Homilies of Maximus of Turin (Bruni's collection) 78.2–82.1

To add anything to the praises of this holy and most blessed Father of ours, whose feast we celebrate today, is to take something away; for the grace of his virtues is not to be set out in words but proved by works. For since Scripture says, “A wise son is the glory of his father,” how great is the glory of this man, who rejoices in the wisdom and devotion of so many sons? For in Christ Jesus he begot us through the Gospel. Whatever virtue and grace there can be in this holy people, the purity of all the streams flowed from him as from a most clear spring. For because he was strong in the vigor of chastity, because he gloried in the hardships of abstinence, because he was endowed with the charms of gentleness, he roused the affection of all the citizens toward God; because he shone in the administration of a bishop, he left many disciples as successors of his priesthood. Well and fittingly on this day, which the passing of this blessed Father of ours to paradise makes a day of exultation for us, we have sung the verse of the present psalm: “The righteous will be in everlasting remembrance.” For he is worthily turned into the remembrance of men who has passed to the joy of the angels. The divine word says: “Do not praise a man in his lifetime,” as if it said: praise after life, magnify after completion. For a double reason it is more useful to give praise to a man's memory rather than to his life: so that you may extol the merits of holiness above all at that time when flattery does not move the one praising nor pride tempt the one praised. Praise, then, after the danger; proclaim one who is safe; praise not the good fortune of one sailing but when he has reached harbor; praise the general's courage, but when he has been led to triumph. For who, while living, can be praised safely and without fear, who remembers that he has something in the past to grieve over and sees that something remains in the future to fear? Who, placed in this little body, should claim anything for himself by way of merits, whom the hostility of demons besets again like a multitude of robbers, by whom invisible tripping-snares lay nooses for souls along all the roads, to be dreaded by the conduct of countless people? For we sail through this great and wide sea, in which are creeping things without number, animals small and great, that is, various kinds of enemies, who wrestle with us in a contest matched to the measure of our strength. In the sea of this world, then, we must greatly fear lest a storm snatch away our ship, or a wave swallow it, or a cruel pirate carry it off as eternal plunder. Against these manifold evils of the world, then, let us resist with chastened and chaste actions. But let us, secure, magnify the merits of the blessed Father, now placed in safety, who, holding manfully the helm of faith, has now set down the anchor of hope in a calm haven and has brought his ship, full of heavenly riches and eternal merchandise, to the shore he longed for; who held the shield of the fear of God untiringly against all adversaries until he came to victory. For what was the whole course of his life but one conflict with a watchful enemy? How many blind, straying from the way of truth and already hanging from a summit over the abyss, did he give back their lost sight and restore that gaze by which Christ is seen? Into the deaf ears of how many, condemned by the blocking of unbelief, did he pour precious hearing to receive the voice of the heavenly commandments, so that by obedience they might answer God who calls in mercy? How many, wounded within, did he cure of their sickness by the art of an angelic mouth and of prayers? How many, slackened by the stain of sin through long neglect and steeped as with the contagion of leprosy, did he cleanse, God working in him, by expiating them with chastisements and exhortations? How many souls living in the body, already dead and overwhelmed and buried under the weight of offenses, did he raise for God by calling them to amendment as to the light; and, an admirable imitator of his Lord, he put to death with a life-giving death the sin that is contrary to God in souls already dead. Then on the other side he closed with a healthy watchfulness what he had opened, lest another's property appear desirable to them, lest an outward fault pass a stain to the inner man, lest darkness enter the heart by the ways of light, lest in each that prophetic threat be fulfilled: “Death,” it says, “has entered through your windows.” For the services of the ears and eyes are shown to be the windows of souls; for when we give our hearing to those who speak evil and wicked things, who slander damnably, and who urge what is contrary to God, death enters through our windows, the horror of deadly night bursts in through those by which the sun of righteousness ought to have entered: when these windows of sin are opened, the door of salvation and life and the gates of paradise are shut. These windows this blessed man barred with many bolts of the fear of God. From the hearts of how many whom shameful iniquity and impiety possessed did he put vice to flight, cast down anger, and quench envy; and, as from an ancient house when the barbarous guests had been driven out, calling faith, chastity, justice, and mercy back there, he brought in peaceful inhabitants, through whom Christ, the head of these goods, might enter the dwelling of the mind; and, applying the remedies of repentance, he raised the man four days dead and stinking by the sound of his rebukes, and, having received their amendment, he restored to life by a temporary resurrection those snatched from the very jaws of death. Doing these and many more such things, which my poor speech cannot set forth and unfold as is fitting, your affection will tell you better; for with the urgency of the highest eagerness he was the cultivator and guardian of souls, cutting back desires, restraining anger, rooting out malice. This man was all the more necessary in these times, in which so great an iniquity grows strong daily with ever greater forces as justice fails. And indeed, though set in this pilgrimage in body alone, in thought and longing he lived in that eternal homeland; and like a good reckoner, stretching out his hand for the hundredfold, he always passed from the left to the right and laid up his labors in heaven; for though his works are seen here, the merits of his works have passed there. Let us follow his footsteps as far as we can, by which, hurrying through that very narrow way to the broad spaces of heaven, he showed us how to follow him.

For the Lord placed him here in our land so that by his example we might be formed to do good, and, looking at him as at a mirror, might compose the faces of our souls, and, like good sons, cultivate the likeness of our father in ourselves. As some great householder, wishing to paint his house most splendidly, seeks out forms and images to set before the eyes of a careful painter for the merit of his art, so that the painter may eagerly seize the other's work and with a skilled hand transfer the dignity of living persons onto the face of the walls; so that true householder, God, to paint his house, that is, to adorn our souls in his Church, seems to have brought forth and shown to the inner eyes of our soul, as models of living as of painting, the deeds and merits of this man. According to these, then, let each of us lay on the faces of our souls the virtues of this man like precious colors. Let one take from him the grace of compunction, another the cleanness of chastity, one the strength of abstinence, another of modesty, one a faith burning in the things of God, another the gentleness of patience. And in this way, having in this man's life an example of right living, let us adorn our house with various virtues, that is, paint the whole Church of God; so that this patron of ours, seeing us thinking either of the fear of the eternal judgment or of future blessedness, may take up that Gospel word of Christ: “Father, I ask that where I am, they too may be with me”; so that, when one day we depart from this world, he may receive us as his own into his seat and his bosom like Abraham, and on that day, like a glad shepherd, recognize his sheep unharmed, with the help of him who lives and reigns, God, through all ages of ages. Amen.

We celebrate today, as all know, the feast of holy Cyprian, and we keep the birthday of his martyrdom, as they say, with the vintage at hand; so our prayers and the world's agree. The world rejoices in the abundance of the vintage; we rejoice in the passion of the saints; and that passion is to be compared to the vintage; for as wine is poured out by the pressing of the grapes, so in the martyrdom of the saints blood is poured out in place of wine; except that the grape gives temporal fruits, the passion everlasting ones. Rightly, then, martyrdom is compared to the vintage, for it too has its drunkenness and its cup, of which the prophet David says: “Your cup, which makes drunk, how splendid it is!” And the Lord himself, set at the issue of his passion, says: “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.” And again the prophet: “I will take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.” Rightly, I say, is the cup compared to martyrdom; for as, when the cup is drunk, all the harmful moisture is cooked away by the warmth of the wine, so, when the cup of martyrdom is drained, all the dregs of the sinner are tempered by the glory of the passion. Martyrdom, then, is a kind of saving wine, which gives the heart gladness, the warmth of faith, and purity of soul. That spiritual grape is plainly wine which hung on the wood for the salvation of all. For as a cluster that is to give wine first hangs on a vine by a certain art of nature, so Christ, who was to give the spiritual wine of martyrdom, was fitted to the cross by a certain providence of the Godhead. He is plainly the cluster which those two spies, Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, carried on a pole on their own shoulders to the sons of Israel; that deed already prefigured the coming of the Lord the Saviour. For the cluster hung on the pole shows Christ hung on the cross; and the two carrying the grape on the pole showed two peoples, the Christian and the Jewish; and as is the custom of those who carry, one goes in front and the other follows; so the Jewish people is signified as the first, the Christian as the second. And as the one in front does not see what he carries, and, always having it behind him, despises it as it were by turning his back, while the one who follows always sees it with his eyes, always guards it with his gaze, always enjoys its bodily nearness; so it is with the Jewish and the Christian people. For the Jew is first; he carries Christ in the law and does not know it, and, putting him behind him, despises him as by turning his back; hence the prophet says: “Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see; and bend their back always.” But the Christian people, following, always looks at Christ with its eyes, always guards him with its gaze, and embraces him by the nearness of its steps; and the farther that people leaves him behind on a crooked road, the faster this one hastens on a straight course to reach him.

And so, brothers, let us follow the footsteps of this most blessed martyr Cyprian, who followed Christ by a straight path and came to the palm of martyrdom as the grapes were ripening. Indeed the time of the vintage was pressing. For because he suffered at this season of the vintage, we have gathered sweet and various fruits from his passion as from a vintage. For he has fattened us and refreshes us with the new wine of his martyrdom. For it is new wine which refreshes and makes the Christian drunk; but that drunkenness makes him more sober. For he who is made drunk with heavenly grace is sobered of the burden of sins. Filled with this new wine, the holy apostles, as Scripture says, spoke the great works of God in foreign tongues. In this deed they seemed at once drunk and sober. They were thought drunk because another speech than nature's sounded in them; they were sober because, according to custom, they praised the Lord with devotion of mind. It did not happen through any pride or weakness that the holy men spoke in a foreign tongue; but it was done by the providence of the Godhead, so that, since one language is not enough to magnify God, the devotion of the mind might be released through many tongues. We have been gladdened, then, because we have received the fruit of refreshment from the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth. And the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth, as the prophet says, is Israel; which house we are; for according to faith we are Israelites. Hence the Apostle says: “For those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.” Since, then, we are Israel, we are the Lord's vineyard. Let us take care that the grape growing from the branch of our work is not one of gall instead of sweetness, and that it be not said to us what was said to the Jews through the prophet: “I waited for it to produce grapes, but it produced thorns.” How hard a condition, that a property which ought to have brought its owner fruits of sweetness pricked him with the harshness of thorns! That is, when the Jews ought to have received the Saviour with the whole devotion of faith, they crowned him with thorns. That crown was as great an insult of injuries for the Jews as it was a crown of virtues in the Lord. So the Jews pierce the Lord when they crown him; they pierce him when they crucify him. Hence holy Scripture says: “They will look on him whom they pierced.” So, brothers, see that it is not said to you too: “I waited for it to produce grapes, but it produced thorns.” That is, lest we place with wicked thoughts the thorns which the Jews placed on the Lord with bloody hands, and pierce him, not by the harshness of our senses but by the depravity of our works. Of these the Saviour makes mention in the Gospel, saying that the seed sown fell among thorns, and they grew up and choked what had sprung up. What the thorns are he himself goes on to say: they are the cares of the world, which, when they grow in a man's heart, choke the Saviour's commandments in him. For who that was anxious about the world could ever be rightly anxious about Christ? Who, while he provided for the gains of his house, could provide for the benefit of the Church? Hence the Apostle says: “He who is without a wife is anxious about the things of God, how to please God; but he who is with a wife is anxious about the things of the world, how to please his wife.” So, brothers, see that your vineyard does not produce thorns instead of grapes, does not bring vinegar instead of wine. For whoever gathers the vintage and does not share it with the poor gathers vinegar, not wine. Whoever stores up harvests and does not supply the needy has not laid up fruits of nourishment but has gathered the thistles of avarice. For that is why Scripture says of our land: “Thorns and thistles it will bring forth for you.” So, brothers, if you wish your crop not to produce thorns and thistles for you, but to bring forth the most abundant fruits you desire, refresh the hunger of the needy too with all the effort of your mind from the fruits of your crop; and so that your vintage may bring you not vinegar but most beautiful wine, quench the burning thirst of the poor with the liquor of wine, so that you may not suffer the torment of hunger and thirst with the wicked rich man of the Gospel in torments, but may be found worthy to rejoice in perpetual happiness with Lazarus the beggar and blessed Tobit, the giver of alms; by the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

In the martyrdom of most blessed Cyprian the whole Church of Christ exults with us, which he both instructed in all joy by the teaching of heavenly speech and adorned with the gift of his triumphant blood; for there was in him, as we know for certain, both the fullness of spiritual wisdom against the errors of the devil and the untiring constancy of a Christian breast against the persecutions of the world. Who would not attend such a man with all the praises he can, whose eloquence, inspired by God, both taught the churches and refuted the world? Truly he is wonderful and to be celebrated everywhere by the zeal of all, whom holiness consecrated a priest, learning a teacher, and faith a martyr. “Precious,” says David, “in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” See, dearest ones, into how great a prophetic praise the venerable Cyprian entered, whose not only death but also life proved precious in the Lord's sight; for in dying he gave his own blood to Christ; in living he no less gained countless martyrs for heaven by his most powerful exhortation. What is more illustrious than this priest, who shone among the crowds of men with the glory of a heavenly way of life, and among the hosts of angels became conspicuous both by his own death and by that of others? Most rightly he sang to the Lord his God with the patriarch David, saying: “My heart and my flesh have exulted in the living God.” His heart exulted in the living God when, despising the vanity of a dying and mortal world, he gave himself wholly to divine service; and his flesh too exulted in God, which departed from this world not by the corruption of a wretched sickness but consecrated by holy punishments for religion. This is that householder of the Gospel who brings out of his treasure things new and old; who, preaching one and the same mystery of the Old and New Testaments, enriched the churches of Christ with most abundant discourse. His treasure today is incorruptible and unfailing, who, lending his master's money to the bankers, daily gains a holy interest of heavenly riches in the hearts of the faithful. What, then, brothers, is more beautiful than so great a man, whose rule and measure of speech is this: amid the various cases and diverse movements of men, now with a father's affection, now with a teacher's authority, to console the humble, check the proud, reprove the negligent, rebuke the unbelieving? And finally the most faithful man adorned his priesthood and his life with such beauty that he confirmed his teaching by the works that followed, holding that saying of the Lord: “Whoever teaches and does, he will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” How great and how outstanding he is in the kingdom of heaven, whom prophetic speech, a wonderful life, and a death devoted to God raise to all glory! Not undeservedly, brothers, is the memory of his name celebrated with such honor through the widest spaces of the world; for throughout the whole world both his passion and his teaching have profited the strengthening of our faith.

Though we ought to celebrate most devoutly the birthday of all the holy martyrs, brothers, yet above all we must keep with full veneration the feast of those who shed their own blood in our own dwellings. For though all the saints are everywhere and benefit all, yet those intercede for us who also endured punishments for us. For when a martyr suffers, he suffers not for himself alone but also for his fellow citizens; he suffers for himself for a reward, for his fellow citizens as an example; for himself for rest, for his fellow citizens for salvation; for by their example we have learned to believe in Christ, we have learned to seek eternal life through insults, we have learned not to fear death. See, then, what we owe to the martyrs: one was tortured that another might be saved; one endured the executioner that another might recognize Christ; one was sentenced to death that others might gain eternal life; and finally a saint was killed that a sinner might escape. The blessed martyrs, then, neither lived for themselves nor died for themselves; for they left us an example of conduct by living well and of suffering by enduring bravely. For that is why the Lord willed martyrs to suffer in various places throughout the whole world: so that, as fit witnesses, they might press on us by a present example of faith the testimony of their confession; so that human frailty, which scarcely believes the Lord's preaching by hearing from afar, might at least believe through the present testimony of the eyes in the martyrdom of the blessed. All the martyrs, then, are to be honored most devoutly, but those are specially to be venerated by us whose relics we possess. For as the others help us by prayers, these help us also by their passion; and with these we have familiarity; for they are always with us, they dwell with us: that is, they guard us while we live in the body and receive us when we depart from the body; here, lest the stain of sins seize us; there, lest the horror of hell invade us. For that is why our forefathers provided that we should join our bodies to the bones of the saints, so that, as hell fears them, punishment may not touch us; as Christ enlightens them, the gloom of darkness may flee from us. Resting with the holy martyrs, then, may we escape the darkness of hell, by their own merits, yet as companions of their holiness. For the Lord says to Peter: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” If, then, the gate of hell does not prevail against Peter, apostle and martyr, whoever is joined to a martyr is not held by hell. For the gate of hell does not possess the martyrs, since the kingdom of paradise receives them. For we see them already reigning everywhere here; for we see men possessed by most unclean demons freed by them, so that by heavenly medicine the captive soul is snatched from the devil's snares, and the devil himself, bound with fiery chains, is led out of his captivity a captive, so that he who a little before had taken prey is himself subjected to punishment. That these and greater wonders are done through the saints is known to all. And so, brothers, let us venerate in this world those whom we can have as defenders in the world to come; and as we are joined to their bones like those of our parents, so let us be joined to them by imitation of faith; for we shall be separated from them in nothing if we are joined to them as much by religion as by body.

The examples of the holy martyrs ought to be enough for the progress of our salvation, who, to obtain the heavenly crown, subjected themselves to all the Lord's commandments, and so bound themselves to all the Saviour's laws that, because of their former life, they deserved to come to this glory of martyrdom. For they did not fulfill the Lord's precept only at the time they endured the punishment of confession; but they must first have lived according to Christ's Gospel in order to share Christ's sufferings. For their beginnings must have been good whose end followed best; and they were martyrs not only when they suffered but were also Christ's martyrs while they lived. For in Latin “martyr” means witness; and as often as we fulfill Christ's commandment by good actions, so often do we bear witness to Christ. Hence too the Lord's cross is called not only that which at the time of the passion is built by fixing to wood, but also that which is fitted together through the whole course of life by the virtues of all the disciplines; of which the Saviour seems to me to say: “Whoever wishes to come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me.” Were all the martyrs who followed the Lord crucified? Were all the virgins who, according to the Apocalypse, 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 except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world”? He says this so that you may understand that the cross is not a gibbet of wood but a purpose of life and virtue. The whole life of a Christian, then, if he lives according to the Gospel, is a cross and a martyrdom. But this is what is hard to find in us, that all our actions are directed according to the Gospel; and so, as often as we wallow in pleasures, we lose the Saviour's cross. For Christ is chastity, peace, truth, gentleness. How, then, can a corrupt man bear witness to chastity? Or how can one whose mind is always in strife preach peace? By what means too will the inconstant man keep truth or gentleness? How, I say, can we come to the glory of martyrdom, when the Lord says: “Do not possess gold”? He says this to those who have it; so if he forbids those who have gold to possess it, what punishment condemns the greed of those who do not have it? And if those who keep their own property are commanded to give it up, how severely are those struck who plunder others'? For there are many, brothers, who, born in a humble place and having received no riches from their parents, are tossed by such greed of avarice that they think they were born for nothing unless they possess gold by some means or other; for, thinking, as the prophet says, that the life of men is arranged for gain, they do not hesitate to acquire from anywhere, even from evil; and so such men, while they seek the gain of gold, find the loss of salvation. Let us ask, brothers, how many there are who are not steeped in this. Very few wise men defend themselves from this plague. If you think of the merchant, he is first in guilt through avarice. If you look only at military service, greed is the whole cause of service. If you examine individual offices, you will find men drawn to their duty not by honor but called to it by plunder as to a business. Almost all, then, are eager for gains and business; and when they rise at first dawn, they think of nothing but how to get something from somewhere. But if either honor has restrained them or a judge's authority has checked them when they plunder others' property, they complain that they have suffered a loss. “We serve for nothing,” they say, “we labor for nothing; today I could bring nothing home; the iniquity of the judge did not let me do wrong.” Avarice, then, drives almost all men and lets none of them be at rest. Those who have nothing are tormented by greed; those who possess riches are tortured by anxiety; nor is it well even with those who brood over hidden gold; indeed it is worse for them. For they are always anxious, sad, worried lest a slave take it, lest a thief dig it out; and so, thrusting it into darkness, they hide it so that it escapes everyone's knowledge, never bringing any of it out for use, lest opening the hiding place give occasion to betray it. They keep it and do not use it; they keep it, I say; so I would call them guardians, not owners, who carefully watch over another's property rather than spend their own fittingly. What, then, brothers, do you think having gold is riches? I would say it is greater riches not to have gold; for the mind that despises gold is more precious than the one that seeks it; it is plainly greater riches not to have gold but to stand above those who have it. For he who abounds in his own goods does not seek the treasures of the world; for one's own goods are honor, sobriety, mercy, chastity; and all these goods are more precious than gold; so that you may know that metals are cheaper than these: talents of gold can be bought, vessels of silver can be purchased; but honor is not bought but acquired, because it consists not in price but in virtue. You, then, who possess gold, if you please, let us compare our goods. When you set out abroad, your treasures necessarily remain at home, and while they are far from you, you are always fearful, always uncertain whether, when you return home, you will have what you had. So while you always fear their loss, in your own conscience you are naked and poor. But wherever I go, my riches follow me, nor can my goods be separated from me, since they are kept not in an earthly cave but in the treasury of the breast. When you depart from the world, you have lost your riches by leaving them; but when it falls to me to depart from this world, I carry my riches with me to paradise; after death, like that rich man clothed in purple, fire and darkness will pursue your riches; my riches, like Lazarus, Abraham's bosom and blessedness will receive.