Sermons of Maximus of Turin (Bruni's collection) 92.1–98.1

We joyfully sing praises to the Lord our God as we celebrate the feasts of the holy martyrs, whom we have heard were strengthened by the help of divine grace and unconquered in torments. For he gave them strength and consolation who first deigned to undergo suffering both for them and for us, and he gave them abundant exultation by promising them a reward in heaven. And now, when the reading of the Gospel was read, you heard the consolation, the Lord saying to them: "But when you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be afraid; for these things must happen, but the end is not yet." Our Lord and Saviour, then, forewarned his disciples, and through them taught us secondly, to despise bravely the terrors and persecutions and various tribulations inflicted by persecutors, and to be cherished by the consolation of eternal life. And because these things often happen to us as our sins demand, we ought always to change our ways and conduct for the better, to forsake vices and grow in holy virtues from day to day, and to bear most patiently the insults and torments of this world; so that what is sung in the psalm may be said of us: "The saints will go from strength to strength." This example Christ left us, who shed his blood for us. Let every Christian, then, consider by what name he is called, so that he may imitate Christ in all things as far as he can by his gracious gift; so that as he shares in his name, so he may be an imitator of his work. Let him count the honours and dignities of the world as nothing for love of the heavenly kingdom; and if earthly means fail him, let them in no way be acquired in the world by plunder and fraud. And if they are possessed, let them not be loved in the world through avarice, but be kept to endure in heaven through generous almsgiving. Be kindled, then, Christian, with a like ardour of love as the holy martyrs; and if at this time there is not so great a necessity of fighting against fleshly persecutors, let there be constancy in fighting against spiritual enemies and against the flesh. For even if now torments are not inflicted by a pagan for you to endure, temptations are offered by the devil which you must overcome. For the pagan, raging with bloody hand, slaughtered Christ's martyrs; but the devil, deceiving with crafty temptations, torments Christ's faithful the more dangerously the more secretly. Then the pagan, raging with a lion's ferocity, drove them to idolatry; now the devil, persuading with a serpent's tooth, has poured in the poison of unbelief. The pagan by killing the martyrs sent them to the kingdom; the devil by seducing leads men with him to eternal fire. They, then, conquered by bearing the punishments of the pagan torturer; you conquer by despising the countless temptations of the devil the seducer. They bravely resisted the raging pagan; you watchfully resist the seducing devil, relying on Christ's help. Fight bravely to the end for the truth of the catholic faith, and await the reward secure. Confess the triune Lord, that is, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, of one substance, if you wish to possess the kingdom of heaven with all the saints. Do not be seduced from this saving confession, enticed by temporal rewards, lest you be unhappily separated from Christ and tormented by the fires of Gehenna. For if you have learned to hold the prosperities and adversities of the world in contempt, even if torments are inflicted on you for the name of Christ, you will in no way fear. Only never trust in your own strength, if you desire to be a victor. Let Christ be your sure hope, who is unconquered strength, lest the mind of a Christian be broken from the hope of reward. For as in the contest devout and steadfast virtue is rewarded, so in peace a faithful conscience is crowned. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

It sticks in your minds, brothers, how we described the blessed confessors as made friends of the Saviour because they kept the precepts of his will and did all the works of his commandments, as the Lord himself says: "You are my friends if you do what I command you." We set out that the Lord himself is a friend, who said to his disciples: "No longer will I call you servants, but my friends; for the servant," he says, "does not know what his master is doing." It is plainly a great grace, because the friend enters the inner part of the bedroom, the servant waits outside at the door; the one searches the secrets of his heart, the other waits for him to come out. Hence in the Song of Songs too the Church says with exultation: "The King has brought me into his chamber." That is, because after the ignorance of Gentile error she earned to know the mysteries of the Saviour; and she who before lay outside as sacrilegious is afterward taken inside as a bride. "I will not call you servants," I say, "but friends." See how much the Saviour bestowed on his saints, whom by calling them friends he made his equals; for friendship knows no rank. For even if in many the condition is lower, yet the affection is equal; even if one goes before in honours, he does not feed on services; for rich and poor friends defer to each other equally. And though one may be more powerful and the other humbler, yet the love of friendship ... makes equal those whom rank separated. How, then, do we think these blessed saints became friends of the Saviour, except because they kept the precepts of his will? As he himself says: "You are my friends if you do what I command you." For friendship itself is made firm by willing and not willing the same things. These, then, we can call friends of God, who willed justice as the Lord did and hated iniquity as the Lord did; therefore they are bound by the love of friendship. From this chapter we understand how we come to Christ's friendship. For the Lord does not love anyone by chance; for he bestows freely without respect of persons. Do you wish to be Christ's friend? Keep the things that are Christ's. Do you wish to earn the Saviour's favour? Guard the Saviour's precepts. He bestows the affection of his love on one whom he sees to have love of his commandments. It is in our power, then, for God to become our friend; for as we show ourselves to the Lord, so the Lord too will be found by us. If we open our secrets to him, he too lays open the secrets of his breast. If we make known to him the consciousness of our sins, he too purifies us by making known his knowledge; and the readier we are to imitate him by good deeds, the nearer we are to him in grace. For the friendships of the world consist in some advantage, that is, either gain or honours; but the friendships of the Saviour consist in virtue, not profit. For a holy thing can be acquired by discipline; it cannot be bought with a price; indeed, they are not sought by deceitful flattery but are drawn out by a simple life. We proclaim these men blessed and praiseworthy, then, who earned to be his friends and of one mind with him. We too, then, brothers, ought to hasten to the Saviour's friendship and, by the example of the saints, do his will in all things. But what shall we say of those, by what name shall we call them before God, who on the Lord's day scorn the heavenly lunch for the sake of a worldly banquet, and desert Christ's table while they delight in man's table? For this is the first offence against Christ's friendship: that, when he has called all to refreshment on the Lord's day, each one refreshes himself with the pleasure of his own wantonness and does not rather come where he is led by a certain debt of religion. For it is a debt for a Christian to come to church on the Lord's day. For on that day the laws are silent and the courts are still, so that the salvation of men might receive a place of devotion: so that one might not so much rest from public business as rest from the misdeeds of sins. But, what is worse, each wretch assigns to wantonness what was given for health; and not only does he not come to church because of his sins, but, devoted to vanities, he heaps up graver sins for himself. From these may almighty God free you, amended; who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

How great are the wonders of which the Lord Jesus Christ is the worker we can understand from this gospel reading, which describes such great benefits conferred through him on the people that the crowds of men, stirred up to hear him, rushed upon him rather than asked, and hoped for the medicine of salvation not through the grace of humility but through the injury of importunity; so that, as the Gospel says, neither the desert separated the crowds rushing on the Lord Jesus, nor the synagogue repelled them, nor reverence for the Godhead held them off. For this is the custom of the sick: while they hope for medicine for their illnesses, they are not kept from importunate asking by place, by time, or by shame; but the more he who heals cures, the more importunate is he who suffers. So when the Lord Jesus, pressed by the crowds rushing on him, could not stay on land, seeing two boats on the sea, he got into one, Peter's boat, with all haste, so that the nature of the waters might ward off the injury of importunity which reverence for the teacher did not restrain; and from there he began to pour out the words of his teaching to men from Peter's boat. See the mercy of the Saviour: he is separated from men in body, yet joined to them by the usefulness of his teaching. Everywhere he has mercy, everywhere he helps. Set on land, he heals the infirmities of bodies by touch; placed on the sea, he cures the wounds of souls by teaching. But let us see what this boat of Simon Peter is which the Lord judged the more fitting of the two for teaching, which both kept the Saviour safe from injury and gave men the words of belief. For we find that the Lord had already sailed in another ship and been provoked with grave injuries. For he sailed with Moses in the Red Sea when he carried the people of Israel across through the streams of the waves; but he was treated with grave injuries, as he himself says in the Gospel to the Jews: "If you believed Moses, you would believe me also." And the injury to the Saviour is the unbelief of the synagogue. So he chose Peter's ship and deserts Moses'; that is, he spurns the faithless synagogue and takes up the faithful Church. For two boats, as it were, have been appointed by God, to fish for men's salvation in this world as in a sea, as the Lord says to the apostles: "Come, I will make you fishers of men." Of these two boats, then, one is left by the land empty and void, the other is brought out into the deep loaded and full; for the empty synagogue is left on the shore, because it lost Christ together with the oracles of the prophets; but the loaded Church is taken into the deep, because it received the Lord together with the teaching of the apostles. The synagogue, I say, remains by the land, as clinging to earthly works; but the Church is called into the depth, as discussing the deep mysteries of heaven; that is, into that depth of which the Apostle says: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" Therefore it is said to Peter: "Put out into the deep," that is, into the depth of the discussions of the divine generation. For what is so deep as what Peter said to the Lord: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God"? What so earthly as what the Jews said of the Lord: "Is not this the son of Joseph the carpenter?" For the one by a higher counsel acknowledged the birth of Christ as divine; the others with a viper's mind reckoned his heavenly generation in a fleshly way. Hence the Saviour says to Peter: "For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." But to the Pharisees he says: "How can you speak good things when you are evil?" The Lord, then, boards only this ship of the Church, in which Peter is set as master, as the Lord says: "On this rock I will build my Church." This ship so sails on the deep of this world that, when the world perishes, it keeps unharmed all whom it receives. We already see its figure in the Old Testament; for as Noah's ark, when the world was shipwrecked, kept safe all whom it had received, so Peter's Church, when the world is burned up, will present unharmed all whom it embraces; and as then, when the flood was over, the dove brought the sign of peace to Noah's ark, so when the judgment is over Christ brings the joy of peace to Peter's Church; because he himself is the dove and the peace, as he promised, saying: "But I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice." But since we read in Matthew that this same boat of Peter, from which the Lord now brings forth the mysteries of his heavenly teaching, was troubled when the winds rose while the Lord slept in it, so that all the apostles feared the danger of death, let us see what the reason is that one and the same boat here in calm gives teaching to the peoples, and there in storm brings the fear of death on the disciples; especially since there too Simon Peter was with the other apostles. This is the cause of the danger: Simon Peter was there, but so was the traitor Judas. For though the faith of the one founded the boat, the faithlessness of the other troubled it. There is calm where Peter alone sails, a storm where Judas is added. Though Peter was firm in his merits, he was troubled by the crimes of the traitor. While the disciples were afraid, then, and Peter anxious, the Lord slept. Perhaps it seems wonderful that the Lord slept while Peter was anxious: he slept to Peter so as not to keep watch for Judas; so by the fault of one the merits of all are shaken. Christ falls asleep, and the blasts of the winds are roused; for whoever commits sin at once makes the Lord sleep for himself and stirs up for himself a squall of worldly spirits; and it must be that the devil's storm rises when the Lord's calm rests. If, then, by the sin of one Judas all the apostles were in danger, by this example let us beware of the faithless, beware of the traitor, lest through one many of us be tossed by the waves. Rather, let us cast such men out of the boat, so that the Lord may not fall asleep but keep watch in us, and while he keeps watch no squall of spiritual wickedness may shake us. For where faith is entire, there the Saviour teaches, keeps watch and exults; there is rest, there is calm, there is the healing of all; but where faithlessness is mixed with faith, there Christ is sluggish, sleeps and is idle; there is fear, there is storm, there is danger for all: for according to our deeds the Lord sleeps or keeps watch for us.

The time reminds us, brothers, to discuss the chapter of the Gospel that was read lately, in which the Lord, still sitting in his boat, says to Peter: "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men." From this closing phrase we can understand the mystery of the whole reading. For what reason was there why, when the disciples marvelled at the boats filled with the catch of fish, the Saviour did not promise Peter what he was learning, but pledged what he did not know at all? That is, in that very boat in which he was, instead of the leaping fish he would give an abundance of men to be brought to life; though certainly in a boat men are not usually brought to life but carried; not cherished by sailing but trembling in their steps. See, then, whether that boat is not a boat which is given to Peter to sink, but the Church, which is entrusted to Christ to steer. For it is the ship which is accustomed not to kill but to bring to life those raised from the whirlwinds of the world as from the waves. For as the sewn skiff wounds and holds the little fish lifted from the flood, so the ship of the Church gives life to men freed from the whirlwind when it takes them; the Church, I say, gives life within herself, and brings them to life as though half-dead. For this is what the word 'bring to life' means: nothing is brought to life but what a little before was without life. Peter, then, is said to be about to give life to men as though wounded by the whirlwinds of the world and choked by the waves of the age, so that he who marvelled at the boat filled with a number of leaping fish might marvel more at the Church loaded with a multitude of living men. The whole course of the reading, then, contains a mystical meaning. For in the earlier place too, where the Lord, sitting in the boat, says to Peter, "Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch," he certainly does not so much teach him to cast the instruments of fishing into the depth as to let down the words of preaching into the deep. That depth Paul too pierced with the javelin of his mouth, saying: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" and so on. He does not teach him, I say, to enclose little fish with a line, but to gather men by faith. For faith does on earth what the net does in the waves. For as the net does not let those it holds wander, so faith does not let those it gathers go astray; and as the net brings those caught to the ship in a kind of fold, so faith leads those gathered to rest in a kind of lap. And so that you may understand that the Lord was speaking of spiritual fishing, Peter says: "Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing, but at your word I will let down the net"; as if he said: since our fishing does not profit us who kept watch in vain all night, I will fish now not with an instrument but with grace, not with the industry of skill but with the earnestness of devotion. "At your word," he says, "I will let down the net." We read that the Lord Saviour is the Word, as the evangelist says: "In the beginning was the Word," and so on. So when Peter lets down the nets at the word, he certainly lets down speeches in Christ; and when he unfolds the line woven and arranged at the master's saying, he rather spreads out words distinct and fitting in the name of the Saviour, by which he may save not animals but souls. "We have toiled all night and caught nothing." Peter had truly toiled through the night, who, suffering darkness before, could not see without Christ what to catch. But when the light of the Saviour shone on him, the darkness dispelled, he began to discern in the deep by faith what he did not see with his eyes. Peter plainly suffered night until the day, who is Christ, stood by him. Hence the apostle Paul says: "The night is far gone, the day is at hand": Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

We read in the book of Genesis that when three men arrived, Abraham ran to meet them in haste and, prostrate on his face, begged them to turn aside to his tent, so that by giving hospitality to holy men he might receive the reward of a blessing. For he knew that this was the commandment of the Lord who says: "Whoever receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever receives a just man in the name of a just man will receive a just man's reward," and so on. Abraham hastened, then, to receive the holy men so that by sharing his lodging he might earn a share in holiness, and while he shares the service of kindness he might receive a share in justification. For this is the law of hospitality: that such as the one received is, such he makes the one who receives him; which John the evangelist most clearly indicated of those who received the Son of God, saying: "But as many as received him, to them he gave power to become sons of God." You see, then, how great the grace of hospitality is, that he even becomes a son of God who receives the Son of God in the hospitality of his heart. If, then, he who receives the Son of God becomes a son of God, how much more does he who receives a just man earn the grace of a just man. For this, as I said, is the kindness of hospitality: that a holy man arriving, by the fellowship of lodging, makes his host to be what he himself is. And who would not, on such a condition, receive a holy man with the kindness of his tent, so that sharing his dwelling with him he may share his holiness, and, though he may have been a sinner up to that hour, by receiving a just man he may himself be just; as the prophet David says: "With the holy you will be holy, and with the innocent man you will be innocent." If, then, brothers, our father Abraham, knowing this grace of hospitality, ran in haste to meet three men who arrived, of whom one was the Lord, and, prostrate on his face, begged him to come under the roof of his tent, how much more ought we to run to meet the holy priests who arrive, and receive them into our dwellings with every entreaty, so that, according to David, we may be holy with holy guests. Let no one now be afraid because of the consciousness of his sins, let no one despair of pardon: whoever receives a bishop as a guest has already been made just; though a little before he committed crimes, though he was guilty, when he receives an innocent man he is reformed by the merits of the innocent, as the prophet says: "With the innocent man you will be innocent." Therefore, brothers, since we are sons of Abraham, let us do the works of Abraham. He went out to meet three holy men; let us too run to meet many priests. He, though he was just, received the blessed ones as guests, so that he who was just might become more just; let us who are sinners receive the bishops, so that, our sins washed away, we may be just. Let us receive the saints, I say, so that gifts may be given us against the nature of sin. For to just Abraham, because he had no sins, the son Isaac was given through hospitality against nature; given so much against nature that both cold old age despaired that he could be born and his mother Sarah laughed. Sarah laughed, I say, because she was receiving a son not by nature but by grace; and so blessed was the offspring whose birth was preceded not by pain but by joys. She ought plainly to laugh who conceived with God as author. Such, then, is blessed hospitality, that it always leaves joy to its hosts. Sarah laughs because she is rid of barrenness; I laugh because I lay down my sins. She was freed from a fault of the body; I have been washed of my crimes. She rejoices that she received her son Isaac through hospitality; I am glad that I have obtained pardon together with justice. But someone will perhaps say: in those men who came to Abraham the Lord too was coming; which indeed is true, for so Scripture reports. But I say that now too Christ comes to us in his priests. Let us imitate, then, brothers, Abraham; but why do I say Abraham? Let us imitate God our Father. For if God willed men of different nations to dwell in the one lodging of heaven, why should we, who are brothers, not dwell together in one lodging? If he chose to contain our differences in the same house of the world, why should our unanimity not be held in the holy building of our tents?

The other day we explained that the necessity lies on us not to be silent, and, lest others be endangered by danger, we observed that we must rise up with a loud voice to preach. For we must cry out in the Church, lest we cry out in punishment. For so the Lord says through the prophet: "Cry out loudly, do not spare; lift up your voice like a trumpet, and declare to my people their sins." We are ordered, then, to cry out, and to cry out loudly, and not to spare the voice, lest we perish to salvation. "Do not spare," he says; that is, do not pass over the sinner's iniquity by keeping silent, lest while you consult his modesty you do not consult his health. For his wounds, which you ought to have cut away by crying out, you have nourished for the worse by keeping silent. We are ordered, then, to cry out; and lest anyone say he did not hear, or the voice escape anyone, priests are commanded to cry out loudly; and lest this perhaps not be enough, he added, saying: "Lift up your voice like a trumpet." We know that a trumpet sounds not so much for hearing as for terror, and brings not so much delight as fear. For a trumpet is necessary for sinners, which not only pierces their ears but shakes their hearts; which does not delight with song but chastises with hearing; and also urges the active on to justice and frightens the idle from sins. For as in battle it casts down the mind of the fearful soldier and kindles the spirit of the brave man, so the priestly trumpet humbles the mind of the sinner and strengthens the soul of the holy man, and with one and the same sound proclaims to the one an exhortation to be stronger for unity, and strikes into the other fear to be more timid toward sin. For this is the nature of the trumpet: to destroy the works of offenders and confirm the deeds of the others. Accordingly the walls of Jericho fell at the priestly trumpets, because they held within them a sinful people. No battering ram struck them, no engine stormed them; but, what is wonderful, the priestly fear of the sound overthrew them. Walls which had stood impregnable against iron collapsed at the sacred voice of the trumpets. For who would not be astonished that in that deed stones were burst, foundations shaken by a blast, and all so collapsed that, though the victors' hands harmed nothing, yet nothing remained standing for the adversary? But though no one touched those walls, they were stormed: outwardly by the sound of the just, outwardly the dwellings of sinners gave way for that reason. Would those walls, then, withstand these men? Would they protect those in anything? They opened the way to the just and denied defence to the faithless. If, then, brothers, the sound of the priestly voice could do so much in that time, when in a true confusion of state it sounded I know not what, how much do we believe the living priestly voice itself can do now, which, while it speaks Christ by the word, achieves something magnificent in the place of the Lord Saviour's command! If the elements yielded to the sound of brass, how could feeling things resist, when even unfeeling things could not bear the sacred terror? For we believe that hearts can be softened more easily by the words of priests than stones, and sins loosed more quickly than mortar was loosened. For the voice of the spirit of one who rebukes destroys the stain of sin more easily than it loosens the material rampart of stone.

Last Sunday we explained that the walls of Jericho were stormed by the priestly trumpets, and that, against order and nature, an unfeeling thing yielded to the sacred voices through a kind of terror of threat; and that all things collapsed at the sound of rebuke in such a way that both the strongest defences fell and the people were left bare to their sins: the walls, so that they should resist no longer; the people, so that they might be taken more easily. But we said beforehand that all these things were done even then in figure. For what else do we believe the priestly trumpets of that time to be but the preaching of the priests of this time, by which we do not cease to announce something stern to sinners with a terrible sound, to foretell something sad, and to strike the ears of offenders with a kind of din of threat? Indeed no one will be able to resist the sacred voices, no one to contradict them. For how should feeling things not tremble at the word of God, at which even unfeeling things trembled then? Or how will the stubbornness of men be able to resist that before which not even a sound engine could stand? For as the crash of the trumpets, the mortared walls being destroyed, reached the inner parts of the people, so now the preaching of the priests, depraved thoughts being destroyed, passes through to the bare parts of the soul. For the soul is found bare before the word of God when every working of its iniquity is scattered. That the soul is bare before God the Apostle says: "But all things are bare and open to his eyes"; before whom, before the soul knows God and receives the faith of truth, it veils itself as with certain works of superstitions and fences itself round as with a wall of wickedness, so that it seems to itself able to stand impregnable within the defences of its iniquities. But when the sacred voice has thundered, at once its despair is undermined, its thought scattered, and so all the defences of superstitions are dissolved and it remains bare; as it is written: "The word of God passes through to the dividing of spirit and marrow." As then the sound of the sacred voice destroyed, took captive and avenged in wrath a stubborn people, so now the priestly preaching subdues, takes captive and avenges a sinful people; for so the blessed Apostle says: "The arms of our warfare are not fleshly but mighty for God for the destruction of fortifications, destroying thoughts and taking captive every height that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, ready," he says, "to avenge all disobedience." See, then, whether there are not in the tongue of priests, according to the Apostle's saying, certain arms of words by which vain thought is destroyed, swollen pride taken captive, and stubbornness avenged in speech. For what was done then around the city of Jericho, as we said, was done in figure. Indeed now this very thing has happened in truth. For we read that at that time priests went round the aforesaid city continually for seven days, and that, when the hand of armed men could not storm it, it was overthrown by the sound of trumpets on every side; trumpets, I say, not those with which the bristling soldier resounded, but those with which the high priest in sackcloth rebuked. For who would fear his trumpet whose sword he did not fear? In these days, then, the walls surrounded by the priestly trumpets fell; in these days we read that the works of this world were completed. You see, then, that by this number seven not so much one city is destroyed by the priests as the iniquity of the whole world is scattered. For as the condition of the whole world is figured by the name of a single city, so by the course of seven days the spaces of seven thousand years are marked out, through which the trumpets of the preaching priests announce destruction to the world itself and threaten judgment; as it is written: "For the world will pass away and all things that are in the world; but he who does the will of the Lord abides for ever."