Homilies of Maximus of Turin (Bruni's collection) 92.1–96.1

I remember having often said that we ought not to fear these tumults of war at all, nor dread any multitude of enemies however great; since, as the Lord says, "Greater is he who is in us than he who is in this world." That is, Christ is more powerful to protect his servants than the devil to stir up enemies. For though the devil gathers crowds to himself and cruelly arms them with madness, yet they are easily destroyed, because the Saviour surrounds his people with better help; for the prophet says: "The angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear him and will rescue them." But if the angel of the Lord rescues those who fear him from dangers, he who fears the Saviour cannot fear the barbarian, nor can he who keeps Christ's commandments dread the assault of the enemy. For Christ's commandments are arms for Christians, and the fear of God drives out of us the terror of the enemy. And these are our arms with which the Saviour has equipped us: prayer, mercy and fasting. For fasting protects better than a wall; mercy frees more easily than plunder; prayer wounds at a greater distance than an arrow. For an arrow strikes only an adversary seen close at hand, but prayer wounds even an enemy set far off. So the holy prophet Elisha, when the king of Syria wished to capture him and bring him under his power and had surrounded him with many columns of armed men, was not terrified, not troubled, but said to the servant who brought the news: "Do not fear, for there are more with us than with them." O the faith of the holy prophet! He does not fear the adversaries whom he sees, because he knows that the angels whom he believes in are with him; he does not dread earthly snares, because he knows that heavenly help is present to him. "For there are more with us than with them." A marvellous thing! Holiness earns more defenders from heaven than wickedness has brought attackers on earth. "There are more with us than with them." See the merit of blessedness. The prophet makes a report even about the number while the servant is still uncertain of his safety. How much more spiritual eyes see than fleshly ones! The one sees the number of armed men, and the other does not see the sign of his defence. How great is the divine mercy! A benefit is brought to men and is not seen; those in danger obtain help and do not know it. For this is the kindness of the Saviour: to intervene for salvation without revealing himself to sight, to be felt in benefits and not seen by the eyes. Hence he errs who thinks, when he has done something successfully, that he has conquered by his own strength. For he ought to know that adversaries are conquered by merits rather than by valour, and overcome not so much by valour as by holiness; just as holy Elisha did not overcome his enemies by arms but conquered them by prayer. For when he told his servant, to drive away his fear, that more defenders were present, and the fear could not be taken from him, then he prayed to the Lord, saying: "Lord, open his eyes that he may see. And his eyes were opened, and he saw, and behold, the whole mountain was full of horsemen," and so on. The prophet's prayer, then, opened the servant's eyes. No wonder if prayer opened his eyes to see an army, since it opened heaven for an army to come. No wonder, I say, if he gained new eyes, who earned new help. Or why should he not bring forth sight in the eye, who drew up the battle lines of angels? Why, I say, should he not by his prayer uncover the condition of the pupils, who by his merits pierced the darkness of the clouds? By this deed, then, holy Elisha necessarily gave security to his fearful servant, to whom he had already restored clear sight, and removed the fear of the heart from him from whom he had removed blindness of vision; and rewarding him with a double benefit, he released his fear and released his sight. He began to fear less after he earned to see more; for he earned both peace and sight together. On the mountains, then, the armed men are seen. It is clear that those truly came down from heaven whose coming is found first to be on the mountains. For the very nearness of the places shows that, coming down from heaven, they trod only the ridges of hills near to them. Then Elisha prayed and struck the whole enemy army with blindness. No wonder if he brought blindness on the adversaries, who bestowed clear sight on his servant; and if he took sight from enemies, who gave vision to his minister. Where are those who say that arms can do more than the prayers of holy men? See, one prayer of Elisha wounded a whole army, and by the merits of one prophet the whole number of the enemy was taken captive. What troops of kings, what crowd of soldiers achieved such a victory as to lay low the enemy in such a way that none of them died? This is true, this is bloodless victory, where the adversary is so conquered that none of the conquerors is hurt.

Perhaps it seems wonderful that, describing the grace of holy Elisha some days ago, we said that help came down from heaven for his defence, and that armed horsemen or chariots were present to him from God, and that even a chariot of fire stood about him. It is indeed a great thing, but in a holy man it is not to be wondered at. For what wonder if he earns help from heaven whose mind is always in heaven? As the apostle Paul says: "But our citizenship is in heaven." If, then, our citizenship is in heaven, the citizenship of heavenly beings can also be with us; that is, we who live the life of angels rightly earn their companionship. Truly there is among those who live holily a certain kinship, union and fellowship with one another: it makes no difference whether they dwell in heaven or on earth, whether their condition is angelic or human, provided that in them there is the same life and holiness. Conduct joins those whom the element separates, and though they are divided by different bodies, they are joined by the same actions. And so it comes about that the saints, holding together in a kind of fellowship, do not depart from one another; and now angels come to earth, now men are carried over to heavenly places; and by a better progress, those whose life is common begin to have even the elements of their living in common. But someone says: 'We have often heard that angels came down to men; we wish also to hear how men have passed over to heavenly places.' The matter is plain and ready to hand. Was not Elijah, Elisha's master, caught up to heaven with angels leading him, and, set on a chariot of fire, did he not ascend as a victor in a kind of triumph? For he had been a victor not over barbarian nations but over worldly pleasures; for depraved morals are heavier enemies than hostile foes, and we understand that at this time the malice of enemies can be overcome more easily than that of morals. Angels, then, carry Elijah to heaven; angels guard Elisha on earth. What wonder if the angels who had carried the master protect the disciple, and offer to the son too a kind of new service which they had shown to the father? For he is the heir of his holiness. Rightly, then, is Elisha called Elijah's spiritual son, because, ascending to heaven, he left him a double spirit of his grace. For when Elisha was given the opportunity to ask what he wished before Elijah was taken from him, he asked that a double portion of Elijah's spirit might be in him. Then Elijah said: "You have asked a hard thing, but it shall be done for you." O precious inheritance, in which more is left to the heir than is possessed, and the one who receives obtains more than the one who bestows possessed! A precious inheritance indeed, which, while it passes from father to son, is doubled by a certain course of merits. Elijah, then, though he himself had a single spirit of holiness, left Elisha a double one. In a marvellous way, then, Elijah left more grace on earth than he carried with him to heaven, and though he himself is carried up whole in body to the heights, yet in his son he remains in greater holiness. And what shall we say of Elisha's merits? This is his first praise, that he wished to surpass his father in grace, when he asks for more to be given him than he knows the possessor has. He is greedy in asking, but fit in deserving. For while he demanded more from his father than he had, by his merits he made him give more than he could. For when this Elisha, after his master's ascension, had come to Jericho and was asked by the citizens to stay in that city, they said to him: "The situation of the town is good, but the waters are bad and barren." Then he ordered an earthen vessel to be given him, and having put salt in it he came to the outflow of the waters and threw it into the waters, saying: "Thus says the Lord: I have healed these waters; from them there shall be neither death nor barrenness. And the waters were healed to this day." See, then, how great are the merits of Elisha, whose first hospitality in a city is a great fruitfulness of children. For when he turns away the barrenness of the waters, he bestows a succession of heirs. For by this deed Elisha did not heal one man or provide medicine for one man's house, but restored the people of the whole city. For if he had done this later, with barrenness intervening and all growing old, the city would have remained without an inhabitant. Elisha, then, in curing the waters, cured the people too; in blessing the spring of waters, he granted a kind of spring of souls. For as by his sanctification healthy water came forth from the hidden veins of the earth, so healthy offspring came forth from the hidden inward parts of the womb. For Elisha did not bless only those streams which were already held in the lap of the springs, but also those which, mingled in the moist soil of the earth, were gradually to flow out in the future. Hence Scripture says that Elisha blessed the water at its outflow, so that sanctification might receive the dripping water before the bosom of the spring enclosed it. Therefore, since the holy apostle Paul says, "These things happened to them in figure," let us see what truth this figure has; that is, let us inquire what this city is that was labouring under barrenness, or what the earthen vessel means, and what the sprinkled salt brings by way of sweetness. We read in the same Apostle a saying about the Church: "Rejoice, barren one who do not bear; break forth and cry out, you who are not in labour." The Church, then, is that barren city which before the coming of Christ, suffering barrenness through the fault of the waters, that is, through the sacrilege of the Gentile peoples, could not bring forth children to God. But when Christ came, taking a human body like an earthen vessel, he healed the faults of the waters, that is, cut away the sacrileges of the peoples; at once the Church, which was barren, began to be fruitful. Hence the Apostle too says: "Rejoice, barren one." For the Church, which was barren, has from then brought forth more children than the synagogue, which was fruitful, received. And what the sprinkled salts are, and what medicine they brought, we shall easily recognize. The Lord says to the apostles: "You are the salt of the earth." If, then, the apostles are compared to salt, the figure is rightly fulfilled: as then the salt poured from the vessel seasoned the waters, so now the apostles sent by the Saviour season all peoples, so that, the barrenness of vices removed, they begin to bring forth the offspring of virtues.

Many and manifest, dearest brothers, are the examples of divine severity and kindness, by which we can clearly see that our God, with an ineffable and just governance, rebukes the stubbornness of the proud and is present to the griefs of those who entreat him. For as the Creator of his creatures, as Lord he chastises the sins of his own, as a father he consoles the sadness of his children. For we are his creatures by right of nature; we are his servants because he redeemed us at the price of his blood; we are sons because he bestowed on us the sacraments of a heavenly birth. So we are a creature, to revere; servants, to fear; sons, to love. Accordingly, as almighty Lord he brought the wrath of lamentable desolation on this church, and as most merciful father he grants the accomplishment of the longed-for restoration. To show that in the times to come he will restore the face of this city like a body restored after death, he first restored his church, which is certainly the head of the city, with a construction that lives again. He, then, who assisted in the restoration of the fallen head will grant, if we so deserve, that the fallen members of that head rise again. Or why should one doubt that God can rebuild the earthly dwellings of those to whom, if they believe rightly and live rightly, he promises to give most blessed and unimaginable mansions in heaven? Let us not doubt, then, that God will restore to us what is ours if we restore in ourselves what is God's. For once, when the Lord deigned to call back to himself his wandering people, he said to them through his prophet: "Return to me, and I will return to you." That is: recall your faith toward me, and I will restore my grace to you. Render what you owe, and demand what I promise. Hear what I command, and I will do what you ask. Take away the causes of offence, and I will remove the punishment. And yet, dearest ones, in these tribulations of ours, which by God's governance we have borne as far as was possible, some were very unskilled interpreters, saying: 'This city has perished, the church has fallen, there is no longer any reason to live.' On the contrary, there is reason to live more justly and holily; because almighty God, who dispenses all these things with great kindness, handed over to the hands of enemies not the city which is in you but the dwellings of the city; nor did he order his Church, which is truly the Church, to be consumed by fire, but for our correction he permitted the buildings of the Church to be burned. For no wise or faithful man is ignorant that the city is in the people and the Church in the congregation. Therefore, dearest ones, not beams and timbers but you present a living Church to our God; you make up the whole city. And so even in the offence of his household God was so gracious as to temper all things that our iniquity should not be great and that he should grant his entreating servants time for a saving way of life. For by the benefit of his kindness, after that great and so mournful destruction, see, his high priest stands here unharmed, the clergy entire, and the people themselves, though still living under daily fear and in sorrow, nevertheless continue in freedom. It is not, then, the Church that has now been restored, which by God's protection did not perish; but these walls and roofs you, who are the Church of God, have received back as yours. For you are, as the Apostle says, "the temple of the living God." Hence notice, brothers, that when just punishment was to be demanded of us for our sins, by the goodness of the kind judge it was not we ourselves but what seemed to be ours that either the robber plundered or that perished consumed by fire and sword. So sometimes, to frighten us, when God is indignant and heaven thunders with dreadful voices, sacred buildings and private houses, flocks of cattle and various four-footed beasts, fruitful and barren trees, rocks and the heights of mountains are mercifully for us struck by lightning. And so that our minds may be turned to God and our life saved, those things which either lack sense or do not know that they live are struck by lightning for us. How gentle this punishment, and how it comes down from fatherly kindness! We sin, and heaven rages against the cattle; we deserve the flame, and a tree is burned up; we commit sins worthy of punishment, and rocks undergo vengeance for us. Sometimes indeed some, concerning whom God so decides, are tested as men in the shadow of it: first of all, so that sinners may not have continued security of going unpunished; then so that the punishment of a few may correct the multitude of sinners. Who would not marvel at that great dispensation of heavenly wrath and grace? For when the walls were broken through, the unarmed people fled the armed and raging enemy as the swiftest horsemen flee the slow wagons of the panic-stricken, weighed down with their own load. And indeed some of the clergy or people lacked either the possibility or the will to escape. The account of their life and death must be left to the divine judgment. Let us console ourselves, then, brothers, and not sigh so much that the houses have fallen, since we see that the restoration of houses is reserved in their owners. There has been fulfilled even in us, it seems, that command of the Lord concerning his servant Job, when, the devil acting against him, he set a limit to the persecution. For he said to him, as we read: "All that he has I give into your hands; but do not touch him himself." And again: "See, I hand him over to you; only keep away from his soul." Having received this command, the enemy at once destroyed all his substance and covered his body with sores, and held back only from injury to his soul. See, most beloved, how much the Lord, sparing our frailty, tempered his punishment toward us, so that, though cities were devastated, fields laid waste and substance diminished, neither our souls nor our bodies were harmed. And the body of that great Job shuddered, corrupted by the putrefaction of worms, because that brave man was being tested for glory, while we as weak ones were being kept for grace. And so let us not doubt that God can restore what was lost to us and our descendants, since we see that for most faithful Job, once the devil was conquered, his wealth was doubled, his children renewed, and the most cruel wound of his body cured with wonderful health. And so this most blessed man, high priest of the most high God, Eusebius, can most fittingly and necessarily sing to God with us and for us that saying of David: "O God, I have declared my life to you; you have set my tears in your sight." That is: I have confessed my sins to you, Lord, and you have not denied your mercy. I have experienced the censure of one who judges; I acknowledge the grace of one who spares. I have wept for my griefs and the sadness of your people in exile, but I rejoice that my tears have not been despised by you. For you have turned, Lord, as the prophet says, my mourning into joy for me. You drove me out when offended and brought me back when appeased. Or rather, to speak more truly, you drove me out when appeased, lest by rashly remaining in the place I should incur the misery of captivity. What I deserved, I obtained. I render, then, due thanks to your eternal glory, because you have deigned to restore through me your servant this holy house of yours, which barbarian fury levelled to the ground because of our deserts; and gathering the scattered congregation of your people, you have now restored it to my eyes; and in your name we dedicate new things from old, and under a kind of figure of resurrection the summit of this temple has been raised up as a watchtower to its old height. So that people of Israel once, when Jerusalem had been burned and the temple overthrown, was led captive into the region of Babylon, and after a fixed time, recalled to its homeland, built its land and its city and the temple. Preserve, then, Lord, what you have wrought in us. Be gracious, Lord; spare, Lord; save your people and bless your inheritance; lest, if you overlook it any longer, our God, the nations should laugh at the loss of your flock and say, as they have said, "Where is their God?" But as the punishment of one indignant toward us was not lacking, so may the kindness of one appeased toward us continue; by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

We read in the book entitled the Acts of the Apostles that under those men the devotion of the people was so great, and the first fruits of the Christian people were so noble, that after receiving the faith no one held on to his own house and no one claimed anything as his own, but by the right of brotherhood all things were common to them; that is, so that those who were held in the same fellowship of religion might enjoy the same fellowship of life too; so that those who had one faith might also have one substance, and those who had Christ in common might also have their means in common. For these devout men thought it wrong not to take as a sharer in their substance one who was a sharer in grace; and so with the love of brotherhood they used all things in common, except that the brotherhood of Christ was greater than that of blood. For brotherhood of blood reflects only a likeness of body, but brotherhood of Christ shows unanimity of heart, as it is written: "The heart and soul of those who believed was one." He, then, is truly a brother who is a sibling not so much in body as in unanimity; he, I say, is a true brother whose same spirit and will is in his brother. Better, then, as I said, is the brotherhood of Christ than that of blood. Brotherhood of blood is sometimes hostile to itself, but the brotherhood of Christ is peaceful without ceasing; the one divides common things among its members with rivalry, the other shares even its own things with rejoicing; the one often despises a brother in partnership, the other often takes in a stranger. So great, then, as I said, was the devotion of the Christian people at that time that no one called his house his own, no one claimed anything as his own; as holy Luke says: "And no one said that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common"; for there was not, I say, anyone needy among them. Blessed, then, the people which, while it had many rich in Christ, had no one in want in the world; and which, while it thought of eternal riches, drove temporal poverty away from its brothers. For, as Scripture says, they sold their estates and houses and brought the prices of what was sold to the feet of the apostles, to be distributed as each had need. See the faith of these holy men: how for Christ's sake they stripped themselves of their whole inheritance and kept nothing back for themselves; for they did not fear that they themselves would be hungry, while they feared that another would be in need. Such, then, was the devotion among the people under the apostles; what do we find like it now? And certainly the same Christ is in us, but the same mind is not in us; the same faith is in the people, but the same generosity is not in the people; one so little thinks of another's need that it is as the Apostle says: "One is hungry, while another is drunk." For many Christians not only do not distribute their own goods but even plunder those of others; not only, I say, do they not bring their money together to the feet of the apostles, but they even drag their brothers who have taken refuge away from the feet of the priests. Now is the time that the blessed Apostle describes, saying: "In the last days the iniquity of many will abound, and love will grow cold." For now the iniquity of avarice abounds, which before ceased through the goodness of generosity; and the love of brotherhood grows cold, which before was fervent with the love of Christ. For under the apostles the love of brotherhood was so great that in their assembly need did not arise; but now the unlikeness of Christianity is so great that in our congregation you can hardly find a rich man; and I say that you can hardly find a rich man not so much in means as in works; for the Apostle says: "Let them be rich in good works." For he wished that man to be understood as rich in the Church who is rich in Christ; for there too, the statement that under the apostles no one was needy certainly shows that they were endowed with such grace of faith that all abounded in the generosity of heavenly riches. Rarely, then, at this time do we find a rich man among the Christian people; though many are rich in gold in their houses, yet in the Church they are beggars in justice; for when they do not do for the poor in proportion to what they are able, neither is what they offer pleasing nor what they keep back satisfying. The Lord says to Cain when he offered gifts: "If you offer rightly but do not divide rightly, you have sinned." So you too, Christian, do not divide rightly, who out of so much gold of yours keep back a greater part for mammon than you give to the Lord. For so Ananias in the Acts of the Apostles, while he thinks he offers rightly and does not divide rightly, lost the money he offered and lost what he kept at home; he lost, I say, both his money and his salvation together. For when he took away a part of what he had promised, he was condemned at once for sacrilege and for fraud: for sacrilege, because he deceived God in his promise; for fraud, because he thought a certain portion should be taken from the entire gift; for the apostle Peter says: "You have not lied to men but to God." If, then, brothers, Ananias is condemned because he did not give all that he himself had promised of his own, what do we think of one who will not give back what another promised? See, then, you too, brothers, what you promised to God when you first received his grace. See, our city is full of strangers and refugees: do what you promised, lest it be said to you too what was said to Ananias: "You have not lied to men but to God."

Your love remembers, brothers, that some days ago, when we were preaching the unanimity and generosity of the people that existed under the most blessed apostles, we came as far as the avarice of Ananias, who at that time, in the most pure life of the whole race, was found alone like a diseased sheep. For he was so infected with the plague of avarice that holy Peter wished not so much to correct him as to condemn him. For he had read: "Cast the plague-bearer out of the council, and all strife will go out with him." He alone, then, was a plague in the holy assembly, who, when all were seeking the gain of life through contempt of money, himself traded only for the gain of money rather than of salvation, and while he hoped for a saving of price, he found the loss of his soul. Ananias, then, was found to be avaricious by the apostles; now our lowliness is excused: for it is less to be wondered at that this vice abounds under us, since it began to sprout under the apostles; and if their authority could not amend these things in Ananias, what will be imputed to us if we cannot correct the same in many brothers? For if Peter could have corrected the avarice in Ananias, he would not have punished him; but in punishing him he corrects others; for he wished the punishment to reach one, but the fear to reach many. In Ananias, then, an example has been set before all the avaricious, so that whoever is guilty of the same crime will be struck on the day of judgment by the sentence of the same penalty. Avarice, then, is a great evil; indeed it is the origin of all evils, as the Apostle says: "For the root of all evils is covetousness; some who longed for it have wandered from the faith." You see, then, that whoever longs for money loses faith; whoever gathers gold squanders grace. For avarice is blindness; it brings in error in religion. Avarice, I say, is blind, but, keen-eyed with various tricks of fraud, it does not see the things of the Godhead but thinks of the things of greed; always, however rich it is, it thinks how to acquire from any source, even from evil. It thinks the whole of life is business; suppressing everything for profit, it imposes interest on its empty loan; it blushes at the name of usury and does not blush at the profit of usury. The avaricious man, then, always uses what belongs to another and feeds himself on another's loss; another's need is his prey; another's weeping is his joy, as we have always seen happen. How many lament what they have lost, over which many rejoice as things they have seized? See, an old father weeps for his son taken captive, and you already boast over him as your little slave. An innocent peasant groans for his lost bullock, and you plan to till your farm with it, and you think you can reap fruits from another's groans. See, a devout widow grieves for her house stripped of all its furniture, and you boast that your house is adorned with the same furniture. Tell me, Christian, are you not pricked, are you not constrained, when you see in your house the tears of others? Scripture says to the children of Israel: "Do not touch what has been taken by a beast; for whatever a bloody wild beast has touched is polluted and defiled." And by this he is worse than a beast whoever takes what a beast has left. Tell me, then, Christian, why did you make free with the plunder left behind by the robbers? Why did you bring into your house what is torn and defiled, as you yourself think? Why did you, a crueller beast, devour what the hostile beast left over? Many say that wolves are accustomed to follow the tracks of lions and not to stray far from their hunting, namely so that they may sate their own fury with another's prey, and what remains after the lions' fill may be consumed by the wolves' rapacity. So too these wolves of avarice have followed the tracks of the robbers, so that what was left over by the rapacity of the one might fall to the savagery of the other. But perhaps you say you bought it and so you escape the charge of avarice. That is not how buying and selling usually stand. It is good to buy, but in peace, what is sold by its owner's will, not in plundering. Consider the origin of the contract, the seller, the size of the price, and you understand that you are a buyer of plunder rather than of a sale. For where does a barbarian get necklaces of gold and jewels? Where does a man dressed in skins get silk garments? Where, I ask, do you get the Roman slaves you take? We know that they belong to our fellow provincials or citizens. He acts, then, as a Christian and a citizen who buys in order to give back.