Sermons of Maximus of Turin (Bruni's collection) 56.1–60.1

Since in all the world the virginal flower of Mary weaves unfading crowns and keeps the sceptred court of modesty with spotless affection, integrity has persevered so far toward the palm that it has seized the trophy of holiness among girls and, by the footsteps of the virgin Mother, has come to the heavenly bridal chamber. Hence it is that Agnes declares herself betrothed with the ring of faith and cries out that she is bound by love. O virgin, how worthy of imitation by virgins, to whom you have handed down an example of love! O how holy an answer you gave to virgin hearts, by despising the riches of the world, cursing the desires of the flesh, and loving the beauty of Christ alone! Come to the girl, girls, and learn in the years of childhood what flames of love for Christ she kindled in her breast. She says she keeps faith with her lover and desires the body of him alone who did not refuse the destruction of death for love of all. Learn, virgins of Christ, the love burning in a girl, refusing all the riches of the world as dung. For the examples of the saints are handed down in writing for this reason: so that each, according to the nature of their sex and their age, may keep the measure of their own resolve; and as virgins through a virgin, so also spouses through a spouse may strive to overcome the world for the love of Christ, and, by resistance of mind refusing the sweet things of the world and not refusing its harsh things, may attain to perpetual delights and eternal joys. In saying this we do not find fault with the chaste union of spouses, but we adorn the perseverance of virgins; for virginity is not to be set above bad things but preferred to the best. For what is purer than the pure and holier than the holy does not need to be praised by disparaging bad things. So let wives, established in religion and formed by the divine Scriptures, follow the holy marriages of the patriarchs, and imitate Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Anna, Susanna, Zipporah; but let the virgins of Christ follow only the Virgin, Mother of the virginal light. Her follower, most blessed Agnes, raised up a great example of chastity in herself, when she preferred virginity to life, and, driving out all earthly love by heavenly love, seized the trophy of Christ's cross; and against lusts as well as against all tortures, armed with faith rather than iron, she fought bravely and conquered. She looks at the flatterer, and refuses; at the one who threatens, and despises him; she attends to the fire, and laughs. She does not know how to love anything that passes away; and while she loves virginity greatly, she fears neither mockery nor flames nor tortures nor executioners; at last she was not even terrified of the sword of a raging persecutor. The virgin is pressed to take adornments of the body, but refuses, since she had already taken adornments of the mind; and because she was not eager to please by the elegance of the human body, because she feared to displease the Lord by the foulness of the soul, she gave within, through faith, the whiteness of her mind and the beauty of her soul, which she cultivated; and as much as she knew what would make her soul beautiful, so much did she blush that she was beautiful in her flesh; and she was as eager to displease carnal men in the appearance of her flesh as she pressed on to please Christ and his angels. The young man, despised by the girl, is troubled, and, thinking he can please her with gifts, heaps up gold and gems, and brings garments and precious estates. But because the love of Christ has no price in money, the most sacred virgin remained at her post even to the shedding of blood, since Christ had betrothed her with his own blood. The wealth goes back to the one who desired her, and the unshaken virginity, once offered to Christ, endures. Learn, virgins of Christ, the examples of a girl's rule, and with all your intention reject men's little gifts offered under the appearance of kindness, and refuse them with all joy as the bite of a mad dog. From the one from whom you receive nothing to fear in God, do not take what you would love of the world: take, take, O virgin, but what profits eternal love. Whenever you obtain wealth from a man, so take it that you recognize yourself as Christ's bride. He sees within, in your mind, what you do, and notices how eagerly you accompany his virgins. See, then, how Agnes follows Mary, through reproaches. She could fear no torture at all, for whom even the brothel, a place of shame, was made a place of prayer; and where the devil had prepared for her the disgrace of corruption, there the Lord made her receive the crown and palm of her virginity. This is to conquer enemies in their own seats: the virgin led captive into the inner chambers of the king of lusts, and the king himself bound by the virgin whom he had taken captive, and conquered, going out in the virgin's triumph. For he who had held was held; he who had dragged was dragged; he who thought he was killing was killed. Indeed, to prove that the devil was then conquered by the virgin, let us recall the deed of that young man whom the enemy had so armed against the girlhood of Agnes that he had her dragged naked through the crowd to the brothel, under the voice of a herald, as leader, inviting the people to lust. That this leader was the devil's, there is no one who doubts; and that when the leader was conquered the people were overcome is known to all; and when the peoples were overcome with their leader, it is plain to all that the tyrant was held captive. It is clear that the devil was overcome whenever he took up arms against the virgin. For the stripped virgin is covered with her hair; and, made naked by evil men, she was clothed by good angels; and, condemned in a house of shame, she appeared in the bosom of chastity. The place that had been for lost souls is made an oratory of angels; and where chastity had always been shipwrecked, there virginity was crowned. Indeed, the peoples whom the herald had invited to lust the virgin won for chastity; and those whom the devil brought in to her defiled she sent out from her clean; for all went in one by one, and each waited for the other's entry, and, when he went out, since he did not believe he had come out clean, he showed himself unclean; but he who went in for lust was held by the virgin's merits to worship the Lord; and he came out from there a servant of God who had gone in a servant of the devil; and as many became worshippers of Christ as the devil had thought he had found corrupters of the virgin. There remained, then, the young man who had been the author of this shameful plan: he who thought he would overcome the virgin's defender, while he provoked [her] to lust, lost the life he seemed to have and found the death he was seeking. Tears follow laughter, and laments put an end to the insults. The virgin notices the judge mourning, and the one she had despised when he threatened she now hears when he pleads. At once, as she began to pray for the dead man, she raises up from the dead safe and sound the one who had been assigned to death, and calls to joy the one who had been plunged into grief. For he who had died unchaste rises chaste; and he who had been a persecutor of chastity becomes a preacher of purity. At this the sacrilegious are thrown into confusion in their temples, and, not fearing Christ who did these miracles, they stir up a riot of the base mob, so that reason, which urged an end to the riots, driven away by shouting, could find no place in men's minds. The father of the son who had been raised went away sad and, as we read, left her, wronged, to the raging crowds. So flames are prepared, crackling, for the virginal body; but the body that had overcome the fires of lusts found refreshment in the midst of the flames; and she who had entered the fire to burn began to feel cold through holy virginity, so that virginity might learn that flames and fires can have no mastery over it at all. Nor should you think those perished whom fire consumed for the name of Christ. For when you read that Elijah was carried off by fire and the three boys were in no way consumed in the midst of the fire; or when you recall that Lawrence was consumed on a gridiron, and know that Agnes, like Thecla, escaped the masses of flame, do not suspect any difference of faith in these then; for one faith exercised God's saints in their passion and, by a different kind of glory, made them victors on both sides. For the martyr who was consumed exults, and the victor who escaped exults; and God made Isaiah, sawn apart, a martyr, and showed Daniel, despising the rage and bites of lions, a most approved confessor: by which he showed that both were victors over the devil; for one dies and triumphs, the other escapes and reigns. Come now, virgin, to the bridal chamber you sought, and for the love of the bridegroom receive the executioner's sword, so that unstained virginity may prove you the bride of Christ, and proven confession may seal you a martyr. Happy the band of virgins whose zeal it is to follow the footsteps of your confession; for they will have the crown with you in heaven who with you have overcome the enemy in the world. For as a share in eternal reward appeared to you as you followed the footsteps of Mary, so we believe eternal joys will not be denied to those who imitate you.

The reason of our religion and devotion requires, brothers, that today we rejoice in the birth of blessed John the Baptist, who, predestined by God, came to proclaim the gladness of the human race and the joy of heaven. This is he from whose mouth the world heard with a new voice that our Redeemer was present, that the Lamb of God was present; who, as witness, when his parents despaired of offspring, is sent through an angel as one to be born, so as to be the undoubted messenger of so great a mystery. Who would not wisely believe that he announced divine mysteries in whose begetting he perceived heavenly care to have been at work? Who, when he was not yet a son and was carried still unformed in the womb, yet by the privilege of the grace granted him filled his mother's inner parts with eternal joy; and the blessed mother recognized, before she gave birth, the happiness of a womb long barren. For, as was read, Elizabeth says to Mary: “See, as the voice of your greeting came into my ears, the infant in my womb leapt for joy. And why is this granted me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?” No wonder, dearly beloved, if this old woman was enriched with the gift of foreknowledge, who was to bear the herald of the most high God. She became more glorious by her barrenness, for while her fruitfulness was delayed, she obtained by the gift of one birth the honour of a whole posterity. She, while as though fruitless she groaned with her husband into extreme old age, suddenly brought forth not a son for herself only, but a herald of eternal salvation for the whole world; and such a herald that, before he came forth from the womb, by the privilege of his future ministry he gave a prophetic spirit to his mother's tongue, and by the power of his name, foretold through the angel, unlocked the mouth of his father Zechariah, which unbelief had closed. For Zechariah had fallen silent, not to remain dumb, but so that, the use of speech being divinely restored to him, he might bear prophetic witness to the heavenly infant. And the priest who spoke to the whole people was struck dumb for this reason: that, because the priest's silence was public, the mystery of the sacred birth might come to the knowledge of the whole people, and no one would dare not to believe it. Because the father had doubted the one who was to be born, he incurred the punishment of silence. For the evangelist says of him: “He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light, so that all might believe through him.” He was not the light indeed, but he was wholly in the light, who merited to bear witness to the true light. And so, brothers, in honour of most blessed John, let us celebrate this day of his birth with all exultation, who, to drive away the darkness of the world, both recognized before all and was the first to show the everlasting light of heaven.

By many great powers, dearest brothers, our God and Lord strengthens the minds and faith of the peoples who run to him, who made not only the life of his elect praiseworthy but their birth too wonderful, as we have learned from the reading of the Gospel about blessed John the Baptist, to whom so great a privilege of birth was granted that he was foretold by prophetic and evangelic voices before he was born. Or how should he not be consecrated by all mysteries who was coming, for the redemption of a failing world, to reveal the Lord of the sacraments? A barren woman, very old, conceived him, as you heard, by a most righteous man, so that out of manifold despair both the glory of the child being born and the power of God at work might appear more magnificent. This is he of whom we read it was foretold by the prophet: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness.” And so the priest Zechariah fell dumb under the sentence of the rebuking angel, because, troubled by the greatness of the promise, he did not believe that he would be the father of the announced voice. We see that this was done by a great dispensation of God, so that the whole people of the Jews, while they asked the cause of so great a silence, might learn the truth of the child to be born, and the silence of the high priest might publish the secret of the holy conception. Silence, then, is imposed on the father, lest the herald of the heavenly Word should be born through silence; though the secrets of a higher mystery are opened in this. For in that silence of the priest, the grace of Christ certainly approaching, both the severity of the old law fell silent and the whole rite of carnal sacrifices became quiet. But yet, so that nothing in blessed John might not be wonderful, the father's tongue, which he bound when he was to be conceived, he loosed when he was born, so that the most blessed old man, who had lost the use of speech among the duties of the old traditions, might, his voice renewed through his son, proclaim new mysteries. Nor is it any wonder if such astonishing miracles came about through the merits of one whom so great a grace of God accompanied that, going beyond the measure of human conception, he rejoiced at the coming of Christ while still within his mother's inner parts. For, as we heard, Elizabeth says to Mary: “See, as the voice of your greeting came into my ears, the infant in my womb leapt for joy.” For so great a power was already driving him even as he was being formed that, as a proof of the heavenly mystery which he sensed he would preach to the human race, he anticipated his birth with prophetic signs. Why, then, do we wonder that John without any hesitation recognized Christ coming to his baptism, if, before he himself had come into the light, he sensed his presence in the virginal womb? What joy had stirred him within his mother's belly he later testified with a most clear voice, saying: “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world.” For the sake of this voice, dearly beloved, all those sacraments you heard of in John were sent ahead; for this his glorious conception and praiseworthy life were prepared: that the world might hear from so holy a mouth the voice of its absolution. How beautifully he called Christ our Lord by the name of lamb, by whose blood alone God was to be appeased and all mortality redeemed! It is fitting, then, brothers, that in honour of so great a man we always exult with most devoted festivals, who by one and the same testimony both revealed the presence of the Lord and prophesied the remedies he was about to bring.

The venerable feast of blessed John the Baptist, dearest brothers, is celebrated today by the faithful throughout the whole world. By his prophetic dignity he merited that the posterity of the faithful should not be silent in his praises, whose very birth is dedicated by God. So singular a choice shone in him that, born of most righteous parents, he merited to announce that the Lord, the Saviour of this world, was coming before he had the beginning of birth. Indeed, holy Elizabeth, an old woman, when, despairing of a son because of barrenness, she conceived by her already aged husband, as the angel had foretold, and was visited by the most chaste Virgin Mary, who had also conceived the Saviour in her womb by the Holy Spirit as the angel told her, said at the very meeting of their greeting: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb: for see, as the voice of your greeting came into my ears, the infant in my womb leapt for joy.” O how worthy and happy a meeting of holy women! O how holy a greeting, where the Mother of the Lord and Saviour visits the mother of the Forerunner! O how most blessed the mothers, most holy the nurses of most blessed little ones! O glorious office of the herald, who, still shut within his mother's inner parts, revealed the Saviour of the world to come—not yet by speech, which he could not, but by prophetic spirit; for mortal nature could not keep its order under the old law when, by the new grace of the Godhead, a new mystery was being prepared for the salvation of men. For this is the John who was called by the prophet Isaiah “the voice of one crying in the wilderness”; who is rightly called a voice, because, as his proclamation thundered, mortality, long deaf to every good hearing, began to hear the sacraments of human redemption. Let us, then, dearly beloved, hear what the messenger of the Saviour preached for the profit of us all: “Prepare,” he says, “the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.” Truly worthy was blessed John to direct the crookedness of evil livers into straight paths. For what is it to prepare the way of the Lord, but, with the breast cleansed of vices by confession and repentance, to prepare for the Lord, the Judge coming from heaven, a dwelling of a simple heart? What is it to make straight the paths of our God, but to build for ourselves such ways of action that the gracious Lord, coming to us, is pleased to walk on them? He prepares a way for his Lord who, rejecting the desires of his wanton flesh and clinging only to the Lord's precepts with the effort of his mind, girds himself with the vigour of chastity and continence. He prepares the best way for God who, resisting evil thoughts, always strives to walk before God with a clean heart and a chaste body. We, then, brothers, as long as we cling to the desires of the flesh and to earthly cupidities, do not prepare the way for the Lord according to the prophetic warnings. Therefore, turning back to the precepts of John's baptism, let us prepare in ourselves a way for the Lord by worthy repentance and most truthful confession of the evils we have done, and by alms and anxious care of the poor and the other works of righteousness and kindness; so that the Lord, seeing in us the roads of good will, may deign to carry his little sheep, already wearied by many labours and tribulations, from the troubled life of this age with him to eternal joys; so that, as we rejoice today in the birth of the Lord's Forerunner, so we may rejoice in our reconciliation with God our Father, by the working and gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the co-eternal Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, through all ages of ages. Amen.

The birth of the holy forerunner of the Lord, John the Baptist, which the holy universal Church celebrates today, dearest brothers, the Lord's holy prophets had foretold in many ways before. We should understand that this was done by the providence of divine kindness, so that he who was to be greater than the other prophets should also be honoured beyond the others with a greater spirit of prophecy; because the office of a prophet is to tell things to come, not also to point them out; John was greater than the other prophets precisely because he both announced that the Lord and Saviour would come and showed that he was present. For this reason too, as with the coming of the Lord himself, so with the birth of his forerunner it was prophesied beforehand, so that he who had come to announce new things and to preach repentance—a preaching such as was unheard of for ages—no one could reject by his own faithlessness, but that the office of his preaching might be more credible to all who heard. For it was fitting that he who had come not only to announce but also to point out the King of all kings and Lord of lords should also be born by a procreation unlike the others. For no one doubts that in old people the desire of the flesh was already growing cold; and beyond the sixtieth year of age, to old people already free of all wantonness of the flesh, he was born, as the sacred text of the Gospel proves: “There was,” it says, “in the days of Herod, king of Judea”—that is, when the time of Christ's birth was approaching—“a certain priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah.” But now we must first speak of Abijah, and afterwards follow the order begun. For David, when he was dealing with and arranging the building of the temple and its service, divided the whole progeny of the sons of Aaron into twenty-four parts, and from each part chose one high priest, who would minister in turn, in order, in the sanctuary of the temple; on this condition, however, that if any of the high priests departed this life, the best in that part would be chosen as successor to the priesthood. In this division this Abijah, of whose division and lineage Zechariah came, was found placed in the eighth place; “and the wife of Zechariah was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly; and they had no son, because Elizabeth was barren and both were advanced in their days. And it happened that Zechariah, in the order of his division, entered the sanctuary to offer incense; and suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared to him, saying: Do not fear, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.” Zechariah, hearing this, trembled; and because he was already old and his wife ninety years old, he did not believe that what the angel had promised in truth could happen, because of old age; and because he did not believe, he remained dumb until the eighth day after John's birth. Here it is plainly to be understood that a father's entreaty, not even a mother's pleasure, created John: against the impossibility of the body, against the barrenness of the womb, by Zechariah's prayers Elizabeth's womb swells, and she conceived not by nature but by grace. In the seventh month, at the autumn equinox, was the conception of Saint John in his mother's womb; in the first month of the next year, at the spring equinox, the conception of the Lord Saviour in the womb of the Virgin Mother. O herald of the Lord Saviour, how wonderfully born, and of what righteous parents sprung! And what the members of the body could not offer, the grace of the Saviour had granted. He who made his barren mother fruitful also loosed the tongue of his dumb father, and at once burst forth in proclamation of the Saviour. For, a righteous man born of righteous parents, he also showed in himself the work of righteousness; and he who had come to prepare the way for the Lord in the hearts of the faithful rightly preached also the doing of repentance for sins, and showed in his own way of life the austerity of life which he preached in others: “And his clothing was of camel's hair, and a leather belt around his waist; his food was locusts and wild honey; wine and strong drink he did not drink, and he ate nothing unclean all the days of his life.” In the thirtieth year from his birth he began to baptize those who came to him and to preach to the people the baptism of repentance, so that through repentance and confession of sins they might be found worthy to receive the forgiveness of sins; which, because he could not give it by his own baptism, he nonetheless preached that Christ the Lord and Saviour would soon come to us, from whom both John himself and all who believed in him and were baptized in his name would receive not only forgiveness of sins but also eternal life. But why did John baptize, when he could not give forgiveness, except to keep his order as forerunner: that, as he went before the Lord and Saviour both in birth and in the office of preaching, so he might also go before the baptism of Christ with his own baptism? For by his preaching many were converted to the Lord, repenting of their sins, and believed that when the Christ whom John preached would come they would receive forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. And so many came to John's baptism to hear the word of salvation; many, to be healed of their sicknesses, since John did many signs; many believed him to be the Christ; to whom he himself said: I am not the Christ, but I am the forerunner of Christ. Likewise in the thirtieth year of Christ's birth both came to the Jordan, Christ and John, and Christ was baptized by John, not because he himself needed to be baptized for any sin, but so that John might baptize him, and he by his baptism might sanctify the water for us and give all an example of baptism, without which no one can be saved; and so that no one should be so rich or powerful as to disdain being baptized by a servant, having heard that Christ was baptized by his servant John. When Jesus had been baptized, as soon as he came up from the water, the heavens were opened to him, and the Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove and remained on him, and the voice of the Father was heard from heaven, saying: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” When Saint John saw and heard this, he at once pointed out the Lord with his finger to the crowd that was present, saying: “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world.” Behold him whom all the prophets foretold would come; behold him whom I promised you, through whom you will receive not only forgiveness of sins but also eternal life and immortality, and with them joy and eternal blessedness, if you believe in him. While blessed John was shining in such deeds, King Herod, mentioned above, took the wife of his brother Philip and joined her to himself in marriage. When blessed John rebuked him for this, he happily completed his martyrdom with his head cut off. Therefore, dearly beloved, if we wish to celebrate worthily the solemnities of so holy a forerunner of the Lord, we ought to adorn ourselves with the holy merits of good works: in fasting and chastity, in continence, in humility of life, in gentleness and sobriety, in vigils and prayers, in generous almsgiving, in patience and confession of crimes, in all perseverance in good works, to put to death the desires of the flesh, and to merit to save our souls in eternal life; with blessed John helping us by his holy prayers, and our Lord Jesus Christ aiding us to every good endeavour, who with the co-eternal Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, lives and reigns for ages of ages. Amen.