Homilies of Maximus of Turin (Bruni's collection) 115.1–118.1

If your love has carefully noticed the gospel chapter that was read, that very chapter could have pierced your minds: why the Lord, as Scripture reports, when he was asked by one man that he might follow him wherever he went, for the sake of devout service, said rather to another, "Follow me"; and, the first being spurned and slighted, chose instead another who was silent and not expecting it. And since voluntary service is usually more acceptable than forced, and service pleases more not when it is exacted by command but when it is offered freely, why then is the one rejected, why is he even refused as unworthy? For the Lord says to him: "Foxes have dens, and the birds of the sky nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." First, then, we must consider that the Lord is not a respecter of persons. For he is a fair and just judge; but he repays the affection of love according to the quality of these men, and chooses not him who is ready in words and lazy in devotion, but him who is silent in tongue and devout in mind, of whom the prophet says: "By keeping silent you will seem wise." But of him who speaks forwardly Scripture reports: "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does my will." From this, then, we learn that one must cry to the Lord not so much with the mouth as with the heart. Our Saviour, then, who sees through the thoughts and minds of men, hearing indeed the service of the voice but recognizing the cunning of the mind, compares him to such an animal as shows one thing by its voice and does another by its ways. For the fox sounds like a dog in its bark, but practises the plunder of fraud by guile. He takes up, then, the silent man who was not expecting it. His tongue was silent indeed, but he spoke in spirit. For we understand how devout he was who, as he himself declared, left his father dead so as to find the Lord of life. For he says: "Allow me first to go and bury my father." He had left dead, then, the man whom he asks to bury on his return. For grief had not held him back, death had not delayed him, because he was hastening to life. He had not yet closed his dying father's eyes, had not yet laid out his stiffening limbs: as soon as he learned that the Lord had come, forgetting the affection of filial piety, he believed with a greater piety that he should love Christ more than his parent. For perhaps he had read the prophetic reading that says: "Forget your people and your father's house." Therefore he forgot his father while he remembered the Saviour. He had also heard the Lord's Gospel: "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me." So, if Tobit is justified because he left his lunch for the sake of a burial, this man is approved when for Christ's sake he left his father's burial. For the one did not fear that, with the work intervening, he would miss the dishes of an earthly lunch; this one feared that, with delay intervening, he would lose the refreshment of the heavenly bread. Hence, though for Christ's sake we owe burial to all, this man for love of Christ abandoned his father's burial. Let us first discuss, then, the first man's proposal and the response of the Lord Saviour. He says to him: "I will follow you wherever you go." A ready answer indeed, but a proud one. For the Lord was going to his passion, about to descend to the underworld, about to ascend to heaven: can human frailty accompany him in all these? This is rather a foolish presumption than a devout confession. Indeed the apostle Peter too, when he thought he would follow the Saviour in all things, is told by the Lord: "Where I am going, you cannot follow me now." And when he insisted, saying that not even death would separate him from him, he hears, as one condemned for boasting, that he would deny the Lord three times. So he who promised that not even death would tear him from the confession of Christ is separated from his fellowship by the questioning of a little maidservant; and had the Lord not said, as if setting a kind of limit, that he would deny him three times, perhaps, questioned more often, he would have denied him often. What, then, is answered to that forward man? "Foxes have dens, and the birds of the sky nests, and the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." See to what he is subtly compared. For this kind of animal is deceitful and always bent on plunder, practising robbery by fraud, so that it allows nothing to be safe, nothing at rest, nothing secure, and seeks prey even among the dwellings of men. I think this comparison was written not only because of that man but also because of many Christians who confess the Lord with the mouth but live in their ways with the deceit of foxes. For every Christian who wishes to hide his sins is spiritually a fox. For as the fox because of its frauds lingers in hiding places, so the silent sinner, because of the consciousness of his sins, lurks in dens. And as the fox does not dare to show the deceit of its ways among crowds of men, so this man blushes to confess the wickedness of his conduct in the midst of the church. I would plainly call a fox every Christian who lies in wait for his neighbour, who daily strives to gnaw at another's boundaries, invade his crops, devour his animals, and, what is common in this time, to seize not chickens in the manner of foxes but pigs in the manner of wolves; who, though he could live by his own labour, catches another's prey with the fury of wild beasts. I think all heretics too are to be compared to foxes, who, since they cannot live in the Lord's house, prepare for themselves certain conventicles like dark dens, in which, lurking stubbornly, they lie in wait for the Church, so that if any innocent soul perhaps comes out, they may swallow it like a chick of the mother hen. They lie in wait, I say, as foxes for the Church, that is, for that hen of the Gospel of whom the Lord says: "How often I wished to gather your children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings!"

Let us avoid, then, brothers, let us avoid the pestilent tricks of lurking foxes, let us avoid the deadly snares of most wicked animals; lest, as once the foxes which that mighty Samson sent into the field of the Philistines armed with torches burned with flames everything their tracks touched, so the foxes of perverse doctrines should either seize the fruits of our crops by the deceit of snares or consume them by the burning of flames. Let us be, then, as we read, both simple as doves and wise as serpents, so that the wisdom of serpents may guard the simplicity of doves, and so that we may not know how to do evil and yet be able to avoid it; through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honour and glory, and so on.

I believe, brothers, that you listened carefully to the gospel reading which was read just now, where the Lord Jesus Christ, entering the synagogue on the sabbath, cured with spiritual medicine a man who had a withered hand: not applying the juices of herbs, not binding on the remedies of ointments, but commanding by a word and ordering in anger, he poured health back into the body. In anger, I say, as the evangelist says, he restored strength to the right hand. From this we understand what health the Lord's kindness brings, when his indignation is such a medicine; or how he profits when appeased, who shows such mercy when angry. By a word, then, he orders the sap of the veins to pour into the withered right hand. No wonder if he restored a withered right hand who created the whole body from dry dust, and restored by the command of a word what in the beginning he established by the work of making; as though the thing formed, recognizing its maker, obeys him also in a small portion, to whom it owed itself wholly in the mass. But let us see what the withered hand in the synagogue is, which does nothing for its body, when it dried up in its works, and let us inquire when it first began to be withered. For it is not the cause of one man alone that is handled by the Saviour, nor the weakness of one man alone that is attended to, but the infirmity of the whole human race is saved. There is no doubt that the right hand, the more distinguished part of the whole body, performs this office: to supply daily food to its body and, by a kind of providence, to feed and nourish the other members for the enjoyment of life. This right hand in the Jewish people, then, I would say is the scribes or teachers, who, set by the Lord as the more distinguished part in the body of the Pharisees, neglected to fatten their other members with the oracles of the prophets; that is, they would not offer Christ to their body, according to the oracles of the prophets, as the food of eternal life; and so their teaching withered like a weak hand, because it did not seek the spring of everlasting wisdom. Accordingly it came about that, as with a shrunken right hand, it could not hold the key of knowledge, as the Lord says: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, who hide the key of knowledge," and so on. This key is Christ the Lord, by whom the secrets of our hearts are unlocked to belief. This key is lost by the Pharisees and found by the apostles, as the Lord says to Peter: "To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven." So the right hand of the synagogue withered, leaving Christ; in the rulers of the Jews the right hand of the synagogue grew worse. For whoever deserts the spring of Christ is weakened at once, or rather is found weaker than all the members. But I find that this hand was once better than the other members. For holy Moses, leader of the Jewish people, was like the more illustrious right hand of his body, when he was found worthy to receive from the Godhead the law to be held out. Holy Moses, I say, was the right hand, who fed the children of Israel with heavenly manna as with a provident hand. This plainly is the right hand which overcame the magicians Jannes and Mambres with the brightness of snowy splendour. For so you have it written: when Moses brought his hand out of his bosom, it shone with the light of brilliant whiteness; and so the darkness of the magicians was destroyed, because the right hand gleamed shining by the merits of Moses. But let us see when this hand first began to be withered or dead. I affirm that it first withered in Adam, when against the Lord's prohibition he plucked the fruit of the forbidden tree, and then lost the sap of immortality. And it was then dried up in a way when by his sin it caused man, made in the image of God, to be dissolved into dust. And would that only the hand were held liable for sin! What is heavier, the whole body was condemned to death when the right hand sinned first. Nor should you wonder if the member of the right hand did not remain whole in Adam: for the vigour of eternity withered in it. For as the right hand of Moses, who kept the Lord's commandments, shone with snowy brightness, so the right hand of Adam, who transgressed God's precepts, shrank with deadly pallor. This hand of Adam, then, the Saviour cures in the synagogue; that is, he hastens to heal the weakness of the whole human race; hence the remedy is common to all. For he says also to him: "Stretch out your hand," to the one who shrank it by sacrificing to idols; "stretch out your hand," to the one whose right hand dried up by taking interest. He says to him: "Stretch out your hand," who is eager by it to seize the property of orphans and widows. But you too who think you have a healthy hand, beware lest it be shrunk by avarice. Rather, stretch it out often to the poor in mercy, more often to the stranger in hospitality. Stretch it out always to the Lord for your sins; be merciful, be generous; observe what the prophet says: "Let not your hand be stretched out to receive and drawn back from giving." For so your hand will be able to be healthy, if it is kept back from evil deeds and stretched out in good works.

The Lord Jesus Christ says in the Gospel: "Truly I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." I fear that this saying may perhaps fit you who either have or seek the riches of this world. For as the very crookedness of body of the camel, a twisted and misshapen animal, does not let it pass through the very narrow hole of a needle, so the very deformity of their life does not at all allow rich men, loaded with avarice and defiled by greed, to enter by the narrow way of the kingdom. For the same Lord says: "Narrow and confined is the way that leads to life." In the camel, then, the shape of the limbs causes the difficulty of entry; but in the rich man the greatness of his sins makes the obstacle. For to think or do something shameful is a kind of hump of the soul, and a kind of twisted deformity of mind is always to be intent on unclean things and to be called away from the holy threshold of the Church by worldly cares. Hence the prophet seems to me, speaking spiritually of this deformity of body, rather to have indicated foulness of conduct when he says: "Let not the hunchback boast like the upright." As if he said: let not the sinner, twisted by the depravity of his vices, boast as the just man boasts, made straight by the simplicity of a good conscience. For though, sinner, you rejoice in the tallness of your body, though you are glad of the evenness of your shoulders, your soul is misshapen by the depravity of your ways. Rightly, then, is the rich man compared to a camel. For the bulk of its body calls the one back from passing through the needle; anxiety for his inheritance holds the other back from entering the Church. And as the small hole does not admit the one loaded with the mass of its limbs, so the holy entrance does not receive the other weighed down with a heap of sins. Each has his own burden: the one is loaded with flesh, the other with sins; and as the one is unfit for the very narrow hole of a needle, so the other is unsuited to the most blessed kingdom of God; except that nature made the camel ill-formed in body, but will makes the rich man crooked. I say these things, brothers, about those who, so as not to keep the most festive day of holy Epiphany in church, were held back by the fetters of their inheritances and bound by a kind of earthly chain, so that they could not come to the house of the Lord. Not that anything detains them, but that they are so entangled in their own affairs that they have now lost the free choice of living in their own power; and while they show anxiety for their inheritance, they do not seek the medicine of souls at all. Why do you, rich man, put forward to me the difficulty of the times? Why do you bring in a sudden necessity? If you have a heart, understand that greater than every necessity is the necessity of salvation; and it is a more useful cause to care first for life than to repair the losses of your property, lest while we seek the increase of our inheritance we suffer loss of soul. But perhaps you fear the judge whom you left in his chamber. Believe me, you ought rather to fear God the judge, who will judge that very judge of yours. You fear him, then, who will soon receive a successor; you do not fear the Lord, whom no one ever succeeds! Consider, then, the threatening day of judgment and the unquenchable flames of Gehenna, the horrid gnashing of teeth, the outermost torment of darkness. And then, if you can, leave the Church and entangle yourself in worldly cares. For I fear that while you seek the riches of the world you may rather find riches of sins, and having found the treasures of the world, may lose the heavenly treasures.

I think it can be enough for your correction, beloved brothers, that last Sunday, as I was setting out, I bestowed on you no spiritual gifts of the sacred letters, but only rebuked you and reproved you for sin and dismissed you without any consolation of preaching. For I wished you to understand this very thing, how gravely you had sinned, that you did not deserve to hear the divine words. For this is the severe and abundant punishment of priests: not to entrust the mysteries of the heavenly letters to the unworthy, nor, as the Lord says, to give what is holy to dogs or cast pearls to be trampled under the feet of swine. For whoever tries to put the heavenly pearl around a most foul sinner loses its grace. For a gem, as you yourselves know, suits only gold; a pearl is fitted only to precious necklaces. Be, then, the finest gold, be a precious necklace, so that the spiritual pearl may be set in you. For the pearl is Christ the Lord, whom that rich merchant in the Gospel, having sold all his goods, hastened to buy, and preferred to lose all the gems of the world he had, provided he could buy the one pearl of Christ. Hence I too, brothers, because of the greatness of the sin you had committed, would not open to you the words of the Gospel's refreshment, but rather inflicted on you the injury of a spirited indignation, and first amended you with spiritual blows, and so enriched you with the gifts of the pearl. I preferred, I say, to rebuke your sin sharply by accusing it rather than to nourish it by gently overlooking it. For whoever does not reprove a brother who sins in a way encourages him. And I do not want you to think that I do not do it out of love when I strike you more often. For the son who deserves chastisement is more loved, as holy Scripture says: "For the Lord reproves him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives." Tell me whether this sin was not to be grieved over: that you were then so forgetful of your salvation as not to render honour to the most blessed apostles Peter and Paul, though you know that they are the teachers of the Gentiles, the authors of the martyrs, the chiefs of the priests, and would not celebrate their most festive birthday with us and be present at that heavenly banquet in which, for the great joy of the martyrs, the Lord himself served us the substance of life? Do you want to know how great the goods are of which you were cheated? Ask the brothers who were present with me then how refreshed they went away from the Lord's table, and what spiritual riches they carried home with them. One thing I know: if on that day some man of rank or wealth had invited you to lunch on his son's birthday as far as the tenth milestone, you would without doubt have gone, for the sake of the carefully prepared dishes and the unequal measures. Therefore, brothers, whenever we celebrate the memory of the martyrs, we ought to put aside all the business of the world and run together without any hesitation to render honour to those who brought forth salvation for you by the shedding of their blood, who were offered to the Lord as a consecrated victim for our propitiation; especially since almighty God says to his saints: "Whoever honours you honours me, and whoever despises you despises me." Whoever, then, honours the martyrs honours Christ too; and whoever despises the saints despises the Lord too.