Sermons of Maximus of Turin (Bruni's collection) 27.1–31.1

By God's favour, see, we have now almost completed the appointed fasts of Lent, and have fulfilled the precepts of Christ the Lord with the devotion of abstinence. It remains now that, just as his servants Moses and Elijah merited grace by keeping this most sacred number, so we too may merit it by keeping this same season, and that the reward in receiving the prize may be alike for those whose labour in keeping the fast is alike. For Elijah, when heaven was shut by human iniquities and no abundance of rain dripped from above on the things of the world, and all things were languishing in the squalor of a long drought, and there was a great famine for the whole human race—because heaven gave no rain and the earth did not sprout pasture—holy Elijah unlocked heaven by his fasts and made the earth fruitful by his prayers. He turned the drought of the one into rain and loosed the barrenness of the other into birth; for so great an abundance of showers watered the world at his prayers that dry things grew green again, dead things rose, languishing things were healed. And a kind of flow of springs was so poured into all things that, a purification being made by the rain, the faults of all creatures were washed away, and by the benefit of that flood the appearance of the whole world rose up renewed. Let us too, then, keeping the same fasts as Elijah, and adding prayers, unlock the heaven that is shut to our candidates for baptism, so that the shower of the saving washing may enlighten them. For heaven is shut to them as long as the Holy Spirit, coming from heaven, does not yet give life to their hearts; they suffer a kind of drought, because they are not yet watered by the grace of baptism. They also labour under a great famine, since as hungry men they long for the heavenly sacraments. Let us, then, unlock heaven for them, so that, as spiritual rain comes from above, their earth may be filled with the watering of the washing, and, putting away the barrenness of offences, they may begin to bring forth the fruits of the virtues. For the heavenly shower washes away the faults of sins, opens out the growth of righteousness, shakes off the dry dust of desire, gladdens the useful purity of chastity, overwhelms the sordid dregs of avarice, nourishes the everlasting generosity of mercy. For as at the coming of Elijah's rain the earth brought forth every pasture, so at the coming of Christ's washing the soul has brought forth all righteousness. And as there the springs of rain watered the world, so that the seeds of plants, already dead, might be brought to life, so the font of baptism waters the human race, so as to bring to life the dead hearts of souls. This is the merit of those who keep these fasts: that by their prayers either the world is renewed or brothers are born again. Heaven, then, must be unlocked for our candidates, since it is still shut for them; heaven is shut for them, because they do not yet see the mystery of the Trinity. With heaven shut to them, they do not know what is done above heaven, nor can they know what is the substance of the Son and the Father, unless they first pass beyond the elements of the world. For then can someone look upon the divine mysteries of the Trinity when he has the heavens opened by his own virtue, as the blessed martyr Stephen unlocked the heavens for himself by his martyrdom and saw the Saviour standing at the right hand, as he himself says: “See, I see the heavens opened and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” For the one, then, to whom the heavens are shut, action must be taken that they may be opened to him, so that he may see Christ above the heavens; for as long as they are shut to a man, he cannot see Christ reigning. But we must ask how the shut heavens are to be opened. I think they cannot be opened otherwise unless we take the keys of the apostle Peter, which he received by the Lord's gift, as the Lord himself said: “To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” Rather, let us ask Peter himself, as a good doorkeeper of the heavenly palace, to open for us. But let us inquire more carefully what this key is. The key of Peter I would call the faith of Peter, by which he opened the heavens, went securely into the underworld, and trod the seas fearlessly. For so great is the power of the apostolic faith that all the elements lie open to it: that is, the angelic gates are not shut to it, the gates of Tartarus do not prevail, the streams of waters do not sink beneath it. But let us see how this key, which we call faith, is made, and how it has been made solid. I think it was forged by the work of twelve craftsmen; for the holy faith was drawn up in the Creed by the twelve apostles, who, like skilled craftsmen coming together into one, forged the key by their counsel. For I would call the Creed itself a kind of key, by which the darkness of the devil is unlocked so that the light of Christ may come; the shut-up sins of the conscience are opened, so that the works of righteousness may shine openly. This key, then, must be shown to our brothers, so that they too, as disciples of Peter, may become accustomed to unlock the underworld for themselves and to open the heavens.

The holy Apostle bears witness about the prophets, saying: “At an acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you”; and he himself continues: “See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation.” So I too testify to you that these are the days of redemption, this is the time in a manner of heavenly medicine, in which we shall be able to heal the stain of all our vices and all the wounds of our sins, if we faithfully entreat the physician of our souls and, as fit patients who have been taken into his care, in no way despise his precepts. For the sick man finds the cure of his illness if he keeps the physician's orders with all care; but if he does one thing when another is ordered, and the disease grows, it is not the physician but the transgressor who is at fault. Our physician is our Lord Jesus Christ, who says: “I will kill and I will make alive; I will strike and I will heal.” For in a manner the Lord kills before he makes alive. For first he kills in us murders, adulteries, crimes, thefts, through baptism, and so makes us alive as new men with the immortality of eternity. We die, then, to sins, namely through the washing; and we are regenerated to life through the Spirit, as the Apostle says: “For you have died to your offences, and your life is hidden with Christ”; “For you have been buried with him through baptism into death.” For we are in a manner killed when we cease to be what we were. For by a new kind of kindness death and life work in one and the same man. For we die to the desire of sins, and the order of virtues is brought to life: in one and the same man the impious man and the adulterer is killed, so that a merciful and chaste man may be reborn. Idolatry is destroyed, so that religion may spread. The fornicator and the drunkard is put out, so that a continent and sober man may be brought forth. So, then, the Lord puts to death so as to make alive; so he kills so as to profit; so he strikes so as to correct. This, then, is all his severity toward his own people: that in them sins are punished and the soul preserved; detestable vices are taken away and the best virtues nourished. And we see that by this loving killing of the Lord many have been so converted, have so advanced for the better, and have so become the best from the worst, that when you see them you would believe they were changed men, though you do not see that their persons have been changed. For what we were before is so destroyed, taken away, and put out in us, that we believe that what we are afterwards has been born anew; and so this second birth signifies that the force of the former has already come to an end. As to his saying, “I will strike and I will heal,” the Lord plainly strikes sinners with his precepts so as to heal them; he beats them with his commands so as to correct them; he prescribes fasts, enjoins continence, threatens judgment, and, shaking out the grim fear of Gehenna, applies medicine, so that while we dread the future we may correct the present. For so by striking he made the apostle Paul whole. For when he was an impious persecutor and blasphemer, and was hurrying to Damascus to lay waste the churches, he suddenly struck him with the terror of a heavenly flash, so as to flood him with the light of the Gospel's brightness; and he changed the loss of his fleshly eyes so as to enlighten the sight of his spiritual eyes. He terrified him by bodily weakness so as to save him by devotion of faith. Rising from the ground, then, Paul with his outward eyes did not see men or the air, but with the eyes of his mind he saw Christ from heaven. Indeed this striking of the Lord so profited him that from a Jew he became a Christian, from a blasphemer an apostle, from Saul Paul; and he so changed the old man with his ways that he changed his name too. Having, then, a physician of this kind, who heals by striking and makes alive by putting to death, let us submit to him with all patience for treatment, so that whatever he sees in us that is shameful, whatever is filthy with offences, whatever is foul with ulcers, he may cut, amputate, and cut out, so that, all the devil's wounds being healed, he may make only what is God's remain in us. His first precept is this: that in these forty days we give ourselves to fasts, prayers, and vigils. For by fasts the wantonness of the body is chastened, by prayers the devout soul is fattened, by vigils the snares of the devil are driven off. Then, when this season has been fulfilled with these observances of the commands, the soul, purged and wearied by so many observances, coming to baptism, is refreshed by the flood of the Holy Spirit; and whatever the heat of various sicknesses had dried up in it is bathed with the dew of heavenly grace; so that, laying aside the corruption of the old man, it may acquire the nature of new youth. And in a wonderful way, in one and the same man, holiness succeeds offences, righteousness iniquity, infancy old age; and by a new kind of birth he who is reborn is another, though he is the same who sinned. So too Elijah, by a fast continued for the course of forty days and nights, merited to quench with the dew of showers the long and excessive drought of the whole world and to bathe the parched thirst of the lands with abundant heavenly rain. We recognize that this was done as a figure of us, so that we too through the circuit of these forty days may merit the spiritual rain of baptism, so that a heavenly shower from above may pour upon the long-parched earth of the whole world in our brothers, and the flood of the saving washing may bedew the long drought of the pagans. For whoever is not watered by the grace of baptism suffers the drought and heat of his soul. By a fast of these days and nights holy Moses also merited to speak with God, to stand and remain with him, and to receive from his hand the precepts of the law. For though his human condition withdrew him from God's gaze, the grace of fasting made him near to fellowship with the Godhead. For this portion of the virtues in us is God's: that we fast often, since God himself always fasts. In whomever, then, he sees more of his own works, to him he is the more familiar, intimate friend, as Scripture said: “And Moses spoke with God face to face, as one speaks with his friend.” That is why the Lord Jesus Christ, too, about to receive the glory of the resurrection, dedicated his powers by a fast of forty days and nights, to show that the life of men is not bread but the precepts. By these forty days of fasting, then, God is reconciled, the heavens are opened, the underworld is unlocked. Let us too, then, dearly beloved brothers, fast continually and devoutly through this space of time, so that the Lord may be gracious to us, the heavens may lie open to us, and the underworld may have no power against us. The end.

We should exult, brothers, with continued joy on this day which the Lord has made, and rejoice in his feast with lasting glory. The night that came between has not cut short our joys at the solemnity; nor, because night marked off the evening hours, has the light of the resurrection abandoned our eternal prayers. For to us yesterday and today are one day, the very same day, because, as the blessed Apostle says of the Saviour: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today.” If, then, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, he is always one and the same day for us, because in him we live, in him we move, in him we do not die: we do not die, I say, because just as no darkness of sin came upon the light of Christ, so no age of time consumes those who live. Let us rejoice, then, on the day of Christ's resurrection; for it is the common joy of all, and it is our joy. Common plainly, because when he rose we all rose. For he came to life again for the salvation of all who was handed over to the passion for the sins of all. The Saviour, then, has risen from the dead. A new thing and a wonderful one, but this assertion has truth. For to say nothing of the oracles of the prophets, the ministry of the angels, the opened inner chamber of the tomb, the Lord himself after the resurrection speaking with the disciples, living among them, eating, and Thomas handling even with his finger the wounds of the nails—to pass over all these, the very impiety of the Jews confirms our faith. For their over-cautious belief suffices for our belief. For the more diligently they guarded the tomb, the more clearly it is established that he rose; the more guards they set, the more witnesses they left behind. For divine providence arranged this: that not only angels, not only disciples, but—what is more—enemies should bear witness to the resurrection. We accept it the more gladly, then, because they watched him the more diligently; for we believe that under so many guards he could more readily come out than perish, and go forth from the tomb by the Lord's right than be stolen away by a trick of the disciples. For impiety closed the tomb with such care that human hands could not have broken it unless only the power of the resurrection had opened it. Indeed, the holy evangelist says that when the angel came down the earth was shaken by a great earthquake, and the foundations of the tomb were moved, and the guards, struck with fear, who had come to guard a dead man, became like dead men. Like dead men, I say: a plainly fitting judgment, if when the righteous man rises the sinner dies; when the innocent comes back to life, his enemy is killed. For that is why they could not even see the Lord going forth, because terror had overwhelmed their criminal minds, since they could not bear the brilliance of the glowing resurrection. With greater care, then, the Pharisees guarded the Lord dead than they had persecuted him living; for a greater reason pressed them: they understood that it had been easier to despise him among the living than to be able to scorn him returning from the dead; and that whereas then, when he was preaching, he could easily be killed, now, having risen, he could no longer be killed, as the Apostle says: “But having risen he no longer dies; death will no longer have dominion over him.” They guarded him carefully in the tomb, then, especially because he had said he would rise on the third day; they guarded him carefully in the tomb, because they had now to fear him not as teacher but as judge: judge, I say, not only of themselves but of their cruel sentence, by which they bound their sons and descendants to their crimes, saying: “His blood be on us and on our children.” Cruel is the sentence of the Jews, which by their crime not only condemns their present children but also kills those not yet born. For how many do they summon by this cry to a consciousness of the crime, whom no knowledge of the crime held! Cruel, I say, is the impiety that summons descendants into guilt before it brings them into the light, so that the future would happen to sin before they happened to live. Plainly bloody parents, who became parricides before they became parents, and took as partners in their crimes those whom they did not know whether they could have as sharers of their blood. It is no wonder, then, that they were so cruel to the Saviour who were so cruel to their own descendants. Not without reason does holy David command that on this day we are to exult and rejoice without exception, the day on which the joys of the whole world are celebrated. For all should rejoice, because it profits all; all should exult, because it is saving for all; and so no flattering or painted joy should be shown. For whoever rejoices in Christ's resurrection, let him rather rejoice because he himself rose in Christ: for in him our portion, our condition, both endured death and came to life again. And though the dissolution of our little body still awaits us, we then began to live eternal life already in Christ; so that, though the occasion of an untimely death may hasten our frailty, yet in the Saviour we have learned to rise before we perish: for man who was to be rose in Christ before he obtained life in the world. For the Lord did not give the grace of the resurrection only to that generation in whose time he rose, but also provided this for the peoples who would follow: that we should be secure about the resurrection before we were anxious about death, and should live with God in heaven before we lived with men on earth. For in the Saviour we all rose, we all came to life again, we all passed over to heavenly things; for in that man of Christ there is a portion of the flesh and blood of each one of us. Where, then, my portion reigns, I believe that I reign; where my blood rules, I feel that I rule; where my flesh is glorified, I know that I am glorious. For though a sinner, let him not despair of this fellowship of grace; because even if sins hold us back, our substance seeks us; even if our own offences shut us out, the fellowship of nature does not repel us. For, because of the goodness of the Godhead, the Saviour owes us a special affection: since as our God is in him, so our blood is in him. The Godhead, then, must show me mercy; kinship must show close relationship; for the Lord is not so harsh as to forget man and not remember him whom he himself bears; so that he who took him up for my sake would not seek me for the sake of the one he took up; not so harsh, I say, is the Lord as not to love his own flesh, his own members, his own inner parts. The holy Apostle says: “No one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the Church.” Let us, then, brothers, not despair at all of pardon, not fear hatred at all. We have the privilege of our blood; for in Christ our flesh loves us, for we are his members and flesh, as the same blessed Apostle says: “This now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: this is a great mystery, but I speak of Christ and the Church.” Let us exult, then, brothers, as Scripture says; let us plainly exult on this day of the Lord, because when we rejoice with the Lord's festival we care the more for our own. For what does the prophet say? “This is the day which the Lord has made.” A good day indeed, which brought light to all—not the light of this world, but of the eternal resurrection; for this light did not remove the darkness of night but cut away the darkness of death. A good day, I say, and better than that one on which the world first shone: for that one was created for men's labour, this was made for rest; that one deserved death, this escaped the fear of death; that one is common to good and bad, this belongs to the righteous; the light of that day is buried in darkness, the splendour of this day lights up even tombs; finally, the dead do not see the light of that day, the light of this day has shone even on the departed, as the prophet says: “Those who sat in the region of the shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.” Let us rejoice, then, on this day, which shines around the living, brings the dead to life, and enlightens those who are to come, as the blessed evangelist says: “He was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world.”

How the lamb of the law, by whose sacrifice the ancient people of the Hebrews threw off the yoke of slavery in Egypt, contains in its figure, by manifold sacraments, the truer victim of the holy Church, was proved most of all by the very truth of the facts when Christ our Passover was sacrificed, who “was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer without voice, so he did not open his mouth.” This is the lamb who, offered for us on the altar of the cross as a living victim to God the Father for a sweet fragrance, opened for us the passage from the region of the shadow of death to the land of promise. This one, I say, who is at once victim and priest, revealing in a clear voice the whole shadow of the old priesthood and sacrifice, put an end to figures and riddles, and inaugurated for the new people of the Church a new priesthood and a new sacrifice, so that new wine might be put into new wineskins. And if the grain of wheat, falling into the earth and dying, so wonderfully renewed all things, how much more, rising again in itself, come back to life with multiplied fruit, has it made all things fruitful, and given at this season a richer yield not only to the rational earth in spiritual growths but even to the earthly seeds themselves! Hence now the whole face of the earth, breaking into shoots, more cheerful with the adornment of various fruits, raises up together with its rising Lord the whole of nature, which until now was as though dead; where the pleasing beauty of trees and plants, with different gifts of shoots but with equal gesture of joy, hastens to meet this singular solemnity. What shall I say of the face of the sky, until now in a way sad but at last joyful, which for some time, covered with a thick darkness of clouds, troubled the whole space of this air? And see, suddenly, as though righteousness were looking down from heaven to earth, a wonderful calm smiles on the world, and the wishes of heaven and earth run together into one joy, so as to welcome with common exultation Christ, God and man, who had come to bring the common peace of both, and, breaking down the dividing wall, made both one. Hence the splendour of the sun, the kindling of all the stars, now at last cleans its much-wrinkled face, and, like a king conspicuous in the diadem of his head on the day of his espousals and on the day of the gladness of his heart, bestows more generous gifts of his light on the other stars as his companions. For the moon, which from the day of its rising is always placed in some loss of itself, prepares itself with full light for the paschal joys. And, to touch on everything briefly, as everything that exists in the world serves man's rule by divine dispensation, so one exultation over man's salvation rests on all things. Since, then, every creature shows its joys for man by such great signs, it follows that such testimonies of gladness should not be lacking from men themselves. Christ's resurrection was prefigured in the first-formed Adam, because, as he, rising from sleep, recognized Eve formed from his side, so Christ, rising from death, built the Church from the wound in his side. Noah too, a farmer, when he had planted a vineyard and, drunk with wine, had fallen asleep and lay uncovered in his tent, and, awakened from sleep, laid the curse of perpetual slavery on the son who did not hide his shame, signified Christ: who made the Church a vineyard, and, drunk with the cup of the passion for love of her, and stripped of the covering of the flesh he had taken, rose from the dead, as he says in the Song: “I have put off my tunic; how shall I put it on?” And how Jonah too expressed in himself the death and resurrection of the Lord the Gospel word plainly declares. Since, then, brothers, every creature by a certain office of love rejoices together in our salvation, it is ours to draw from this something for the conduct of our life, so that the common joy of all may not lose its right in us, toward whom the sum of the whole matter looks as its head. And first, as sheep of the Lord's pasture, roasted with the fire of love on the altar of the heart, let us offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God; and having our members that are on earth now put to death by the unleavened bread of continence, that is, sexual immorality, impurity, and the other workhouses of vices, let us turn away from them, and fit a seat for ourselves in the station of the virtues; renouncing dead works, let us offer the best fruit as good earth, and, following the example of the good tree, let us bear fruit in all goodness and righteousness. And so that the brightness of the sun may not be lacking to our way of life, let our light shine before men, so that they may see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven. If, then, the last day finds us acting so, the resurrection of our bodies will at length be our reward, when Christ our life appears, and then we too shall appear with him in glory; who lives and reigns as God through all ages of ages. Amen. The end.

Let us exult in the Lord, brothers, in this present solemnity which the Lord has made, on which, rich with the spoils of hell and triumphant over death, our Lord Jesus Christ was given back to the world from the darkness of the tomb which Jewish impiety had sealed. For while he pursued death all the way to the underworld, he deigned to call back to the everlasting joys of paradise the man whom he created and redeemed. He pursued death all the way to the underworld, and there in its own kingdom made it more gloriously a captive and triumphed over it. Then those dark inner chambers of the underworld were opened. The eternal night marvelled at the heavenly light it had never seen. So the prophet could say: “O death, I will be your death; I will be your sting, O hell!” For it was forced to release the one it thought dead, and found him to be the liberator of those it was already holding. And on this most sacred feast of the resurrection, as the Lord raised himself, many bodies of the saints were raised and came to life and entered the holy city. For when the Saviour rose on this day he raised his own victims; and whenever the feast of the resurrection is celebrated, we believe that the saints too rise again. Our Saviour, then, rose in mortal flesh, which he had taken from his virgin Mother, and which hung on the tree for our salvation. He called back to new life from the tomb that body which had been laid in the tomb. The same body entered to his disciples through closed doors. You have nothing more, then, pagan, in seeing that Christ was crucified; nothing more to object that he was afraid to die. See, the one you say was afraid to die, whom you see was crucified, came forth alive by his own power from that tomb which impiety had wished to be guarded. See, he has the same flesh, the same bones. Hear him saying to his disciples: “Touch and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have.” He showed his flesh and bones, so that no one might doubt any more that he who died nailed on the tree came forth alive from the tomb. “Touch,” he said, “and see.” That is: touch my body with your hand, and see me and my wounds. Touch with the hand and see with faith that there is in me both the reality of that body which hung on the cross and was laid dead in the tomb, and the property of the Godhead, by which I raised myself, dead and laid in the tomb. And indeed Thomas, when he examined the wounds of the Lord's body and touched his flesh, recognized a real body in Christ himself. The most blessed apostle, then, saw and touched; what he then did profited all. For when he exercised his anxious care on Christ's body, he confirmed the faith of all. And the same body which was nailed on the tree for all now reigns in heaven at the right hand of his Father. And indeed it was fitting that that true substance of body and soul, which, trampling on these earthly hindrances, had served him alone on earth, should exult with Christ for ever in heaven. The end.