that we who in peace were slothful in rendering praise, are now, in tribulation, anxious in bewailing our dangers.