Sermons of Maximus of Turin (Bruni's collection) 66.1–70.1

It is necessary, dearest brothers, that we rejoice with a yearly feast in the passions of the venerable apostles and the death of our fathers, because with the confidence of Christian faith we believe that by their torments they obtained glory and sought the perpetuity of living a life without end. For who would doubt that they reign with their Lord, who, following his footsteps, conquered death by dying? Or how is it not plain that with that King victory lies in torments, whose triumph is on the cross? So the princes of the churches chose to fall patiently for the honour of the faith, whom the Author of life, by sending ahead the example of his own death, taught not to fear death. Let us rejoice, then, and exult that our most glorious fathers died for Christ, because whoever first [dies] for the Eternal merits eternal life for himself by the price of his own blood. For a market of eternity is held where not a quantity of money but faithful blood is the price, where death so takes away life that immortal life follows the death inflicted. And so, brothers, he to whom the world is hateful for love of Christ loses the world not unwillingly, as most blessed Paul said: “To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” How beautifully he says, “and to die is gain”! Since whoever lives for Christ, if he dies for Christ's honour, acquires for himself the kingdom of heaven at the loss of present light. For to die for Christ is to reign with Christ. He who reckons a religious death as gain shows that by his death he advances, not perishes. For our Lord and Saviour also says: “Whoever loses his soul for my sake will find it.” What is this, dearly beloved? By what reason can a soul once lost be found by a man? He can, brothers, he can—not by reason, but by faith. He can without doubt, because by the benefit of the resurrection the preserved soul will be restored to the restored body. For what is possible for God it is not impossible for man to think, as Paul the apostle, aware of things to come, says: “Eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him.” By saying, then, “Whoever loses his soul for my sake will find it,” the Lord showed the glory of his coming, in which every man will receive back the state and life of his substance, the fellowship of our soul and body being [re]formed; for man consists of soul and body. One without the other is a nature disjoined and scattered. If the body is removed, [man] is lost. When it is said, then, “Whoever loses his soul will find it,” it is revealed to us that when, according to the faithful promise of our God, the world will be renewed, the soul will be given back to the body and the body to the soul. So also the Saviour said: “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; but rather fear him who can destroy soul and body in Gehenna.” So the power of destroying the soul shows in Christ the power of restoring man. Nor should we wonder, dearly beloved, if Paul by the sword and Peter by the cross condemned the faithlessness of a raging world, whose Lord terrified the prince of the world by wonders, refuted him by rebukes, triumphed over him by sufferings. The devil found in them what he could kill, but did not find what he could hold captive. And what wonder if the servant of the slain is put to death by the sword? What wonder if the disciple of the Crucified is lifted on a cross? Those who followed the example of the sufferer have obtained the rule of the one who reigns. Christ, then, took Peter and Paul, one fishing, the other persecuting. And to Peter he gave the keys of his kingdom, to Paul the wisdom of the word. Nor is this incredible, since he who brought water from the rock founded the Church on Peter. He who compelled the magus to worship taught the persecutor to preach. In these two, dearly beloved, as far as it is permitted to small minds to perceive, the twofold form of the Church and the diversity of the human race are figured. For simplicity commends Peter, learning exalts Paul; so that we may notice that in God's Church both knowledge is necessary and simplicity is loved. By simplicity I mean, not that which grows numb in the stupor of sloth, but that which, burning watchfully, knows how to profit others and cannot itself do harm; so that in one and the same man there may be cautious simplicity and kindly prudence, according to what was said: “Be therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves.” For Peter's simplicity was both armed by the vigour of a most lively mind and fortified by the foresight of spiritual counsels. Peter was certainly of a simple and prudent heart when he confessed the sacrament of the Lord's incarnation not by inquiring but by believing, saying: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” By this confession, dearly beloved, he both profited all as a simple man and repelled the opinions of those who do not believe rightly as a wise one. So Paul enters heaven by the grace of learning; Peter receives the power of opening heaven by the merit of simplicity. These things are for us, dearly beloved, so that we may understand that neither are the learned driven away from the faith of our God nor the simple rejected. And as far as the truth of faith holds, it is plain to all that Paul had Peter's simplicity, and that Paul's prudence was not lacking to Peter himself. For the same Spirit taught both. For this reason, dearly beloved, both Paul is a rock of Christ and Peter a vessel of election. For each, like a heavenly stone, gives strength to the weak; each, as a chosen vessel, pours out from the eternal spring the streams of the life-giving cup to those who thirst for the faith of Christ. And so, since they have one faith, one glory, one day of victorious passion, the devotion of all peoples venerates both with one full confession.

Let us exult, brothers, and glory in the Lord our God, because the birthday of the apostles is the nourishment of the Church; for as every little child is nourished with the milk of its mother's breast, so then the infancy of the rising Church grew strong by the richness of the fathers' blood. For from the time the barren earth received the blessing of fruitful blood, a countless multitude of believers sprang up throughout the whole world. Who is so mad as to deny that truth is in the Christian faith, which sorrows do not weary, tortures do not disturb, and no terror of bodily death bends; to which even the torments of persecutors profit for everlasting joy; whose kingdom, by an eternal and unconquered power, rules over worldly empires! But so that we may notice more fully how great is the distance between the heavenly kingdom and the earthly, let us take lessons from present examples. See, the kings of this passing age keep the devotion of their soldiers toward them only in this life by honours and gifts, having nothing at all that they could give to their men or themselves after death. But Christ, the King of all ages, allows his elect to be afflicted with labour, nakedness, hunger, tortures, and even death, because he has power to raise the dead, to clothe one stripped of present life with the light of his kingdom, and, removing the law of death, to give perpetuity to a mortal. That royal rewards are sometimes refused by faithful men, that all the dignities of the world are abhorrent to them, that they reject as vain whatever this world offers them as precious, is wholly the work of that hope, because faith kept presumes that better things will one day be given them through the grace of their Christ. Who is not astonished that in the will of Christ there is so wonderful a sacrament: that he so promises his saints their rewards as to send torments ahead of them; so preaches the love of the future life as to teach that the present is not to be loved? Here is the truth of religion: where sadness begets joy, where needy nakedness weaves the garments of incorruption, where to be disgraced is glory, to be burned is refreshment, to be killed is triumph. This is the death, dearly beloved—if only the authority of the Holy Spirit raise and strengthen our faith—which children do not refuse, young men do not avoid, the mature choose, the old seek, women have not feared. For in the passion of martyrdom, where firmer faith reigns in a person, as has often happened already, neither age withdraws nor sex excuses. There, brothers, there weakness of body is pleaded where faith has no firmness. So the most glorious Peter, firmer than any rock by the steadfastness of his faith, while he preached Christ's cross, conquered his own; nor did he fear to be crucified, because he feared and loved the Crucified. Peter suffered, then, as the best servant for his Lord, as a faithful disciple for his master, and as a chosen shepherd for the sheep entrusted to him, following to death the footsteps of the one whose path he was following to life; and because he underwent a passion like his King's, having received the key of the heavenly kingdom, he took on the likeness of the one who reigns. Or how would he fear the end of his own life who had proved that his Christ reigned after death? How would he flee the cross who had recognized the signs of the blessed cross in the body of his Lord returning from the dead? How would he refuse the wounds of crucifiers who knew that the Redeemer of the world had carried the marks of the nails with him to the Father? Would he dread death for his Lord, to whom the very Author of life had foretold by the mouth of his foreknowledge both his death and the kind of his death, saying: “When you were younger you girded yourself and went where you wished; but when you are old, another will gird you and lead you where you do not wish”? That is to say: When you were younger, Peter, girding yourself with the service of your own hand, you followed your own will in all things; but when you are old, a stranger's hand will gird you and lead you where you do not wish, and you will change the freedom of your youth into the servitude of old age. “He will lead you,” he says, “where you do not wish.” Peter never did not wish to suffer for his Lord, to whom he had already said before: “I will lay down my life for you.” He wished indeed, as a devout man, to die; but because he was thrusting himself forward to death as though of his own accord, he seemed to have a kind of presumptuous boldness; for one who as weak does not wish to die, and yet as strengthened by God does not flee the passion, shows in himself both the feeling of trembling flesh and fulfils the duty of a faithful soul. So when the apostle offered himself to death of his own accord, then he feared to die; and when he was led unwilling to the cross, he did not fear to be crucified; because there human weakness was wearied, here the strength of the heavenly Spirit conquered. For all our devotion, if it trusts as it were in its own strength, at once grows tired as weak. But if anyone with suppliant prayer commends the accomplishment of his good resolve to divine grace, no adversities of this age will compel him to waver. We must beware, then, brothers, of claiming for our own virtue and prudence any of the things we do rightly, as the Lord teaches his apostles, saying: “For without me you can do nothing.” By this sentence we are forewarned that all things are to be hoped for from him. Everything too that comes out well is to be reckoned to his gifts, without whom, as he says, we can have no success at all in our wishes. Indeed, as soon as Peter presumed to say to the Lord, “I lay down my life for you,” not long after, troubled by the questioning of a girl, he answered that he did not know the man. For this he wept most bitterly; and where Christ said that Peter was to be led where he did not wish, there he obtained the victory of a triumphant passion. The apostle is not to be blamed, then, if he more boldly wished even to die for Christ's honour, because that presumption which comes from the fervour of faith, even if it does not seem praiseworthy, still has great confidence before the Lord from the very devotion of its conscience. But for the caution of his faithful and as a refuge for our weakness, the Saviour said to his disciples: “If they persecute you in this city, flee to another.” That is to say: Avoid the passion indeed, lest perhaps you be conquered by torments; yet when you are taken, do not yield to the persecutor; for I want my servants neither to wait for death nor to fear it, so that the foolish persecutor may recognize that wisdom is in you and faith is not lacking; for not to avoid death when you can is the vice of rashness, but not to yield to the one who kills is the courage of a believer. This is the reason and power of our faith: that in confessing the Christian name we neither desire death nor fear to be killed. So that vessel of election, the most glorious Paul, so as not to be stained with rods by the Gentiles, cried out that he was a Roman citizen, and removed injury from his body by the prescription of secular laws, and rejoiced with written exultation that he had been rescued from dangers and deaths. And if, curious, you ask why the Apostle protected himself by the privilege of the Gentiles, know that this was an apostolic counsel: to confound by their own laws, terrifying them, those who had no reverence for our God; nor did he wish to exercise vengeance by the power given him by the Lord on those whose salvation, he knew, he had been sent to seek, though they persecuted him. For what the apostle's power could do the magician who was blinded felt, and the Python-spirit cast out of the divining woman proved. But when, by the Lord's dispensation, the time of his passion came, he confidently submitted his faithful neck to the Gentile sword; and he who had formerly refused rods did not flee the sword. For this is the holy and perfect measure of believing, this the soundness of blameless devotion in the contest of faith: both not to wish to die and to fall patiently, because our God does not require our death but that mind which death cannot overcome.

Celebrating today the birthday of the most blessed apostles Peter and Paul, dearest brothers, we ought to refresh ourselves with various dishes and celebrate so great a feast with great gladness. For who would not celebrate the solemnity of such men with great gladness? Who, on the solemnity of such men, would not lay on great preparations for himself, so that the more he spends, the more he may confirm that he loves the apostles? Yet there is no need of our own expense for our refreshment. For on his birthday Saint Peter himself refreshes us; for his vessel is filled with all plenty, which was brought down to him from heaven when he was hungry. Whoever hungers as Peter did, then, is refreshed with Peter. Why, then, should we prepare our own meal, when we are fattened on the apostolic dish? Why should we look for earthly feasts when we have heavenly plenty? For Saint Luke says in the Acts of the Apostles that to Peter, hungry after prayer about the sixth hour, heaven was opened and a certain shining vessel like a linen sheet was let down, in which were all the four-footed beasts of the earth and the birds of heaven; and that the Lord said to him: “Peter, rise, kill and eat.” See: Peter, who says elsewhere, “Gold and silver I have none,” now has a little vessel for his banquet more shining than silver, so that he who had refused the beauty of silver for Christ's sake might be enriched through Christ with the brightness of silver. So for Peter about to dine the preparations of cooks are lacking, the services of attendants are lacking; but—what is better—divine ministries are not lacking, and by a more useful exchange what is lacking to the holy man on earth abounds in heaven; for, so that Peter may refresh himself, no storeroom is anxiously unlocked, but heaven itself is at once opened. We read in the Scriptures that holy Elijah in the desert was fed by ravens serving him; how much better Peter, to whom no earthly bird holds out a little food, but a multitude of angels serves a whole banquet! After prayer, then, Peter is hungry. It is to be wondered why hunger follows a holy man after prayer, since hunger is usually driven away by prayer, and a hungry soul is fattened only by observances. But I think that after prayer Peter hungered not for food but for the salvation of men; and that he was not troubled by want of food for the body but laboured under a lack of believers. For when the faithless and ungrateful Jewish people did not believe in Christ as he preached, Peter in a manner suffered hunger in his office. For he suffers hunger who does not attain the fruit of his labour. He went up eagerly, then, to the upper room to pray. It says well that Peter went up to the upper room to pray, because every saint, when he prays, leaving lowly or earthly things, is lifted on high in mind, and, suspended aloft, is caught up and by holy thought made near to heaven. And there, to him hungry—that is, thinking in the higher place of his heart about the salvation of the Jewish people—a vessel full of animals of various kinds is offered, as though the Godhead were saying to him: You hunger only for the Jews; see, nevertheless, I fill your faith with the diversity of all the nations. For the various animals gathered in one little vessel show the congregation of various nations gathered in one Church: which Church, in that shining vessel, having no spot or wrinkle, gleams with the whiteness of linen. In it first, from the Gentiles, the centurion Cornelius is offered as a soul to God. From this vessel of his, then, Peter refreshes us today; for when we see crowds of pagans running to the faith of Christianity, we rejoice together with the apostles. For those whose birthday we keep today are not dead, but reborn, they plainly live, because they have been made sharers of Christ, who is the life of all. For though their bodies were slain in the passion, the order of living is not broken off; for they both give thanks to God and render praises to the Saviour; except that, the burden of their members dissolved, they cling more to Christ, as the apostle Paul says: “To be dissolved and to be with Christ is far better!” That is not to be called death, then, by which, when it intervenes, we are rid of the persecutor and joined to Christ. That is plainly not to be called death which, uniting the dead to Christ, makes gain for the one dying, as the blessed Apostle says: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” But that is true death which binds even a living man in the death of sins; because though he seems to live, he is seen to be given over to death by his crimes, as the Apostle says of that pleasure-loving widow: “She who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives.”

It is known to you all, brothers, and best known to the whole world, that today is the birthday of the most blessed Peter and Paul, and no part of the world can be unaware of so great a devotion: since David the prophet says of them, “Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world”; into all the earth the wonderful power of Peter has been spread, and to the ends of the world the words of Paul's epistles have penetrated. For who has not heard that blessed Peter the apostle first restored firmness of feet to the lame man sitting at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, who had long been crippled from his mother's womb, so that what nature had given too little apostolic grace might repair? For when that lame man, begging alms, believed he would receive some money from the apostles, the apostle Peter said to him: “Silver and gold I have none; but what I have I give you: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise and walk.” Blessed indeed the generosity which gave the asker not silver but health! Blessed the generosity which brought out from its treasures not gold but medicine! Blessed is that lame man, who, while seeking alms of money, received the riches of soundness. For he merited to receive as a gift from the apostles what he could not have bought from physicians with any treasures. Peter, then, did the first sign of his wonders by restoring footsteps to the feet of a lame man. We have often said that Peter himself was named rock by the Lord, as he says: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church.” If, then, Peter is the rock on which the Church is built, rightly does he heal feet first, so that, as he holds the foundation of faith in the Church, so he may strengthen in man the foundations of the members; rightly, I say, does he first cure the feet in a Christian, so that he may now stand on the rock of the Church not trembling nor weak, but walk sturdy and strong. And where are Paul's words not read? What place does not write them in letters, keep them in heart, guard them in conduct? This Paul was named by the Lord a vessel of election. A good vessel, in which the precious precepts of Christ's commands are stored; a good vessel, from whose fullness the substance of life is always paid out to the peoples, and yet it is full. Excellent names of the apostles, rock and vessel, necessary to the Saviour's house. For a house is built by the strength of rocks and furnished by the usefulness of vessels. The rock, for firmness, holds up the peoples so that they do not slip; the vessel, for safekeeping, covers Christians so that they are not tempted. How blessed their departure from this world was, there is no one who does not know. For this is the first blessedness in them: that both are known to have suffered on one day, so that those whom one faith had bound in service one day might crown with martyrdom. Then the passion itself, though it was different in each, yet how full it is of the holiness of grace! For Peter underwent the death of the cross, like the Saviour, and by the likeness of devotion to the Lord was not separated from him even in death; so that he whom he imitated in faith he might imitate also in passion. From Paul's neck, when the persecutor had struck it with the sword, a stream of milk rather than of blood is said to have flowed; and in a wonderful way the holy Apostle, by the grace of baptism, stood in the very slaughter shining rather than bloody. This is not astonishing in Saint Paul. For what wonder if the nurse of the Church abounds in milk, as he himself says to the Corinthians: “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food.” This is that land full of promise which God promised our fathers, saying: “I will give you a land flowing with milk and honey.” For he did not speak of this land, which with running waters rolls up mire and mixes mud, but of that land of Paul, and of those like Paul, which continually distils what is pure and sweet. For what epistle of Paul is not sweeter than honey, whiter than milk? Which epistles, like breasts, nourish the peoples of the churches for salvation? From the Apostle's neck, then, milk flowed instead of blood. We read in his epistle that flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God. Paul, then, now possesses the kingdom, since he lacks blood, which is said to hinder those who would reign. So Paul, while still set on earth, is already transformed into the substance of the heavenly kingdom. Therefore, dearest brothers, whenever we celebrate the memorials of the martyrs, leaving aside all the business of the world, we ought without any delay to run together to the house of God, to render honour to those who by the shedding of their blood brought forth salvation for us, who offered themselves to the Lord as so sacred a victim for our propitiation; especially since almighty God says to his saints: “Whoever honours you honours me, and whoever despises you despises me.” Whoever, then, honours the martyrs honours Christ too; and whoever despises the saints despises our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, etc.

I believe you know the passion of the most blessed martyr Lawrence, whose birthday we celebrate today; and I do not doubt that your love can know how much he endured in the persecution. For so great was the glory of his martyrdom that by his passion he illuminated the whole world. Lawrence plainly illuminated the world with the light with which he himself was set on fire, and with the flames he endured he warmed the hearts of all Christians. For who, by this example, would not wish to burn for Christ with Lawrence, so as to be crowned by Christ with Lawrence? Who would not wish to bear for an hour the fire of Lawrence so as not to suffer the eternal burning of Gehenna? By blessed Lawrence's example, then, we are challenged to martyrdom, kindled to faith, warmed to devotion. Even if the persecutor's flame is lacking to us, the flame of faith is not lacking. We do not burn in body for Christ, but we burn in affection. The persecutor does not put fire under me, but the desire of the Saviour supplies me with fire. We read in the Gospel that there is a fire of the Saviour, as the same Lord says: “Do you not know that I came to cast fire on the earth; and what do I want but that it be kindled?” Set on fire by this fire, Cleopas and his companion said: “Was not our heart burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scripture to us?” Kindled by this fire too, blessed Lawrence does not feel the burning of the flames; and while he burns with desire for Christ, he does not burn with the persecutor's punishment. For as much as the ardour of faith boils in him, so much does the flame of torture grow cold. Blessed Lawrence laboured under a bodily burning. On one side he is kindled by love of Christ, on the other tortured by the persecutor's flame; but the divine ardour of the Saviour puts out the material ardour of the tyrant. For though his members are dissolved into ashes, the strength of his faith is not dissolved; the body suffers loss but acquires the gain of salvation. For blessed Lawrence, brothers, is not destroyed by a quick or simple passion. For one who is struck by the sword dies once; one who is plunged into a furnace of flames is freed by one onset; but this man is tortured by a long and manifold punishment, and death is not lacking to him for torment, yet is lacking for an end. For that most savage persecutor is said to have imposed on him this continuous punishment: that, exposed to a mass of burning coals and stretched besides on an iron grid, a slow flame should consume him, so as not so much to kill the man quickly by burning as to torture him long by scorching; so that, when the persecutor saw one side burned, he turned the other side to the fires to be burned. We read that Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael, the most blessed boys, shut by the king in the furnace of fire, walked about in the flames of their punishment and trampled the fiery masses with their feet. Hence blessed Lawrence too is to be set forward with no less glory; since they walk in the flames of their punishment, he lies down even in the fire of his torture; they trampled the fires with their footsteps, he puts them out with the spreading of his sides. They, I say, standing in their punishment, prayed to the Lord with raised hands; he, lying prostrate in his punishment, entreated the Lord with his whole body. Again blessed Lawrence is turned on his back, and his loins are burned with fire, so that the prophecy of the psalm might be fulfilled which says in the person of Lawrence: “Prove me, O Lord, and try me; burn my loins and my heart.” He asks to be burned with a twofold fire. For if he were speaking of the one and only fire of the world, it would have been enough to offer only his loins to be burned by the fires. But the heart is burned only by the flame of Christ; and so, to compare his devotion, he asks for a twofold fire for himself, so that, the struggle having been held, he might show that the love of Christ can do more than the tyrant's punishment. Let us honour, then, brothers, blessed Lawrence, who, while by his faith he overcame the persecutor's flames, showed us that through the fire of faith we overcome the fires of Gehenna and by love of Christ do not fear the day of judgment. But we, dearly beloved brothers, if we wish to come to the fellowship of the holy martyrs, let us think about imitating the martyrs. For they ought to recognize in us something of their virtues, so that they may deign to pray to the Lord for us. For if we cannot bear the torments the holy martyrs endured, let us fight, by their intercession, against evil desires. And since daily sins are not lacking, daily remedies are not lacking either. Let no one believe that he possesses any happiness or any true joy in this world. He can prepare blessedness here; he cannot possess it. Two times succeed each other in their order: a time to weep and a time to laugh. Let no one deceive himself, brothers: there is no time for laughing in this world. For we know that every man desires to rejoice; but not all seek joy where it ought to be sought. True joy in this world has not been, is not, and cannot be. For the Lord himself in the Gospel warns his disciples, saying: “In the world you will have tribulation.” And again: “The world will rejoice, but you will be sorrowful; but your sorrow will be turned into your joy.” So, then, in this life, with labour and pain, let us do what is good with the Lord's help, so that in the age to come we may gather the fruits of good things with joy and exultation; by the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns for ages of ages. Amen.