Sermons of Maximus of Turin (Bruni's collection)

Contents

Reading pages: 1.1–6.1 · 7.1–13.1 · 14.1–19.1 · 20.1–26.1 · 27.1–31.1 · 32.1–36.2 · 37.1–42.1 · 43.1–48.1 · 49.1–55.2 · 56.1–60.1 · 61.1–65.1 · 66.1–70.1 · 71.1–78.1 · 79.1–85.1 · 86.1–91.1 · 92.1–98.1 · 99.1–106.1 · 107.1–111.1 · 112.1–116.1

1. 1.1Before Christmas Maximus urges cleansing the soul with alms and fasting, and expounds “the kingdom of heaven suffers violence” as the holy violence of tears and good works by which believers seize Christ.
2. 2.1The two in bed, the two women grinding, and the two in the field stand for the contemplative, the laity in worldly business, and the Church's ministers, each divided into those who stand firm in tribulation and those who fall, as Noah, Daniel and Job represent the three kinds.
3. 3.1Using the lengthening days after Christmas and the shortening days after John's birthday, Maximus expounds “He must increase, but I must decrease” of the Gospel surpassing the law, as sunlight surpasses a lamp.
4. 4.1Taking up the popular name “the new sun” for Christmas, Maximus contrasts the old, created sun with Christ the Sun of righteousness, heralded by John the lamp, born of the virgin Godhead and the virgin Mary, and son of the divine Craftsman.
5. 5.1Maximus joins the angels' song at Christmas, explains that peace is given to men of good will, that the shepherds first heard the news as figures of watchful priests, and that Christ came silently into the Virgin like rain on a fleece.
6. 6.1Maximus rebukes Christians who after Christmas joined in the pagan New Year festivities of the kalends of January, calls for fasting while pagans feast, and warns against association with Jews.
7. 7.1At the Epiphany Maximus celebrates the incarnation, leaving open whether the day marks Christ's birth or baptism, and praises the sign of the cross as the Christian's weapon against the devil, with figures from Ezekiel, Moses, ships and birds.
8. 8.1Christ's baptism in the Jordan, celebrated on the Epiphany as a second birthday, sanctified the waters for Christian baptism, as the pillar of fire went before Israel through the Red Sea.
9. 9.1Explaining the word Epiphany as Christ's “appearing” to faith, Maximus interprets the miracle at Cana as a sign of the resurrection, in which cheap, pale, cold human nature is changed into precious, glowing immortality.
10. 10.1At the Epiphany Maximus expounds Christ's baptism, when the Father's voice and the Spirit's dove revealed him, through Psalm 29 (Vulgate 28), read line by line as a prophecy of the baptism and of the Church's spread.
11. 11.2The Epiphany recalls both Cana and Christ's baptism, at which the whole Trinity was present; Christ, sinless, was baptized to purify the waters for us, and the dove and the turning back of the Jordan show the forgiveness of sins.
12. 12.1Christ, who has the fullness of the Godhead, was baptized not for his own need but to fill up righteousness and to give the waters a blessing that flows back through all springs, which is how Maximus reads “the Jordan turned back.”
13. 13.1Addressing catechumens, Maximus urges them to hurry to baptism, arguing that Christian baptism, given by Christ with the whole Trinity, is a fuller grace than John's baptism of Christ, and that every font is the Jordan.
14. 14.1Since Adam fell through eating the forbidden fruit, Christians, set in the paradise of the Church watered by the four Gospels, must keep the Lenten fast and abstain from the forbidden tree of worldly indulgence.
15. 15.1Expounding the first temptation, Maximus shows Christ outwitting the devil by feigned hunger and answering that man lives by God's word, contrasts the deadly food of Adam, Esau and Judas with the bread that is Christ, and urges Lent be spent reading Scripture.
16. 16.1Lenten afflictions mirror Christ's temptation on the temple pinnacle; the devil tries to throw believers down from their observance, but God, who numbers our hairs and seeks the lost sheep, forgets no one unless sin intervenes.
17. 17.1Because God's sentence of death on Adam could not be revoked, God provided a second birth in baptism, by which the old man dies and a new one is born; catechumens should hasten to it, and all should keep the Lenten fast unbroken.
18. 18.1Lent's forty days, hallowed by Moses, Elijah and Christ, train the soul; abstaining from permitted food should teach us to abstain from forbidden sins, and the food saved should be given to the poor.
19. 19.1Christ fasted forty days in the desert as the second Adam to undo Adam's fall by eating; the desert, where there is no feasting and no woman, is a pattern for Lenten abstinence from food and marital relations, making the body a desert where Christ dwells.
20. 20.1The forty days of Lent recall the forty days of the flood, which was a merciful baptism of the world; the Church, like the threefold ark, saves those within it, and its preachers, like Noah, warn of coming judgment.
21. 21.1Examples of Moses, Adam, Elijah, Daniel, John the Baptist and Christ's saying on prayer and fasting show the power of fasting, which must be joined to almsgiving so that the poor are fed.
22. 22.1A fragmentary Lenten sermon recalls the forty-day fasts of Moses, Elijah and Christ before breaking off.
23. 22.2Fragment: fasting of the body is useless without fasting of the mind from injustice, adultery and greed, and must be joined to restitution, forgiveness and almsgiving.
24. 23.1A fragmentary sermon at the start of Lent argues that if the holy Moses fasted forty days, sinners have far more reason to fast.
25. 23.2The surviving close of a fragmentary Lenten sermon urges faith and good works to overcome a present danger.
26. 24.1Fragment: the Lenten fast must be above all a fast of the mind from vice, joined to love, almsgiving, clothing the naked and hospitality.
27. 25.1Maximus condemns Lenten fasting that is spent in hunting, cruelty to slaves who are brothers in Christ, and miserly saving, and teaches that true fasting includes church-going, prayer, reading, humility, and giving one's meals to the poor.
28. 26.1Maximus rejects a self-invented fifty-day fast and the practice of fasting alternate weeks, insists that the full forty days of Lent be kept, and finds the number forty in the flood, a figure of baptism, and in the manna of the wilderness.
29. 27.1Near the end of Lent Maximus likens the fasting Church to Elijah opening heaven for rain, and asks prayers that heaven be opened for the candidates for baptism by the key of Peter, which is faith, set out in the Creed of the twelve apostles.
30. 28.2Lent is the time of healing by Christ the physician, who kills sins in baptism to make the new man alive, as he struck Paul to heal him; fasting, prayer and vigils prepare candidates for the rain of baptism, as Elijah's and Moses' fasts brought rain and closeness to God.
31. 29.1An Easter sermon: the resurrection is proved even by the Jewish guards at the tomb; all have risen in Christ, who shares our flesh and blood, so even sinners may hope, and Easter is a better day than the first day of creation.
32. 30.1At Easter the paschal lamb, the grain of wheat, the reviving spring, the clearing sky, the sun and full moon all celebrate Christ's resurrection, prefigured in Adam's sleep, Noah's drunkenness and Jonah; believers should answer with holy lives.
33. 31.1Christ descended to the underworld, defeated death, raised the saints with him, and rose in the same flesh, as he showed the disciples and Thomas, refuting pagans who mock the crucified.
34. 32.1Thomas touched the risen Christ's wounds not from doubt but to remove all doubt for others, and since Christ, the firstborn from the dead, has risen, believers too will rise.
35. 32.2Thomas touched the risen Christ's wounds to remove all doubt for later believers; Christ is the firstborn from the dead, and death, swallowed up in its own victory over him, will be destroyed for all who rise.
36. 33.1On Easter day the newly baptized, in their white garments, are an image of the future resurrection; baptism is a resurrection now from sin, as the final resurrection will be from death.
37. 34.1The resurrection was prefigured in Eve's creation from sleeping Adam, Noah's waking from drunkenness, Moses' rod turned to a serpent and back, and Jonah; Christians should imitate it by dying to vice and rising to new life.
38. 34.2The resurrection was foreshadowed in Adam and Eve, Noah, Moses' rod and Jonah, and is matched by the timing of Easter at the spring equinox and full moon; Christians share it by dying to vice and rising to new life.
39. 35.1An Easter sermon celebrating the redemption won by Christ's death and resurrection, by which those condemned through Adam are restored and freed without prior merit; heaven, earth, angels and sun rejoice.
40. 36.1On Easter Monday Maximus explains “today I have begotten you” as referring to Christ's resurrection, the unending day of light, and reflects on the peace Christ offered even to Judas in his kiss.
41. 36.2The day of rebirth is better than the day of birth; Christ, like Samson and the wrestler who grew stronger each time he fell, conquered by dying, and Jacob's wrestling with the angel figures the Jews' apparent victory over Christ, his blessing of them, and their division in faith.
42. 37.1Christ's passion and resurrection show his two natures, divine and human, without division or confusion; the virgin birth is no harder for the God who made the world, Adam and Eve, and Peter's confession “the Christ, the Son of the living God” names both natures.
43. 38.1At Easter heaven and earth share one joy; the day the Lord made specially is the day of the resurrection, and the lowly acts of Christ's life and passion were not in vain but for our salvation, to be grasped by faith and matched by life.
44. 39.1Creation rejoices at Easter; the penitent thief's single confession and Christ's prayer for his killers show that no sinner need despair of forgiveness if he turns to Christ.
45. 40.1Christ is ever new, frees sinners because he alone is free from sin, conquered by silent humility like a lamb before its shearer, and was exalted through the cross, so that even nations who dispute his Godhead confess his death and resurrection.
46. 41.1Isaiah's call for heaven, earth, mountains and hills to rejoice is fulfilled at Easter and the Ascension; the mountains are the patriarchs, and believers should keep the Passover with the unleavened bread of sincerity and purity.
47. 42.1The mysteries of the virgin birth and the cross are hidden from the worldly wise and revealed to the simple; Christ feared death through the weakness of the flesh he took, but by divine power rose and showed his real body, keeping his wounds for our faith.
48. 43.1In Christ one person unites the Word and flesh, so that the lowly man and the mighty God act together: in the form of God he worked miracles, in the form of a slave he suffered, and his raising of the centurion's servant, the widow's son, Jairus's daughter and Lazarus prove his power to rise.
49. 44.1At the Ascension Christ, who resisted the devil's three temptations, rises to the Father's throne, bringing human nature into heaven; Adam's fault has become an occasion of greater grace, and to be Christ's captive is true freedom.
50. 45.1At the Ascension Christ brought into heaven the human nature he took from earth, so that heaven and earth both rejoice; if Elijah could be taken up, much more can the Son, now enthroned where no forbidden tree threatens.
51. 46.1Expounding Psalm 24 at the Ascension, Maximus explains that Christ is the King of glory, strong in being patiently killed and mighty in breaking the underworld, who carried our humanity to the Father yet remains present everywhere.
52. 47.1At the Ascension Christ's flesh is enthroned at the Father's right hand, opening the new way into heaven; believers, deprived of his visible presence, should long like eagles for the vision of his face.
53. 48.1At Pentecost the Spirit's gift of tongues to the apostles shows that the Spirit is God with the Father and the Son, of one will and power, the Trinity working inseparably while some works are attributed to each person.
54. 49.1At Pentecost the Spirit came on the apostles who were of one mind; Christ's ascension and the Spirit's descent show the harmony of the divine persons, and the gift of tongues confirms the new faith for all nations.
55. 50.1Joel's prophecy of the Spirit is fulfilled at Pentecost; the signs at Christ's birth and death, the Church's martyrdoms, and the gift of tongues that reverses Babel show that the Spirit is God and that Christ came to redeem all nations.
56. 51.1Pentecost shows that the Son and the Spirit, though their works are distinct, have one will and majesty; the Spirit formed Christ's humanity, honoured his baptism, spread the Gospel in every tongue, and has the power to regenerate and forgive sins, and so is God.
57. 52.1The Spirit who foretold Christ through the prophets and formed him in the Virgin descends at Pentecost; the mutual witness of Son and Spirit shows one Godhead with distinct persons, and the unforgivable sin against the Spirit proves his divinity.
58. 53.1Baptism's second birth surpasses the first; the Spirit who formed Christ in the Virgin, who remained a virgin after giving birth, is shown to be God, one in will with the Father and the Son, and at Pentecost he gave the apostles all languages for the one faith.
59. 54.1Pentecost fulfils Christ's promise of the Spirit, who teaches what Christ reserved and so is of one substance with him; believers who renounce worldly desire and keep God's law will receive the same Spirit.
60. 55.1Pentecost: the Spirit came on the apostles gathered in one mind, purified them with heavenly fire, and gave them tongues as a sign of the Church among all nations.
61. 55.2The ending of a Pentecost sermon: those outside the Church's unity hear to their own judgment, while the Church, the body of Christ, now speaks the truth in every language as the apostles once did.
62. 56.1A sermon on Saint Agnes: following Mary, the girl martyr rejected a suitor's gifts, was kept pure in the brothel, raised the young man who died there, survived the fire and died by the sword, an example to virgins while chaste marriage is also honoured.
63. 57.1On the birth of John the Baptist: born to aged, barren parents, he leapt in the womb at Mary's greeting, gave his mother prophecy and his father back his speech, and was the witness to the true light.
64. 58.1John the Baptist's wonderful birth, his father's silence (signifying the end of the old law's rites) and his leaping in the womb all prepared for his witness, “Behold the Lamb of God”.
65. 59.1On John the Baptist's birthday: his leaping in the womb at Mary's visit revealed the coming Saviour, and his call to prepare the Lord's way means repentance, confession, chastity and almsgiving.
66. 60.1A narrative sermon on John the Baptist: his foretold birth to aged Zechariah of the division of Abijah and Elizabeth, the dating of his and Christ's conceptions to the equinoxes, his ascetic life, his baptism of repentance as forerunner of Christ's baptism, his witness to the Lamb of God, and his death for rebuking Herod's unlawful marriage.
67. 61.1A long sermon on John the Baptist: forerunner of Christ in every respect, filled with the Spirit in the womb without circumcision, he is the greatest born of women in merit though he worked no miracles, and the question of how he compares with Elijah and Elisha is resolved.
68. 62.1John's birth to the aged makes Christ's virgin birth credible; John is more than a prophet and Christ more than a man, one Lord eternal and new, able to suffer in the flesh; John's leaping in the womb, ascetic life, baptism of Christ and death for rebuking Herod show his greatness.
69. 63.1On John the Baptist's birthday: his leaping in the womb, fearless preaching, miraculous birth and restoration of his father's speech show him more than a prophet, and his call to prepare the Lord's way still requires pure faith, rejection of idols, and mercy.
70. 64.1A fragment on John the Baptist's birth and his cry in the wilderness calling an unbelieving people to repentance.
71. 65.1John the Baptist's birthday alone among the saints is celebrated because he heralded Christ; he figures the law that points to the Gospel, a lamp before the sun and a voice before the Word, sanctified and prophesying in the womb.
72. 66.1On the feast of Peter and Paul: their martyrdoms by cross and sword won eternal life; Peter's simplicity and Paul's learning show that the Church needs both, and each shares the other's gift, with one faith and one feast.
73. 67.1On the martyrdom of Peter and Paul: the blood of the apostles nourished the Church; Peter, warned of his death, died willingly though once presumptuous, and both apostles show the balance of not seeking death nor fearing it, relying on grace rather than one's own strength.
74. 68.1On the feast of Peter and Paul, Maximus turns the custom of feasting into a spiritual meal: Peter's vision of the sheet of animals signifies the Church gathered from all nations, and the martyrs are not dead but alive with Christ.
75. 69.1On Peter and Paul: Peter, the rock, first healed a lame man's feet, and Paul, the chosen vessel, spread his letters everywhere; they died on one day, Peter crucified like his Lord and Paul beheaded with milk flowing from his neck; Christians should honour the martyrs.
76. 70.1On Saint Lawrence: roasted slowly on a gridiron, he outdid the three youths in the furnace and burned more with love of Christ than with the tyrant's fire; Christians, if not martyrs, should fight evil desires with the martyrs' help and seek joy only in the age to come.
77. 71.1On Lawrence, archdeacon of Rome, who gave the Church's goods to the poor rather than surrender the sacred vessels, was roasted on a gridiron, and mocked his torturer: “Turn me over… it is cooked.”
78. 72.1On Lawrence: love of God and neighbour shines brightest in the martyrs; the deacon Lawrence showed the persecutor the poor as the Church's treasure and was roasted on a gridiron, glorifying Rome as Stephen glorified Jerusalem.
79. 73.1On Lawrence: tortured by fire and iron, he neither denied Christ nor betrayed the Church's sacred vessels, because the fire of Christ's love burned stronger within him; God permits persecutors' cruelty so that the martyrs may triumph more gloriously.
80. 74.1On Cyprian and Cornelius: Cyprian, bishop and martyr, is honoured for a rich life, eloquent teaching that steadied believers under persecution, and a precious death; Cornelius adorned the see of Rome with his blood.
81. 75.1On Cyprian: his writings, read everywhere, preserve his chaste and faithful life, and his martyrdom proved that he lived what he preached about not fearing death.
82. 75.2Fragment of a sermon on Cyprian: he combined gentleness and severity like a skilled physician, and his virtuous life and eloquent speech earned him a precious death as a martyr.
83. 76.1On Cyprian: the martyrs' deaths are their true birthdays, overcoming earthly grief; Cyprian's heart, tongue and life agreed, his teaching enriched all without loss to himself, and Psalm 37's righteous man whose steps do not slip describes him.
84. 77.1Recalling Cyprian's feast at vintage time, Maximus speaks of the spiritual wine of martyrdom and Pentecost, warns that the Church, God's vineyard, must not yield thorns of worldly care and greed, and urges sharing the harvest with the poor.
85. 78.1The martyrs are praised for their faith, not their sufferings; they rest under the altar where Christ's body is offered daily, as Revelation 6 shows, Cyprian among them, and their vindication waits until the number of the faithful is complete.
86. 79.1On the feast of the Maccabean martyrs: seven brothers refused to eat pork at the king's command and died one after another, encouraged by their mother, who rejoiced at their victory and then died herself.
87. 80.1The Maccabean martyrs show that the same Spirit inspires both Testaments: before Christ's passion they died for God's law in hope of the resurrection, and their mother urged the youngest to follow his brothers in death.
88. 81.1On the martyrs of Anaunia (Alexander, Martyrius and Sisinnius), killed in Maximus's own time and in peacetime by pagans whose purification rite they had rebuked; the pagans burned them on a pyre made from their church, and their faith afterwards spread through the region.
89. 82.1Following the Anaunian martyrs, who died for rebuking a pagan purification rite, Christians must reprove pagan practices rather than tolerate them by silence, since connivance shares the guilt; officials should enforce the Christian emperors' laws against pagan cults.
90. 83.1On the joint feast of the Maccabean martyrs and Eusebius of Vercelli: the seven brothers died one after another under Antiochus' tortures rather than break God's law, and their mother rejoiced and followed them in death.
91. 83.2Eusebius of Vercelli, exiled to Scythopolis and imprisoned by Arians in a tiny cell, is compared with the Maccabean martyrs: they died for the law, he suffered for the true Godhead against heresy; both are honoured together.
92. 84.1On the martyrs Cantius, Cantianus and Cantianilla of Aquileia: siblings alike in name and death, they were caught when their carriage mule fell, which Maximus interprets not as flight but as a triumphal journey to martyrdom, like Elijah's chariot.
93. 85.1A short fragment for Saint Stephen's day, the day after Christmas: the layman chosen deacon to serve widows became the first martyr, an example of chastity and martyrdom.
94. 86.1After Easter the Church shares the joy of the resurrection with the martyrs, who shared Christ's passion; Christ made known the way of life, and the martyrs, who know what he did among the dead, will share his resurrection.
95. 86.2The martyrs share Christ's resurrection already in merit, the first resurrection from sin; perhaps some rise bodily with him each Easter, as the saints rose at his resurrection and as the apostle John's body was not found in his tomb.
96. 87.1Deeds teach better than words; the martyrs, though silent, teach by their sufferings, conquer when condemned, and cry out, like Abel's blood, by the cause of their innocent death.
97. 88.1The martyrs' sufferings benefit all and confirm the faith, which must not be reopened to dispute; martyrdom is a baptism of blood that washes away sin even for catechumens; martyrs hear prayers everywhere, not only where their relics lie, and their bodies deserve honour.
98. 89.1The martyrs' voice is Romans 8:35–37; they first overcame the world's pleasures and then its threats; the avaricious suffer similar hardships for gold, so it is not the punishment but the cause that makes the martyr, as the two thieves on the cross show.
99. 90.1On a martyrs' feast attended by a visiting bishop, the preacher calls the martyrs victims who offer themselves as a sacrifice of praise, whose death is precious in God's sight.
100. 91.1A prayer-like praise of the martyrs, including women, who conquered the devil by confessing Christ; martyrdom is pardon of sins and imitation of the Lord's passion.
101. 92.1On a martyrs' feast, Christians are urged to imitate the martyrs by resisting the devil's temptations, now more dangerous than pagan persecution, and to confess the Trinity of one substance.
102. 93.1The saints became Christ's friends by keeping his commands; Christians can likewise win his friendship, but those who skip church on the Lord's day for worldly feasting offend it.
103. 94.1Christ taught from Peter's boat, the Church, which he chose over Moses' boat, the synagogue; Peter's Church is like Noah's ark, and the storm on the lake came because the traitor Judas was aboard.
104. 95.1The miraculous catch of fish means that Peter's boat is the Church, which brings to life those rescued from the world, and that Peter was to fish with the word of faith, in the light of Christ the Word.
105. 96.1Abraham's hospitality to the three visitors teaches the people to welcome the visiting bishops, since receiving a holy man makes the host share his holiness, and Christ comes in his priests.
106. 97.1Priests must cry out against sin like a trumpet (Isa 58:1); as the priests' trumpets brought down the walls of Jericho, so the priestly voice now breaks down sin.
107. 98.1The priests' trumpets at Jericho figure the preaching of priests, whose words break down the soul's defences of sin; the seven days figure the seven thousand years of the world before judgment.
108. 99.1Zacchaeus shows that riches, rightly given away, can bring a rich man to the kingdom despite the camel and the needle's eye.
109. 100.1Zacchaeus gave half his goods to the poor and restored fourfold what he had taken, so in effect he gave all; true alms come from one's own goods, and robbers must first restore what is not theirs.
110. 101.1Christian landowners are guilty of idolatry if they allow their peasants to sacrifice on their estates; the preacher describes the shrines and the frenzied, self-wounding 'priests' of the goddess, and demands their removal.
111. 102.1The preacher continues against idolatry on Christian estates: a clean man is a precious possession, and the owner shares in the pollution if he allows sacrifice; the sermon breaks off.
112. 103.1The bishop must preach sharply because God has made priests watchmen (Ezek 3:17–18) who answer for the sinner's blood if they keep silent; so he warns drunkards and the avaricious, whose hoarded silver becomes an idol.
113. 104.1The preacher complains that his hearers forget his sermons; he explains 'to him who has, more will be given', and calls them to 'dance' in faith at the wedding of Christ and the Church, as David danced before the ark, which figures Mary.
114. 105.1Christ promises a reward even for a cup of cold water, so that no one is too poor to give; the rich must give more, like the widow who gave all; spiritually, hearers who believe the preacher's word give him drink, as the Samaritans did Christ.
115. 106.1After Christmas the preacher offers the 'leftovers' of the feast: like the loaves multiplied for the five thousand, the Scriptures are never exhausted but grow as they are shared.
116. 107.1The feeding of the four thousand shows Christ's two workings, human compassion and divine power, against the error of Eutyches; the crowd from far away is the Gentiles, who come to Christ by faith rather than the law.
117. 107.2The two feedings are compared: the five loaves for five thousand belong to the Jews and the law of Moses; the seven loaves for four thousand to the Gentiles and the sevenfold Spirit, received by grace and faith.
118. 108.1The Canaanite woman stands for the Gentile Church and her daughter for the sinful soul; her faith, patience and humility in prayer are an example to Christians.
119. 109.1Paul rebukes as a loving father; his words 'do not be yoked with unbelievers' (2 Cor 6:13–16) mean that justice and iniquity, light and darkness, Christ and the devil cannot share one heart.
120. 110.1Scripture, inspired by God, teaches and rebukes; Christ's word on adultery in the heart (Matt 5:28) guards chastity by forestalling sin at the very glance of the eyes.
121. 111.1Paul's command 'let no evil word come out of your mouth' (Eph 4:29) cuts off sin before it is born; Scripture's examples of evil speech are Simon Magus, Potiphar's wife, Naboth's murderers and Judas, and Christ's word restrains the eyes as Paul's restrains the tongue.
122. 112.1At the dedication of a church built by a count and two poor brothers, Vitalianus and Maianus, the preacher compares the count to the centurion who built a synagogue and was commended to Christ, and the brothers to the widow who gave all.
123. 113.1Christ's words on the Father and the Son (Matt 11:27) show their one substance; after a gap, the sermon expounds his gentle yoke and light burden, which free us from the devil's yoke.
124. 114.1Christians must become like children in innocence and humility, following God their Father and the Church their mother; the millstone of Matt 18:6 is read of heretics, of Gentiles in the toil of error, and of the dispersed Jewish people.
125. 115.1A single sentence listing the vices a Christian must overcome, from pride and avarice to bribery, lies and idolatry, in order to conquer the devil.
126. 116.1The true goods are virtues such as honesty and mercy, which cannot be lost or left behind, unlike gold; the rich man and Lazarus show where each kind of wealth leads.